Tomorrow is the start of this year's Blue Metropolis Literary Festival -- so I'll be trying to do as many blog entries as possible over the next few days.
Tomorrow afternoon, together with students in my Journalism class, we'll be going to listen to YA writer Mahtab Narsimhan discuss her latest book, The Tiffin. After that, Mahtab and I plan to hop in a cab and get to the opening gala event at the Opus Hotel.
Thursday, I'm planning to meet up with Gatineau author Catherine Austen whose amazing YA book All Good Children just won a coveted Canadian Library Association Prize. Don't worry, readers, I'll bring my camera and notebook and try to get you some pointers from both Mahtab and Catherine!
Thursday afternoon is the launch of this year's Quebec Roots: The Place Where I Live, a project I was lucky enough to participate in. I can't wait to see the students I worked with -- and also the book they produced!
I'm a little nervous for Thursday night when I'll be doing a live storytelling event -- no notes!
Saturday, I'm doing a live on-stage interview with Alyxandra Harvey, popular author of The Drake Chronicles, a vampire series. I'm reading her latest book, Bleeding Hearts, and if I look a little tired this week, it's because I'm staying up too late reading about handsome vampires!
Sunday, I'm hosting a breakfast brunch -- in which I'm going to do a little talk to help aspiring writers... and then I'm going to let them WRITE.
In between all this, I'm planning to listen to talks by authors Kim Thuy, Ahdaf Soueif, Esi Edugyan and the festival honoree, Joyce Carol Oates.
Sounds like a busy week, doesn't it? And guess what? I can't wait!