Over at her own blog Rose-coloured, Rebecca recaps the unofficial launch of ONCE, in a downpour.
But we didn't die under the wheels of a semi, and instead arrived in the still-pouring downpour, and sloshed into the, you guessed it, outdoor festival venue. By the time I'd signed in, it was pretty close to my cue to read, but there was of course still time to sneak by the Biblioasis tent and see, for the first time ever, my book.
I knew what it looked like, since I spent three years writing the thing and saw every version of it, and the cover mock-ups, the advanced reading copies, etc. I knew it would be there, since Dan (Wells, Biblioasis publisher) had promised to bring copies. It really should've been a zero-suspense moment, but, um, it was absolutely thrilling. There was *Once*, out in the world, separate from me and all the people who have been working so hard on it--a big stack, looking pretty much perfect, and ready to be taken away and read. Something about the thought that the book is now fully self-contained, that anyone, strangers can read it if they feel like it, is what really hit me at that moment, I think.
Dan put a copy in my hands and hugged me and a photographer took my picture, and someone asked me to sign a copy, and my mentor Leon Rooke suddenly appeared to congratulate me, and I hugged him, and hugged Kerry, and somehow got out from under my umbrella and got wet...
I think, once in a while, something can be exactly as good as you dreamt it would be.
You can read her whole post here:
rebecca-rosenblum.blogspot.com/2008/09/eden-mills-recap.html
I am hoping to get pictures up eventually. I made it to Eden Mills with my battery charged, but took three pictures before being told the memory was full. I flipped open the door and ... discovered that the memory card was not in the camera. T'is what happens when you have a 3 year old who believes he is Cecil Beaton.
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