Test of JournalPress Plugin

Ok, here's another attempt at finding a cross-posting plugin that will enable me to post in Blatherings and have it automatically cross-post to my Livejournal account. This is a test of the JournalPress Plugin.

Fingers crossed. Supposedly this paragraph should be hidden by a link back to the original blog. We'll see what happens.

Blech

Had a wonderful cottage Thanksgiving weekend, but brought a cold home with me.

Getting together in person (*gasp!) with writers I met on Twitter

For my full report, see my Inkygirl post, Toronto MG/YA Writer Tweetup.

A Virtual Birthday Party

It's Jodi's birthday today and Allison's birthday this Saturday! I'm holding a virtual birthday party over the next three days so if you know either Allison or Jodi, feel free to drop by.

I'm getting together with A & J at sushi restaurant tonight.

Toronto's Word On The Street

Photo by Walter.

Jeff and I dropped by Toronto's Word On The Street to see my sister Ruth do a presentation in the Children's Reading Tent. This time I was her assistant, though I was so overwhelmed by the shared limelight that she had to remind me to turn pages. The audience was amused.

She read from her new book, Chicken, Pig, Cow On The Move. Here's a photo that Walter took of my debut as Ruth's presentation assistant:





Also very cool to see Peter, Leslie, David, Walter and his daughter and other friends in the audience.

Just before Ruth started, Jeff spotted our friend Cory wandering by the tent:



Cory Doctorow's YA novel Little Brother, by the way, has won the 2009 Sunburst YA award for best Canadian sf novel for kids.

After Ruth's presentation, I enjoyed Barbara Reid reading from The Perfect Snow:



Then I saw the amazing Patricia Storms give a highly entertaining presentation with her husband Guy:



They were promoting Patricia's newest book, The Pirate and the Penguin.

I -love- how animated and expressive Patricia is during her presentations. The kids adored her, of course. :-)



Many thanks to Ryan Couldrey for letting me use his flash unit during Patricia's presentation. I SO have to get myself an external flash! It makes a huge difference.

Also great to finally meet Ryan's wife, Alison:


(Photo by Walter)

The last presentation I saw at WOTS was by Adrienne Kress:



I recently "met" Adrienne through Twitter, but I got to finally meet her in person yesterday. We'll be getting together with other MG/YA authors in the Toronto area next week.



Adrienne read from her newest book, Timothy and the Dragon's Gate, and also shared some of her acting knowledge with the kids by giving them swordfighting lessons as well as tips on how to do a dramatic death.

It was highly amusing to hear her call out the instructions: "OK, everyone...step 1, step 2, now back and back...now DIE!" as the swordfight victims collapsed on the ground.



You can find out more about Word On The Street at http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/.