Literary Treats

Treat yourself to good books!

Random House of Canada Blogger Love Fest

Posted on 12 February 2012 by Jaclyn

What better way for a publisher to celebrate Valentine’s Day than by celebrating a love for books and book lovers? When I got the invitation for Random House of Canada’s Blogger Love Fest, promising “food, fun, books and very special guests,” I was expecting cookies and maybe a free book. Who would the “very special guests” be? I figured we might possibly have an author drop by, or maybe a Random House Canada (RHC) executive who would tell us about their blogger program. To be honest, I got the invitation so long ago that on the day of the event, I completely forgot about the “very special guests” part and was just looking forward to finally meeting RHC online marketing assistant and tweeter Lindsey and to seeing #IndigoTweets pal Jen again.

To anyone not in Toronto, Feb 11th was freezing. Seriously, I went to a Harper Collins event a few months ago and there was a thunderstorm; yesterday, for this event, there was a flash freeze warning. Dear publishers — thank you for making my braving the elements all worth while.

I get into the building and must have looked completely lost because a fellow blogger approached me right away and asked if I was also there for the event. (Giselle — so great to meet you!) Turns out you need a pass to use the elevators, and even though the RHC office is just on the third floor, Giselle and I couldn’t find the stairs anywhere. So we ended up walking around the lobby lost together until a group of women show up and a couple of them had passes.

We got to the office and it was great finally meeting Lindsey from RHC. I love being able to finally put faces to names I chat with a lot online; it’s one of my favourite things about this kind of event. It may be because so many of the bloggers at this event already talk to each other online — the whole atmosphere was so warm and welcoming! Everyone was either hugging people they knew or squee-ing in recognition at people’s names. Random House: brilliant idea to give us all name tags with our blog names on them! The name tags made it much easier to link people to their online persona and to remember names.

We learned that there were three special guests that day: Ami McKay (Virgin Cure), Paula McLain (Paris Wife) and Erin Morgenstern (Night Circus)! Even better, it turns out Paula McLain was in that group that rode the elevator with me and Giselle! Random House Canada generously provided us all with copies of their books, which we could then have the authors sign. Best part is that the authors were going to be there for the entire event, so we had lots of time to just sit around and chat with them. I have heard such great things about all three books, so thank you, RHC, for this opportunity to meet the authors. Virgin Cure is the only one I haven’t read yet, but I’ve had so many customers gushing about McKay’s Birth House and, months ago, asking when Virgin Cure was to be released, that I can’t wait to read it myself.

I love that Lindsey gave a presentation with excerpts from blogger reviews of RHC titles. I was so excited I tweeted a photo of the first slide, on Night Circus, which included a great quote from Bella’s Bookshelves. My photo turned out really blurry, so here’s a much better one that Angel from Mermaid Vision took:

As a blogger, this just made me giddy. I get super excited when an author links to my review from his/her website, so seeing a quote from my post on such a professional looking publisher presentation, looking as good as a quote from the New York Times, just made my day. The quote Lindsey chose from my blog was from my review of Alan Bradley’s I Am Half-Sick of Shadows: “[Shadows] features Bradley’s signature mix of colourful characters, mysterious puzzles and heartwarming character relationships.” Okay, I admit it, I love the presentation because it’s such an ego-boost. The idea that Lindsey (or possibly someone else from RHC) actually took the time to read through our blog reviews and choose blurb-worthy quotes like the kind you see from professional reviewers makes me feel how much RHC values bloggers. Thank you for that, Random House Canada!

Lindsey also talked about upcoming titles from Random House that they’re excited about. I was fortunate enough to have received an ARC of one of them, Grace O’Connell’s Magnified World. I’ve read it and loved it so much I’ve lent my copy to my boss. My review for that will be posted on May 1, when the book will be on sale, but definitely, keep an eye out for it. About a young woman grieving over her mother’s suicide, Magnified World is set in Toronto (with a few chapters set in Port Credit, Mississauga!), and it gives such a wonderful sense of place that I can see it soon becoming part of the canon of Toronto literature.

