Two more Thin Air presentations, this time without booming sounds. GREAT kids in the audience once again, with awesome questions.
Once the afternoon session finished up, Dave Jenkinson and his wife Rhea picked me up for a visit over sweets and coffee. Dave is the longtime editor of Canadian Materials Online. I also consider him a mentor. More than a dozen years ago, he convinced me to concentrate on historical novels, rather than the historical/contemporary novels that I had been writing up to that time. I took his advice and the very next book I wrote was Nobody’s Child. That was a huge turning point for me. All of my novels since then have been historical fiction. Thank you, Dave!
While waiting in the hotel lobby for Rhea and Dave to arrive, I watched a puzzling scene unfold. A woman approached a young couple who were relaxing on one of the sofas. She opened a large carryall bag and pulled out a short sundress. “There’s this one,” she said. “And this is for later,” she said, pulling out a second that looked pretty much like the first. Then she pulled out a padded bra, and yet another sundress, all the while chatting away with the couple as if this were the most normal thing to do in a hotel lobby. The female half of the couple seemed disinterested, but the male had comments on all the garments. Finally the female took a sundress and a few minutes later she returned, in the sundress, with a big floppy hat and sunglasses. Hmmm. At first I thought maybe the couple had lost their luggage and a friend was loaning them clothing, but I think these were film people and this was a costume. This suspicion was also borne out by the odd man outside, monopolizing the only the bench. He was smoking a cigarette and checking his email on his phone device — not unusual — but this guy had a mustache that was so perfectly manicured that it looked like it had been plucked or threaded to perfection. Ditto his hair. And he had really dorky sunglasses on (likely super-expensive).
There were also stretch limos pulling in and out of the valet parking area on an ongoing basis. Hmm.
Dave and Rhea confirmed my suspicions. Apparently lots of films are shot in Winnipeg.
That evening I was treated to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory by Karen Boyd and the MYRCA Award committee. It was so very nice to meet these hard-working booklovers in person!!
