Jeff Lindsay in Toronto

Last night I was privileged to attend a special bookseller event to meet Jeff Lindsay, author of the Dexter (good guy/serial killer) books. He's in town promoting his most recent book, Dexter is Delicious and will be doing events at the International Festival of Authors. I brought my copies and talked to other booksellers as we waited for him to arrive. The poor man's flight was delayed, so after coming in for a quick 1 question Q&A, he signed our books then ran to his next appointment, giving a pre film speech for a special showing of Casablanca.

My video taping wasn't the best, so I've put a still photo over the voice track of Mr. Lindsay explaining where he got the idea for the Dexter books.

The Inception of Darkly Dreaming Dexter from Jessica Strider on Vimeo.

Avner Mandelman and David Mitchell Bookseller Event

Yesterday the Toronto Random House office had a bookseller reception for authors Avner Mandelman and David Mitchell. Each author spoke briefly about their books and had a signing.



Mr. Mandleman spoke first about why it took 36 years to write The Debba. The novel is about a former military assassin whose father, a war hero, has died. Once in Tel Aviv, he discovers that in order to receive his inheritance, he must stage a play called the Debba, which his father wrote, and which was only staged once, causing a riot at the time. From the book flap, "The Debba is a mythological Arab hyena that can turn into a man who lures Jewish children away from their families. To the Arabs he is a heroic national symbol; to the Jews he is a terrorist." Sounds interesting.




David Mitchell spoke on his new book, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I took the liberty of video taping his talk, and am glad I did. He's a very personable author and his talk, though short, was full of humour. I especially liked how he mentions that writing isn't just ideas, it's also discipline. And that writing different genres is harder than it seems.