Saturday mornings in the Lum household usually involve a certain amount of being dazed and confused, particularly if the evening before was a late night.
On this particular Saturday, Jill left prior to the first crack of dawn to get groceries from the St. Lawrence Market, a Saturday morning ritual that she performs with Michael and Lorna.
Corwin and I indulged our state of dazed confusion until noon, by which time Jill had returned with groceries. Corwin and I left to get hair cuts from Rocco and Robert, the barbers supreme in Etobicoke. We managed to get home by 1:00pm, which left some leisurely time to get ready for the important event of the day -- the Tesseracts Twelve book launch at
Bakka-Phoenix!
We picked up Michael enroute, got over to Queen and Bathurst, and for once, Towedaway, god of urban parking, smiled upon us: we managed to get a street parking spot a few doors away from Bakka. After a careful examination of the lingerie models in the window of
Miss Behavin' across the street, I strolled over to Bakka with Jill, Michael, and Corwin.
The launch party was already starting when we arrived. I had an opportunity to meet (and collect autographs from) Claude Lalumiere, editor of the Tesseracts Twelve anthology;
Brett Alexander Savory who wrote the Foreword; Grace Seybold, who authored the story "Intersections"; and Elaine (E. L.) Chen, who wrote "The Story of the Woman and Her Dog". Our friend Dave Nickle ("Wylde's Kingdon") was there. And of course, Jill and Michael were participating for "Beneath the Skin".
The highlight of the afternoon were readings. Claude read from the works of the three authors who weren't able to be present -- Derryl Murphy and Randy McCharles in Alberta, and Gord Sellar, somewhere in Korea. The authors who were actually present -- Jill and Michael, Grace, Elaine, Dave -- read brief excerpts from their stories.
Using the video function on Jill's camera, I was able to capture almost the entire reading. I missed the introductory remarks by Chris, the manager of Bakka, and part of the introductory remarks by Brett. A posting to Youtube may be in order.
In the above photo are Brett, Claude, Grace, Michael, and Jill.
Jill, Dave, and Grace during a lull in the signings.
Grace and Elaine. Apologies to Grace, who looks either gobsmacked or else she was goosed by Dave, whose arm you can see on the left. Actually, Grace was being surprised by someone walking up. I used this photo because it is the only shot I took that has Elaine in it. Below is a much nicer photo of Grace, signing our family copy of Tesseracts Twelve.
The turnout was great today. I talked to many friends who came to show their support. And Bakka sold a lot of copies of the book.
Important stuff (the shameless promotional part of this blog post)- If you are in Toronto, you can buy copies of Tesseracts Twelve, which are still available at Bakka-Phoenix.
For our American friends, you can buy this from
Amazon.com or
Barnes and Noble or
Borders. It is almost certainly available at other fine bookstores or websites as well. Let us know if you spot it.
For those of you elsewhere in Canada,
Bakka-Phoenix will ship if you order from them.
Amazon.ca or
Chapters Indigo are alternative choices. Again, please let us know if you spot it in a local bookstore -- let us know the date, the name of the bookstore, and how many copies you saw. (Not that we are obsessively trying to evolve a view of the book's distribution pattern -- no, not at all).
If you visit us, and bring a copy of Tesseracts Twelve, we will do our best to ensure that you get your copy autographed by Jill, Michael, and Dave at the very least.
Finally, note to self -- Gord Sellar is reputed to be in Korea. Must check with Krystal and Peter - after all, the Canadian ex-pat community in Korea will be large, but won't be so large as to rule out the possibility of an acquaintance among them.
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