Another forthcoming title I’m really excited to read is The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Lindsey described it as similar to Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, which I love so much that I’ve not only recommended it to many customers looking for a good read, but I’ve also gotten a couple of my co-workers as excited about it as I am. RHC says they’ll be doing some kind of walk-related event to promote Harold Fry — possibly a walking tour of Toronto with Shawn Micallef or a walk for charity event? Cass from RHC also mentioned an upcoming Dr. Seuss event — no idea what it is, but it’s Dr. Seuss, so count me in.

RHC had two tables of books, shirts, mugs and pens, and invited us to take home anything we wanted. Seriously, it felt like more like Christmas than Valentine’s. I saw a copy of Chuck Palahniuk’s Damned on the table — I’m a huge Palahniuk fan, ever since Fight Club, and, unable to believe I could be so fortunate, asked out loud, “Wait, anything on the table?!” Someone nearby confirmed, and like a rabid shopper on Boxing Day, I took (okay, grabbed) the Palahniuk. RHC even gave each of us a Valentine’s Day gift bag with books! When I saw the row of gift bags, I figured they had a couple of books each and we could each get one at random. To my surprise, each one was labelled. So each bag contained books chosen specifically for each blogger by the online marketing team. Way to make a girl feel special, RHC — thank you!

Author Encounter | Stuart MacBride

Posted on 26 October 2011 by Jaclyn

Dear Harper Collins Canada: I love you! Thank you for bringing all these awesome crime, mystery and thriller writers to Toronto and for hosting fan events with them! First Peter James, and now Stuart MacBride. Do I dare hope for a Val McDermid, Martin Walker or James Rollins event on the horizon?

First, kudos to Harper Collins for such a killer event title (sorry, couldn’t resist). As a life-long mystery fan, how could I pass up the opportunity to plot a murder with a best selling crime author?

The evening began with a woman asking about Stuart’s writing process. Stuart turned the question back to the audience and asked how we read: in the bathroom, in bed, naked? Turns out he does sometimes, when the day is warm, write his books in the buff. Things you learn at these author encounters.

Stuart talking to us about murder

Stuart is just absolutely hilarious. He’s such a big, cheerful man, and the event felt more like a casual chat over drinks than an Author Event. At least until he mentions a fascinating fact that makes you wonder, how on earth could he know something like that? He’s probably best described by an audience member’s question: “You’re such a jovial man. Then I just read the first few pages of your book (Birthdays for the Dead, on-sale January 2012. Harper Collins kindly gave us all ARCs), and it’s horrific. How do reconcile the two Stuarts?” She sounded absolutely bewildered, and I can understand why. The first chapter of Birthdays is, in Stuart’s own words, “dark, nasty, and pretty damn twisted,” and hard to imagine coming from the man who repeated the question as “I’m such a handsome, sexy man. How do I write such dark stuff?”

"I didn't expect half this many people!" Stuart said when he entered the room.

We plotted a fictional murder with Stuart, which led to an interesting discussion on murder techniques. Someone in the audience came up with drowning as our murder method, and Stuart, the friendly, jolly man you can imagine having a beer with, said that a very effective way to drown someone is water boarding. He then drew a diagram and explained how the technique worked. “Trained CIA agents last 12 seconds under this.” An audience member points out that the method is ineffective because under those conditions, one would say anything. Stuart agreed and said that torture scenes in books and movies usually get it wrong. He then explained the most effective way to use torture to get information from someone. Then he gave an absolutely charming sheepish smile and said, “This is getting quite dark, isn’t it?”

Cory from Harper Collins gives Stuart his cake

So, given all this knowledge, how does Stuart MacBride get the information he needs for his books? “A couple of gin and tonics, and pathologists blab all the gory details.” He then goes on to explain why burying a victim in concrete is ineffective unless done properly. It was actually very scientific and, dare I say it, fascinating. This is actually a perfect Halloween event; an evening with Stuart MacBride is worth dozens of ghost stories in a dark room. Delicious horror.

