Toronto�I should have packed last night. It takes longer than I�d thought. I�ve filled a box with clothes and books I won�t need in Toronto to send back to New York. Rush rush rush...my plane to Toronto departs at 8:50. I can�t miss it!
As soon as I�m in the car Vicki tells me the bad news. I�ve been bumped from the Rosie O�Donnell show, scheduled for May 21. Vicki says �postponed� but we both know I�ll be heading west and the show will be going on hiatus soon. This is bad news for the book. I�m disappointed. I like Rosie. She�s emotional and honest.
This morning�s author escort wants to talk on the way to the airport. The problem with author escorts is they want to be friendly and chat with you and when you don�t feel up to it you run the risk of being seen as difficult. So this morning I�m difficult.
At the airport an American Airlines employee takes my carry-on bag away from me. I protest. I�ve been carrying it on for a couple of years. It�s made to carry on. She doesn�t care. Worse yet, I don�t have my passport and am on my way to Toronto. She scolds me, saying I won�t get back into this country. I tell her I�ll take my chances. (But the minute I get to Toroonto I call home to have my passport Fed Ex-ed.)
Vicki has flown back to New York and in Toronto I�m met by the publicist from the Canadian division of BDD, Adrienne. She�s taller than Vicki, who is at least 5�8�, and equally beautiful.
We do the noon news which goes well then Adrienne drops me at my hotel where I�m shown to an opulent suite. As soon as I call down to order a sandwich, the phone rings. I am told there are two women downstairs from the CBC, to tape a radio interview.
I don�t know anything about this interview so I try to get Adrienne on the phone but I reach only her Voice Mail. I call back and ask for her assistant but it�s lunchtime and she�s out of the office, too. I call a third time and ask for any human...explaining the situation and asking what I should do. How do I know these women are really from the CBC? They could be anyone!
I decide to let them come up anyway. They seem okay. By then I�ve reached Adrienne�s boss at the publisher�s office who explains they�d cancelled this interview to give me time for lunch and I should just send them away. But I can�t. It�s easier to do the interview than try to explain. So we tape for fifteen minutes. I still have a few moments to chow down my sandwich
3-4PM. A taped one hour TV interview with Pam Wallin, national evening talk show host. It�s a real luxury to talk to someone for an hour and Pam is well informed, intelligent and articulate. I�m now wearing two coats of makeup, one from the noon news and one from Pam�s show.
As much as I enjoyed the show I�m wiped out. I�ve been going since 6 am. Back to the hotel for �rest� before tonight�s event - the Harbourfront Reading Series. But I haven�t yet prepared my reading and I spend the next few hours mangling my book, trying to put a twenty-five minute piece together reflecting the friendship at the center of Summer Sisters, as well as capturing the change in tone as the characters go from twelve to thirty.
I order a bowl of pasta from room service. It�s delicious but I gobble it up and wind up so bloated I can�t button my slacks. Oh well...my jacket will cover my middle.
7:30. We join the other readers, who�ve had dinner together, at a harborfront restaurant. I hope they understand why I wasn�t able to eat with them. I�m not sure they do.
The Reading Series takes place in a room set up like a cafe. The audience sits around small candlelit tables facing a stage. The readers are called in alphabetical order so I am first.
I�ve never actually read to an audience from one of my books. I stand at the podium and look out but the rest of the room is pitch black, except for the flickering candles. It�s an eerie feeling. I know the room is filled with people but I can�t see any of them. I�m reading into the darkness. Now and then there is laughter. I actually enjoy myself. Find that I like reading from this book.