Steampunk Tuesday - A most successful gala!!

Last Friday was the book launch for THE FRIDAY SOCIETY.

Or rather THE FRIDAY SOCIETY gala!!

It was held at The Gladstone Hotel here in Toronto, and organised by yours truly - and IT WAS SO TOTALLY AWESOME.

We had displays of steampunk props and inventions by Messrs Smith and Bodine.  We had a demonstration of Bartitsu (with EW Barton Wright himself explaining the technique).  We premiered the trailer.  And of course I read.

People came in costume.  People posed in the photo area with awesome props.  People ate cake.  Oh yes.  I let them eat cake.  Not just one cake but FOUR CAKES.


How did it all come to be?  Well first of all I had insane amazing help from Chris Reed at Small Print Toronto and Adam Smith with Steampunk Canada.  And of course the amazing support from the staff at The Gladstone.

Second of all I had awesome help from my parents.  They drove me to the hotel at 4:30pm that afternoon, and my mom and I (along with some very helpful folks from The Gladstone) helped set up the room in a way that I thought worked best (yes we moved couches across the room, and then back again when I changed my mind).

Then the hotel technician came by to see what I wanted tech wise and he was just fantastic: highlighting certain areas of the room with light, and making sure the reading/trailer screening/fight demo ran smoothly.

Adam (along with adi, a fellow Adrienne and one of the organisers of the Ad Astra convention) showed up at 5pm, and set up a table where he could show off his amazing Steampunk props.  They also helped me set up the stage area which was where the photo area was.  I always get annoyed that stages take up so much space and are underused at events like this.  They are used for the reading and then there's this big empty space.  So I decided to set up one end to be a photo area.  The room has amazing exposed brick walls and lovely deep red curtains over the windows so it worked really well.  Prop a Penny Farthing (one of those oldy-timey bikes with the one giant wheel and one little one) against the wall and you're good to go! Adam helped set up a table of Steampunk props that people could pose with.  And let me tell you, it went over gangbusters.  People loved it.  And the stage was well used over the course of the evening. :)

Then Mr. Bodine (his character name) showed, and set up another table with his fantastic Steampunk devices.

The fight team who were doing the demonstration came a little early to run through the fight on the stage.  And then helped put up some twinkle lights.  Because twinkle lights make everything awesome.


And of course Chris Szego and her team from Bakka Phoenix Books were there by then to set up the books (they also very kindly helped sell some of my friend Katie's jewelry - I've shown you some of her work before).

And then people arrived and everything went beautifully (I was seriously stunned by this, usually something goes wrong. . . but no!  So crazy!).  People took pictures on the stage, they loved the trailer and the Bartitsu demonstration (and were rather fond of the reading if I do say so myself :) ).  And OMG, the costumes!  People really outdid themselves.

It was an amazing evening, full of fun - and it wouldn't have been what it was without all the amazing people who came.  I was so overwhelmed by the support, and I say it all the time, but it's well worth repeating . . . I know the most talented, most generous, and most awesome people on the planet.  Yes.  I am just that lucky.  So thank you, again, all of you.  It meant the world to me to share this evening with you all.

But enough words, the best way to share the evening is through pictures.  Bear with me.  There are a lot of them :) .

Me all oldy-timey.

my books!

some of the crowd (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)

Me again.  In colour this time.

My friends Heather and Tyler and me.  I think we look like a trio of Victorian con artists.  I think that's awesome.

Raven with a wee gun. (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)

(photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)

Me signing (in the background you can see Chris Szego from Bakka books). (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)

Steampunk bird (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)

Lisa (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)

Messrs Smith and Bodine setting up (with Raven standing elegantly to the side) (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)

The amazing steampunk confetti I ordered from Whimsey Dimples on etsy. (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)

SHOWTIME!

Lesley Livingston introducing me.  She made me all teary and stuff.

 

Me reading and being rather theatrical doing so.

The end of the trailer (which you will all get to see very soon!)

THE BARTITSU DEMONSTRATION

L to R: Erick, Nate, Scott

EW Barton Wright himself!

Nice Bartitsu collage courtesy of Heather

Adam's table with his Steampunk props!

A slightly blurry me and Adam.

The four cakes. 

Me signing.

Another angle of me signing.

Four dapper gents (with Mr. Bodine on the far left)

Heather.

Author J.M. Frey

 Me and my cousin Emma!

