Word on the Street 2012, Toronto

This past weekend I was fortunate to be able to attend Word on the Street, the annual book festival held each year at Queen's Park in downtown Toronto. Despite the threat of bad weather, a great crowd came out to enjoy Canada's largest literary event, featuring publishers, authors, associations, and book vendors. Each year this festival draws up to 200,000 people, and as I circulated around in the early afternoon I had a chance to listen to authors reading from their latest works, I browsed through countless books for sale, and chatted with authors making a special appearance to sign books for avid readers crowding the booths.

The Crime Writers of Canada were well represented in the afternoon in our booth close to the College Street entrance. Pictured on the right are (from left to right) authors N.J. Lindquist, Catherine Astolfo, Rosemary McCracken, and Mel Bradshaw. I was pleased to be able to meet an amazing number of people walking by the booth who are interested in crime fiction and love reading mysteries. My own book signing was scheduled for 3:00 PM but I spent two hours before that just meeting people, listening to their reading interests, and having fun talking with them. To each and every one of you who took a moment of your time to stop and chat with me, a big thank you. I hope you enjoyed the festival as much as I did.

At 3:00 PM I went behind the table to sign copies of Marcie's Murder and Blood Passage. I was honoured to share the table with the inimitable Hilary MacLeod (pictured with me: "It's not a hat, it's a fascinator!"), Rick Blechta (who told me a few great stories about book signing experiences in his past), and David Rotenberg, whose Detective Zhong Fong novels happen to be a personal favourite of mine (thanks for the autographs, David). It was a great experience to share the booth with these fine authors, and I thank them for their kindness.

Thanks very much as well to Nate Hendley, who helped organize the event for the Crime Writers of Canada, to Catherine Astolfo, who took me under her wing and refused to be embarrassed by my enthusiasm, and everyone else involved!