Recap: Toronto Word on the Street 2012

While last year‘s Word on the Street was a scorcher of a day, this year had book lovers shivering in the wind and intermittent rain. Jenn (Lost in a Great Book), Chandra (@sakuralovestea), Wendy & I had brunch first (to discuss Anna Dressed in Blood, for our readalong wrap-up!) before heading out to Queen’s Park to check out all the bookish fun. We noticed that they had reorganized the festival this year, where last year had a lot of activity in the actual park, this was a lot more spread out on the streets, circling the park.

Right off the bat, Wendy, Jenn & I picked up an autographed copy of The Diviners from Mabel’s Fables and then a few more deals along the way. Harper Collins’ booth had, once again, some fantastic deals (paperbacks for $2, hardcovers for $3!). Stay tuned for my Stacking the Shelves post this week to see all the amazing goodies!

Harper Collins Canada’s Hobbit booth | Wendy & Chandra with Polkaroo | Penguin’s fantastic bookcase backdrop at their tent

Jenn had to leave us at one point to catch the panel at the Penguin tent that she won VIP seats for and Wendy had brought some books she wanted to get signed, and knowing that Adrienne Kress (author of The Friday Society) was going to be moderating a panel. .We wondered if she’d be doing a signing and just as Chandra suggested we tweet her to see where they are, we literally turned our heads and saw her and Lesley Livingston (author of Starling) standing right next to us. Perfect timing!

We hung out with the two of them for a bit before the Out of the Ordinary panel at the This Is Not the Shakespeare Stage (and spotted Christa of Hooked on Books for a quick second) The panel consisted of Deborah Kerbel, Lesley, Mariko Tamaki and Natalie Zina Walschots reading from their respective books. Lesley’s reading from Starling seemed to cause the deluge that hit the city streets, just as she was reading a stormy scene from the book. Mariko read from (You) Set Me On Fire and I absolutely loved it. She, and the book, is hilarious and I had to pick up a copy for myself.

Adrienne moderating Lesley pre-panel | Neil Pasricha speaking at Penguin tent | Out of the Ordinary panel | Gus, adorable wide-eyed baby who is son of Mariko’s friend

And, to see the weather-controlling powers of Lesley Livingston, you can check out my video of Lesley, reading from Starling.

Even though it was chilly out, it wasn’t too bad when we were walking around, but sitting there for an hour for the panel definitely gave us all a chill that we couldn’t shake. While standing around, trying to stay out of the rain and waiting for Jenn the 3 of us were approached by an author who gave us bookmarks for her YA paranormal book. We chatted with Wynne Channing for a bit and told her what an appropriate group of people to have approached for her YA book What Kills Me!  We wandered a bit more, stopped by the Simon & Schuster tent to get our Olivia tiaras before heading out for some warm caffeinated beverages.

I got a few extra little swag things while walking through the booths so thought I’d do a quick little giveaway to share with someone!

Easy entry, just leave a blog post comment answering the question!

Rules:

•  Open to residents of Canada & the U.S.
• Winner will have 48 hours to respond to email confirming address
• Posters will be folded in half to be mailed.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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