word on the street, part 2

Having a booth at Word on the Street yesterday was a lot more fun than I had expected, and I'm definitely going to sign up again next year. Jeff helped me set up my booth...an interesting challenge since we weren't allowed to use anything but string to hang up signs, etc. :-) I immediately noticed that my table was much emptier than that of my neighbours, plus I didn't have the plastic flyer-holders that everyone else did which kept flyers from being blown away in the wind. I'll know better next year.

Someone at Jeff's office says she saw me on the CityTV news report last night...sure wished I had remembered to watch it (they had interviewed me during the day, so I figured I might be included in their festival report).

Things I had out on my table:

• Inkspot flyer
• Colour screenshot of Inkspot main page (thanks, Jeff!)
• Sign-up sheet for new Inklings subscribers: several hundred signed up!
• Issue of Rice Paper magazine where I was a cover story.

As an experiment, I put half a dozen pens out on the table to see what would happen...they were all gone within a few minutes (!). I kept my Inkspot pens hidden under the table, and would give a pen to anyone who subscribed, who said they were a subscriber, or who said nice things about Inkspot or my booth. :-)

It was great to meet some of my subscribers face-to-face. Also met lots of talented young writers. :-) Several people came by with manuscripts for me to look at (one was handwritten), asking for a critique and tips about where they could get published. A bit awkward, handling those situations. I don't really do that sort of thing and even if I did, I definitely wouldn't want to do it in the middle of a busy literary festival. I got the feeling that they were shopping their manuscripts to as many booths as possible.

Thanks to those who dropped by to visit and help man my table so I could have mini-breaks (Amanda, Jeff, Allison, Jodi, Rand, Michelle)! I handed out about 2000 flyers and 400 Inkspot pens, met a bunch of my Inkspot users/subscribers face-to-face, was interviewed by a couple of tv stations. My sister Ruth was also at the literary festival, but I never did get to her booth where she was doing a book signing. Ruth was doing a tiny (and quick!) sketch of each child that brought a book for signing.

Allison, Jodi and Rand visited later in the afternoon, and we went out for dinner with Jeff after the festival ended.

Going to see Cabaret at the Royal Alex with Cathy tonight.

Every morning, I surf the net for publishing-related news to post on Inkspot. Inevitably, I come across other interesting stuff as well; I'll be posting some of these URLs in my Blatherings. :-)

boys

It's Reid's birthday today! Reid was my first boyfriend (he's now married to my friend Luisa). Reid and I met at university at the University of Toronto...both of us were in the same computer science class in first year. Before I got to university, I was never really all that interested in the opposite sex. Most high school guys were dull, obsessed with school sports and impressing girls. I was one of the fringe students who are tolerated and even liked but are not really considered "cool". I was in the school band (flute) and Library Club. Yes, the Library Club...I'm sure being a member of the Library Club was a sure mark of death in terms of social cool factor back then, but I didn't really care about that sort of thing.

NOTE TO THOSE DRIVING TO OVFF THIS YEAR:
Please check out these ramp closures before planning your route, and please spread the word to others, thanks.

meetings

A day of meetings today. Face-to-face meetings, even, not online! I'd better dig out my mothball-eaten Official Meeting Clothes if I can find them. One major advantage of doing business online is that a client would never know if you're having a real bad hair day or wearing your fuzzy sheep pajamas or are chowing down on a chocolate brownie during high-powered negotiations. Not that I actually have all that many high-powered negotiations, but you get my drift.

Forgot to report on Cabaret, which I saw a couple of nights ago with Cathy at the Princess of Wales Theatre. Definitely not a production for younger theatre-goers! Quite a bit of raunchy content. What amazes me, however, is how they managed to find women who were gorgeous, could sing, dance, AND play an instrument well enough to be in the theatre orchestra. I'll bet those women got at least half a dozen roses on THEIR desks on Valentine's Day at school (see my last entry for clarification), sheesh. I recognized the main female lead...Joely Fisher played one of Ellen's friends (in the tv series "Ellen"). Wow, I had no idea she could sing so well!

password overload

I don't know about you, but I'm getting lost in a maze of passwords. It seems like every new online service requires you to register for a login id and password (heck, even I do this for Inkspot discussion forums). I avoid using the same login and password each time, requiring me to have to look the info about every time I use the service, which is an incredible pain.

Suggestions on efficient handling of login/password info welcome!

Stressful week, work overload, behind in e-mail and everything else, it seems. 99% of my work e-mails these days are asking me for things. And spam, of course. Lots of spam. :-)

I think I need chocolate today.

looking for insurance

jodi is 30 (and John Hall is 50!)

Happy Birthday to my wonderful music partner JODI, who has entered a new decade (Allison's and my decade :-))! Allison's birthday is on October 3rd. If you are a friend of either Jodi's or Allison's and would like to attend their Virtual Birthday Party, please let me know and I'll send you the URL. No pets, please, and refreshments are welcome.

Also, John Hall is 50 YEARS OLD today. Many happy returns, John!!

In theory, I get my office space today. In reality, I still don't have the keys. :-( Reason: my lease stipulates that I have to get liability insurance first. I had been told this would be no problem, but unfortunately I'm not finding this to be the case. Insurance companies seem to be paranoid of insuring Internet companies right now, it seems. Jeff's been helping me, and here's a sample conversation (I kid you not):

JEFF: ...and that's a brief description of Inkspot. So could you please give me some info about what's involved in getting liability insurance?

INSURANCE BROKER: Why on earth are you getting into that business now?

JEFF (confused): I beg your pardon?

I.B.: You know...COMPUTERS. What with Y2K and all.

I still retain hope; there are, after all, a zillion (more or less) Internet companies out there with their own offices already. We've found a broker who finally seems to understand this, and the property manager of the building is also trying to help us. Please wish us luck. :-)

Our friend Brian flew home from the UK yesterday, this time for good; we picked him up at the airport. It's nice to have him back at home. :-)

UPDATE: Woohoo, we found an insurance company for Inkspot! Lots of calls and faxing today; looks like we might get our keys after all. :-)