Erin Woods of Pajama Press and freelance publicist Kim Therriault were both on hand to help out with the book signing table. It was so nice to see many familiar faces, including Helen Kubiw, who had posted this fabulous review just hours earlier.
It was also wonderful to see Suleyman Guven, who helped me tremendously with cultural and historical details of Alevi Kurdish life from a century ago. He too had just published an interview that we had done. It is published in Turkish and English in Yeni Hayat, the Toronto Kurdish/Turkish newspaper, of which he is the editor. He brought me a paper copy of the newspaper as well and it is beautiful!
Lada and Olya, women I met on my first trip to Ukraine back in 2001 drove in from Toronto together, and CANSCAIPers Lynne Kositsky (and husband Michael) and Judy Robinson also came out, as well as a mother-daughter avid reader blogging team.
I was especially honoured to see so many people from the Armenian Canadian community. One young man who towered over me said he’d heard me speak about my first novel, The Hunger, when he was in elementary school. How nifty is that?!
And Joan Mailing, I am glad that you did get postcards and bookmarks this time!