Swag from Harper Collins Canada

Stuart also gave a reading. He chose a short story he wrote entitled “The Princess and the Pervert,” a re-telling of “The Princess and the Frog.” It was dark and twisted; I was squirming in my seat, and almost gasped out loud at the ending. You can read the story here and it’s a fantastic, well-written, creepy-as-hell piece. But you definitely missed out, not hearing Stuart read it live. He’s a fantastic performer; his reading brought his characters to life. Some parts were hilarious, other parts just really, really freaked me out. Then he told a few of us later on about a short, rhyming story he wrote for his nephew Logan (after whom Stuart’s series character Logan McRae was named). It was about a skeleton whose mother gave him a fuzzy pink sweater. Sweet, funny story, completely different from “Princess and Pervert,” and I at least can imagine a Tim Burton short based on it.

One of my favourite parts of the night was the contest to win the entire Logan McRae series by Stuart. To win, we had to write down the most creative way to kill someone. You get a few dozen mystery fans in one room, and you’ll get a range of quite gruesome ideas. Murder weapons ranged from a poisonous snake to fibreglass to Silly Putty. Best part is that after Stuart read each suggestion, he explained why it wouldn’t work and sometimes, how an idea could be made more effective. Again, I wondered how he knows so much about the subject.

I love Stuart's artwork! Here, fellow audience member Brenda gets a friendly ghost from Stuart.

Anyway, I won! 😀 Stuart was having a tough time deciding between my entry and the fibreglass one, and fortunately, Harper Collins said they’d give out two prize packs instead of one. Even better, Stuart laughed at my entry: Justin Bieber music videos played in a continuous loop until the victim kills himself. When he was signing my copy of Birthdays, he shuddered, looked at me and said, “That’s unnecessarily cruel.” From Stuart MacBride, that’s high praise. He then scribbled “Bieber!” and signed with a flourish.

That’s another thing about Stuart MacBride that I love: he personalizes the books he signs, or at least writes something different in each one. One of the women had a sketch of a dead teddy bear, and another had a drawing of a skull with a princess crown. Another woman had a copy signed for a friend who couldn’t make it because of work. Stuart wrote “Sorry excuse for missing this!” then said, “We had cake!”

Speaking of cake, Harper Collins served this fantastic treat. It was delicious, but more importantly, I love the Death figure! Isn’t it cute? Stuart noticed the Death figure has glasses and a beard and called the designer cheeky.

Stuart’s just such a friendly, wonderful person, and I’m so glad to have met him. He even agreed to sign the entire Logan McRae library I’d won. So, added to my “Bieber!” I also have a skull and crossbones and a bloody eyeball. Love it.

If you’re free and in Toronto tonight (Wednesday, October 26, 2011) or tomorrow, definitely check Stuart out for yourself at the International Festival of Authors. He’ll be reading from the latest Logan McRae, Shatter the Bones, tonight with Denise Mina, David Adams Richards and one of my favourite crime writers, Ian Rankin, and hosted by Andrew Pyper (event details). Tomorrow, he’ll be performing with a literary all-star cast at Fleck, A Verse Comedy, also at IFOA. He told me it’ll be a lot more formal than the Harper Collins event, and he won’t be discussing water boarding at all, nor will he be reading from “Princess and Pervert.” But it should still be a great event. He’s an amazing reader, and such a friendly man. If you’re already a fan, heads up on these events and if you aren’t, I do hope you check him out.

Thanks again to Harper Collins for such an amazing event! And most of all, thanks to Stuart MacBride for making the event so amazing. To cap the night off, a Harper Collins employee gave me a Hershey’s Chocolate World plastic bag to carry my new Stuart MacBride collection. Just an amazing, wonderful evening. Thank you.

[Final image courtesy of the International Festival of Authors website. All other images courtesy of Harper Collins Canada]

Author Encounter & Giveaway | Peter James

Posted on 26 September 2011 by Jaclyn

Now how could I resist an invitation like that? Meet an author, meet Harper Collins people I chat with on Twitter, and, most of all, eat snacks. Seriously, though, if you’ve caught my review of Peter James’ Dead Man’s Grip, you’d know that I’ve recently become a fan of his Roy Grace series. After meeting him last Wednesday, I must say I’ve become a major fan of the man as well.

Sometimes called the real-life Castle, Peter James researches his novels by going out with actual police officers on their beats. Once, he was with some police officers when they encountered a group of drunken men. Off to the sidelines taking notes for a book, Peter realized it was about to get violent and that he had to do something. “So,” he told all of us gathered at the Harper Collins Canada office, “I immediately looked for the smallest guy.” That brand of heroism explains the tiny handcuff pin he was wearing on his lapel, a joke gift from a police force because that was about the size of the criminals he was capable of arresting.

