My good friend and
DIY novelist, Hamish MacDonald is launching his third novel, Idea in Stone – a magical realist tale that stretches from Canada to Scotland, at It’s Not a Deli (986 Queen Street West) tonight (7:30pm).

There will be two short readings from the book along with fun tunes played by some talented local musicians. And there will be a draw for a copy of the novel and some handmade hardcover journals.

The books are individually handbound by the author, or you can download a free electronic copy on his site.

One of the first people I saw at the Book Expo yesterday was the former Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson who had just finished signing previews of her upcoming book Heart Matters.

In general it’s been a busy past few days. Here is a sampling of photos from the weekend.

- The Jack Award
- McClelland & Stewart centenary party
- BookExpo Canada booth set-up
- HarperCollins Canada’s cocktail party
- BPAC Kids/Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Annual Children’s Gala
- PGC/Raincoast/BookExpress BEC Kickoff Bash
- Scenes from the trade show floor: BookExpo Canada 2006
- 2006 Libris Awards
- The Canadian Manda party

I also ran into Alexa and Olena on the show floor, shmoozed with Ron and Dory from the Torontoist and met photojunkie reader, Bruce who works for Random House.

Later on in the day, I briefly met Mike Holmes, who was signing autographs for his adoring fans. He was the only author who bothered to ask my name and shake my hand as I zipped in front of the line to take a picture. Really nice guy.

Also caught the work of Chalkmaster Dave outside the convention centre. He was working on a sidewalk ad for Harper Collins showcasing the upcoming release of U2 by U2 (due in stores September 26th, 2006)

It was once a book by Douglas Coupland (pictured above, this is an old shot from a reading he did at the Church on Berkley a few years back), two books actually. I just found out the the documentary, Souvenir of Canada is playing exclusively here in Toronto at Canada Square. It’s been playing for about a week and a half now in toronto. I’m not sure how long it will be playing, but you should probably try and catch it while you can.

The film is also playing at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas in Vancouver.

BOTTOM LINE: You should see Souvenir of Canada because it’s the Canadian thing to do.

Back in 2000 my friend Hamish MacDonald wrote an article for No Media Kings on Self Publishing. A lot has changed since then and there are way more options now on how to get yourself published. Now you can be your own book press.

Hamish currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and has self published 3 novels. In the photo above, you can barely see the photo I took of him years ago on the back cover of that stack of books. He really needs to fly me out there and do a new photoshoot.

Go ahead buy a book!