On Location with Jennifer Hillier

There's another great event upcoming, if you live in the Greater Toronto Area. Jennifer Hillier, a Canadian author, will be launching her debut novel, Creep,  on November 7th. Check out the flyer below for more info:

To read more about Jennifer's work, check out her website here. She's already got a second book in the works and let me tell you, any book that has Jeffery Deaver telling you to lock your doors, sounds like a win to me! Hope you can make it out to the event.

On Location with Charlaine Harris

So, it's been a pretty busy couple of days for me, first with the signing on Saturday, when I got to meet Maggie Stiefvater. Then last night, I was giddy as I had the opportunity to meet Charlaine Harris, creator of one of my favourite fictional characters, Eric Northman. Ok, Sookie Stackhouse is pretty good too, in her own rights, but there's nothing like a tall Viking, I tell ya....but I digress.

Ms. Harris was fantastic to see live. Her Southern accent and pleasant demeanor were well displayed as she answered many questions from the audience. Standing behind some tall people, I didn't venture any questions of my own, but I can share a few of her answers here.

On Location with Maggie Stiefvater

I had the great pleasure of seeing Maggie Stiefvater live on Saturday, as she stopped in at Chapters in Oshawa, Ontario for part of her Forever tour. Maggie came on stage, ready to go with stories of other live events she's been to, a tale of how she found out she't hit number one on the NYT Bestseller's list, and more. From the images below, you can see she is full of energy (yeah, let's go with that as the reason that some are blurry), but she's witty and full of charm.

Unfortunately, these events really never allow for a one on one conversation, but I did manage to squeeze in my own question. When I asked Maggie how she was able, when writing, to switch from her quirky online/in-person personality to the more mellow one that we see throughout her Wolves of Mercy Falls series, she told me that really, these were both true aspects of herself, one being the public image, the other the private one. She said that when writing, you see more of that private image in the words.

Other questions asked by the audience included one about which was her favourite character to write. She said Cole St. Clair was a lot of fun and had elements of demons she, herself, faced in College. Personally, Cole is my fave too, because of his many facets and the struggles he has had to endure. Being a rock start might not be as fun as it looks, when seen from his perspective, I guess.

Here's Maggie moving across the stage

 (see? I told you she was a bit blurry :)

On Location with Robert Munsch

My On Location feature today is sadly not one that I was in attendance for but thanks to Nikole at Scholastic, we all get to share in this incredible author's outting! If you have kids or have ever been one yourself, then you know Robert Munsch is a big deal, especially in my neck of the woods. I  have attended a signing before and it is amazing to see the number of kids and adults that show up to hear him read and have their favourite books signed by Munsch himself.

So, how much cooler would it be if it was you and your family featured in one of his books? Beyond awesome, I would think. Case in point, take a look at what happened when Robert Munsch was reunited with the inspiration for his latest (his 30th with Scholastic!) book:

On Location with Lauren Oliver and Veronica Roth

On May 17th, I had the great pleasure of attending The Dystopian Tour 2011, featuring authors Lauren Oliver and Veronica Roth. The event was held at Chapters Indigo at Yorkdale Mall in Toronto (one of three events in Ontario!), and was made possible thanks to Harper Collins Canada, Chapters Indigo, and Space TV.

Lauren was in town promoting her newest book, Delerium, while Veronica was here with her offering, Divergent, both of which have been getting a lot of buzz in the book community. Both young women were interviewed by Ajay Fry from Space TV, so the audience got to sit in on the interview then the floor was opened up to some fan questions.

Ajay started off with questions about inspiration. Lauren said she had read something from Gabriel Garcia Marquez saying that all writing was either about love or death. This got her thinking that the 'symptoms' of love can be quite similar to the symptoms of disease, so from there her story was born. Veronica