From the first moment I heard about The Word On The Street,
First time for coauthors Lee Bice-Matheson + J.R. Matheson to attend WOTS 2015. We had book lovers thank us for coming!! We in turn thanked them for coming as well! 🙂
I was intrigued. Not only is it the biggest book and magazine fair held in Toronto, but the book lovers that attend are at least 200,000 people plus. Imagine authors that sit in a room, by themselves, or like us, two together, and write a novel. It takes us about two years from the start to the finish. Opportunities like WOTS don’t come often and J.R. and I wanted to see what it was like. We showed up the night before to see where our booth #106 was located.
We just had to see our booth before WOTS on Sunday. And we were lucky to have the chance to thank the volunteers who set up our booth! Thank you to everyone involved in organizing this wonderful event WOTS. 🙂
Lucky for us, it was along Queen’s Quay sidewalk and it would be one of the first booths attendees saw when they arrived from the east. Happy, we set off for an early supper as 6 am Sunday morning would come soon enough for us.
In its inaugural year, joining with the International Festival of Authors (IFOA), WOTS was held at the Harbourfront Centre along the shores of Lake Ontario and it was a beautiful sunny day.
Our team is ready and waiting for WOTS to open. Did I mention I’m obsessively early for events? 🙂
People were smiling and laughing…it doesn’t get any better than this. Of course, my husband and manager, Kevin, and I arrived super early to set up. I like to look around at the other independent authors and to my surprise I met a fellow FriesenPress author, Julie Whitley, with her first book titled Secrets of the Home Wood. It looks intriguing and we’ll be checking it out. Congratulations Julie!! Keep in touch. 🙂 Next up, Benjamin Gabbay arrived with his lovely family. Imagine our surprise when we realized we were sharing our booth with the author of the Wingheart Trilogy. His second book in the trilogy arrived a week ahead of WOTS. We are so happy for Benjamin. Not only is he talented but a very nice person, too. It must’ve been interesting for attendees to see two sets of families behind the tables. 🙂
Mom-Son coauthors reunited at WOTS 2015. Thank you Justin for being the best son and coauthor a mom could ever have dreamed of! xo
Of course we never forget Blue Eyes (wolf), a character from Destiny’s Gate, and we positioned him up front and to the right of our booth, located right along the street. We laughed as dogs passing by swerved away from him, or barked up a storm at Blue Eyes. In fact, one large husky veered away and his owner wondered what happened. When we shared with him about Blue Eyes, he laughed, as did we. We are dog lovers and they certainly have their personalities.
Halfway through the day, we heard some beautiful music playing and I turned to J.R. and said I wish the musician would move closer. Next thing we knew, the street musician did!
Beautiful music created by this Street Musician at WOTS: Toronto.
His music was lovely to listen to and a wonderful addition to the day. Thank you so much, kind sir!
We feel very blessed when people stop at our booth. Why?
It was busy all day long and we couldn’t be more grateful.
Happy to see book lovers interested in the Paige Maddison Series. 🙂
There were over 200 authors, many publishers from HarpersCollins Canada to ChiZine Publications. So many choices for the attendees! We talked so much, I lost my voice. It was book enthusiast after book enthusiast.
Interesting conversations abound. This happy couple took snaps of our books’ ISBNs and business cards to message a teacher/librarian in Massachusetts. She said the librarian will love our series for the students. Thank you so much!!
Book lovers galore at WOTS, Toronto, 2015.
At one point, I had to leave the table and drink some water so I could continue on with our day. J.R. and I loved it! All of the conversations with fellow book lovers were interesting from discussions on how to self-publish, how did a mom-son team begin, to questions about the Paige Maddison Series.
Interested book lover reading the cover of Wake Me Up Inside. Look who’s to my right? Sister Lynn. Thank you for coming, again!! And Katy, our niece, and nephew Craig too. Thanks a million.
Now this gentleman was eager to attend WOTS and we were the first booth he hit. Very interesting conversation. You made our day! 🙂
I was shocked to see Douglas Gardham, author of The Drive In and The Actor, my fellow twitter friend and colleague, walk up and say hello. He drove to WOTS to see the Festival but said he also wanted to thank us for our retweets on Twitter. And believe me, we thank you too Douglas! Authors supporting authors is what it’s all about.
We were so surprised to meet our friend Douglas Gardham in person. He promoted Destiny’s Gate to his followers. Now this is no ordinary author. Check out his books. Thank you kindly Douglas! You made our day.
Douglas has been on a Chapters/Indigo book tour for quite awhile and is an inspiration to us. He is doing very well. Check out his books and see for yourself. Thank you so much Douglas for coming by!! You made our day.
The rush was on for the draw to win a Kobo Aura. Many people participated. Thank you Mark Leslie for pointing me in the right direction. 🙂
Author Lesley Donaldson also stopped by to say hello and she will be coming out with her first novel soon titled The Queen’s Viper. It was so great to see you Lesley. We became friends at INSPIRE! TIBF held in Toronto, November 2014. While on our journey, we love to promote other authors and offer assistance along the way when we can. To us, that’s the only way to go through this awesome journey – PAY IT FORWARD.
J.R. and I held a draw to win a Kobo Aura. Many eager participants filled out ballots and we are happy to announce Jan won.
Jan won draw for a Kobo Aura provided by J.R. Matheson and Lee Bice-Matheson, Paige Maddison Series.
Congratulations, Jan. We hope you enjoy it.
I had told Benjamin before the Festival began we were new to WOTS and he suggested to me, “You won’t want to leave your booth because it gets so busy.” Thank you, Benjamin! You were so right. Sage advice from such a young author! 🙂 And very popular too. We are very happy for your success and know it shall continue! Write on!
Thank you to all of our supporters of the Paige Maddison Series.
We were so honoured to see and talk to so many WOTS attendees. Thank you for coming by our booth 106. And thanks to everyone who bought the series. It is the first time for us – both books were bought together each and every time! 🙂 #grateful
We write for tweens/teens/and all ages. Our series is a clean, family-friendly series because we believe that’s what life is all about. Many schools and librarians purchase the Paige Maddison Series for the students. Thank you! Check us out at Chapters/Indigo or FriesenPress and see for yourself. You can also find out where to buy it here.
Wonderful of everyone who stopped by! Thank you!
Couldn’t do it without my loving husband Kevin. He is so very supportive of our career. Thank you a million times over, Dear! xo
[…] really glad I did, because I bumped into Canadian authors like my pal Lee Bice-Matheson and her co-author (and son) J.R., of the Paige Maddison Series. Lee and I stumbled upon each other […]