Toronto’s Word on the Street Book & Magazine Festival was this past weekend, and I was there for the full fourteen hours!
Since I work from home, most days the only actual, living human being I speak out loud to is my wife Jessie (I talk to the dogs a lot, but they aren’t the best conversationalists), so you can believe me when I say I think I spoke with more people this weekend than I have the rest of the year combined!
But, it was a fantastic weekend. The weather was great, the volume of readers was incredible, and I blew my old event sales record completely out of the water!
Given all that, I’m still pretty wiped out, so this week I thought I would simply share a couple of my favorite interactions from the festival, along with some photos I took.
Interaction 1: Space Western
On Saturday, a small group of two or three people approached my table and asked me to explain what Gas Giant Gambit was about. I launched into the spiel that, at that point, I had already given at least a dozen times. The funny thing that happened, however, had nothing to do with the people I was speaking to.
As I uttered the phrase “space western,” I saw a man at the next table with his family physically perk up and glance my way.
He didn’t approach me after that, so I assumed he was reacting to something else and it was simply a coincidence.
But roughly thirty minutes later, a woman pushing a stroller walked up and said “I think my husband is on his way to buy your book.” And lo and behold, it was the man I saw react! He came over and explained that what I thought I saw was, in fact, exactly what had happened. He walked away with a signed copy, excited to drift into Gus’s world!
Interaction 2: Tutubi
Late in the day on Sunday, a young Filipino woman and her mother stepped up to the table to browse the three titles I had. They carefully read the blurbs for Gas Giant Gambit, Rare, and Hanged by Fate by fellow Alex Parker Publishing writer Rowan Wolf, and asked a few thoughtful questions about each. Ultimately, they decided not to buy, but thanked me, and move on.
About ten minutes later, one of the dragonflies that had been flitting about the park all weekend landed on one of my displayed copies of GGG. I had just enough time to snap a photo or two when the pair returned to my table. They immediately noticed the dragonfly and took a few snaps for themselves. Daughter and mother talked about how the word for the insect was said in English, and the mother explained that the word in Tagalog is “tutubi.” She went on to explain that in her culture, dragonflies are considered good luck and signs of prosperity.
And to prove her point, she said they had been thinking about the blurb for GGG since walking away, and had returned to buy a copy.
It was my final sale of the weekend, and what a way to end!
Photos from the Festival
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