Me and Lesley in the fantastic oldy-timey elevator in the lobby of the hotel!

The photo area of the stage.

Mr. Bodine's table of Steampunk inventions!

Mr. Bodine explaining his inventions.

Stephanie and adi

Megan

Todd and Dave (and the Penny Farthing)

Priscilla and Tisha

One last shot of the crowd!

Word on the Street 2012

Yesterday was the Toronto Word on the Street, a book festival that has been running in our fair city for . . . well as long as I can remember.  It's pretty fantastic.  All the publishers and literary publications set up booths (some authors do too, and this year there were several theatres who were there as well), there are tents where panels and readings are held.  There's also a stage for performances for kids. 

Setting up for Word on the Street the day before.

It's always very well attended, and this year since I don't have a book out until December and thus couldn't really read or sign, I was invited by Penguin to moderate their Women of YA panel at The Penguin Pavilion.:

So my day . . .

The delightful Lesley Livingston and I planned to meet up at said Penguin Pavilion at around 12:30pm.  We'd had a rather late evening the night before (involving a very loud pub) so we thought that that would be reasonable. 

The Penguin Pavilion - lovely setup, but, that's a poster, not an actually wall of books :)

I arrived, and said hello to the Penguin people, including my publicist Vimala (a total rockstar).  I noticed that they were giving away some swag, and asked what was going on.

"Oh we're giving away swag for following us on Twitter, if you would like anything -"
"A mug."

I might have jumped the gun slightly on that.  But let me explain.  When I was living in London, UK, I and my housemates had purchased a couple Penguin mugs.  Why?  BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME.  They have the classic Penguin covers on them, and come in a variety of colours and titles.  But when I moved back home to Toronto, I couldn't bring the mugs with me.  It was just too much to bring something so breakable along with three years worth of things.  Since then I've been longing to acquire said mugs once again, but aside from online I haven't been able to find them anywhere.

So when I noticed they were giving away said mugs yesterday . .  .

"A mug."

And I got a mug!!!!!!

I used it for the first time at breakfast this morning.  Yay!

Shortly after the mug incident, Lesley found me and shortly after that moment a host of delightful blogettes found us as well, totally by accident.  One such blogette - Wendy - had evidently at that moment been speculating if I would be signing at Word on the Street (I wasn't), and then poof!  I appeared!  I'm like Voldemort that way, you say my name and I show up.  And I'm evil.  And don't have a nose.

At any rate it was awesome, because she had an ARC of TFS, and I signed it.  And I just happened to have a HERO button on my so I gave it to her as well. 

Courtesy of Wendy's instagram

Then we all became Lesley's posse and followed her to the This is Not the Shakespeare Stage, where she and authors Mariko Tamaki, Deborah Kerbel and Natalie Walschots were reading:

Note: up until this point it had been relatively warm and sunny.

Then.

Deborah mentions her gratitude it is nice and sunny and not stormy.

Lesley starts to read a scene involving a huge storm.

AND THE HEAVENS OPENED WIDE

Seriously, it started to pour.  We were under the tent, so we were okay, but still.  It was pouring.  It also was freezing.  And by the end of the hour I, the lovely blogettes, and the authors on stage were shaking. 

Lesley signed some stock, and then we quickly wound our way to the VIP room for food and hot beverages. So cold were we, we just kind of sat there wondering what the heck had just happened.

Then, we had to go to the Women in YA panel.  Which I was moderating, and which Lesley, Mariko and Alyxandra Harvey were panelists on.  It went very well, was very well attended, and I think some very good conversation was had.

Earlier that day: me moderating Lesley.

Our glorious audience.  Which got even fuller when it started to rain.  AGAIN.

Lesley, Mariko and Alyxandra

 After that I parted ways with Lesley, said hi to my parents who had come to watch, and my aunt and uncle.  And a neighbour.  Yeah.  I have a very supportive group of people behind me.  I'm kind of really lucky :) .

And my friend, Lisa.  With whom I then wandered through the rest of the event (where we saw the Polkaroo - and as any good Canadian knows, a Polkaroo sighting is a most special thing indeed), before running away to a coffee shop to warm up again.

The Polkaroo!!  He DOES exist!

That was the day!  It was wonderful, and I think The Penguin Pavilion was such a brilliant idea (it was their first year having their own tent for panels), and seemed to be quite successful.   In all, despite the cold, it was a lovely day.  I'm already looking forward to next year :) .