I don’t really know what I was expecting when I met Peter James, but it certainly wasn’t the super smiley, sweet and absolutely delightful man he turned out to be. After all, this was the man whose book turned me off salmon for weeks. (Interesting side note: I actually ate smoked salmon before meeting Peter, and regretted it when he mentioned the salmon scene in his talk.) Still, when he walked in with a glass of wine and a huge smile, he looked mostly like a kindly librarian, and you just can’t help but smile back.

I’m very nervous when meeting authors, so it helped that Peter was so friendly. It was so easy to chat with him that Cory from Harper Collins finally had to step in at around 9 pm and suggest that we ask our questions while getting our books signed.

Interesting things I learned about Peter James

He once had himself locked inside a coffin for half an hour, to see how it felt like, so he could write a scene authentically. “I wasn’t completely stupid,” he said. Before getting into the coffin, he’d asked someone how much air he’d have inside. Answer: 3 hours if he didn’t panic, 1 hour if he hyperventilated. So Peter went for 30 minutes. Still, as the funeral parlour man was walking off after sealing him in, Peter couldn’t help thinking about how old the funeral parlour man was. Plus, “What if he gets run over before coming back?”
He allowed himself to be locked in a van and submerged in Shoreham Harbour as a publicity stunt for Dead Man’s Grip. Why? Well, Jeffrey Deaver’s James Bond novel Carte Blanche was being released at about the same time. Peter wanted Roy Grace to give James Bond a bit of competition in publicity. Don’t believe me? Check out this video:

I asked Peter if he ever spoke to criminals for his research. I personally found Tooth (cold-blooded killer for hire in Dead Man’s Grip) a very well-developed character, without us getting too much of his back story, which is very rare for thrillers. Turns out, he does. He wanted to find out the motivations behind various crimes, so, for example, he once interviewed a career burglar. It also turns out that Peter intentionally shows all three perspectives in his books: victim, cop and killer. It’s an interesting choice, something I liked in Dead Man’s Grip, and definitely not an easy balancing act.

Win a signed copy of Dead Man’s Grip

It was a fun evening, and I especially love the way Harper Collins packaged our event swag. As I mentioned in my Dead Man’s Grip review, Shannon from Harper Collins had already kindly given me a copy a few weeks ago. Personally, I think he’s a fantastic writer, and if you haven’t read him before, I think Dead Man’s Grip is a great way to get into the series. (My review here) I’d love to introduce you all to this mystery series. (Or, if you’re already a major Peter James fan, I’d love to let you read his latest!)

So here’s the deal: leave me a comment on this post by October 15. Imagine you’re a novelist. What’s the wildest stunt you’d pull to research or publicize your book? (If you can’t think of anything, just leave whatever comment you want. I just think it’ll be fun to see what kind of stunts you’d come up with. 🙂 ) One of you, randomly picked, will win a signed copy of Dead Man’s Grip. (Sorry, I’m keeping the cool bookmark and ever cooler yellow crime scene tape for myself. 🙂 ) Canada only, please.

Vote Peter James

By the way, Peter is also in the running for ITV3 People’s BestsellerDagger Award. You can vote for him here till Oct 7th, 9 am. Whether you’re already a huge fan of the Roy Grace series, or you just want to give props to an author who’d actually lock himself in a coffin and risk drowning himself in a van, you can vote there up to 5 times. Bonus: If he wins, Cory from Harper Collins Canada has promised to throw an authentic English fish and chips party like the one Peter James promised his UK fans. Personally, I like Roy Grace, I think Peter locking himself in a coffin is insane but kinda cool, and I love fish and chips. So I voted.

EDIT: Yay! Peter James won the People’s Bestseller Dagger Award! Very well deserved, in my opinion.

Another Dagger winner is S.J. Watson, whose novel Before I Go to Sleep kept me up all night, literally. Loved it and blogged about it here.

Congratulations, Peter and S.J.!

Do leave a comment for your chance to win a signed Dead Man’s Grip. Trust me: you’ll love it.

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