I’m in “holy cow I forgot how cold it gets” Canada thinking all those jokes about the Great White North have a grain of truth to them after all. Guess my blood has thinned over the years living in the deep south. So far, my trip has been fantastic! Met a great friend, Anna, who moved from Brooklyn to Mississauga and surprised me with early birthday presents, and got a chance to hang out and talk with Regai at the Chapters in Ajax. Regai keeps building sites safe (or at least can tell you why something went terribly, horribly wrong afterward 🙂

Before I forget, S&S Canada just posted a blog post interview I did with them:

http://simonandschustercanada.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/qa-with-chris-evans-author-of-the-iron-elves-trilogy/

Fun family dinner with my parents and aunt and uncle at Canadian institution Swiss Chalet (which admittedly sounds like it should be a Swiss institution). Been over a year since I ate at one of them. I apologize to anyone offended by the sounds I made while eating, but oh, baby, that chicken…

Huge thanks to Manager Eric and Pablo at the Chapters in Etobicoke where I signed all the Iron Elves books they had.

Thanks, too, to Christine at the World’s Biggest Bookstore in downtown Toronto for helping me as I signed their very impressive pile of Iron Elves books. If you’ve never checked out the store you really should. It is impressive! And the sci-fi and fantasy section is spectacular which is due in large part to the efforts of Jessica Strider. You can check out her blog at http://scififanletter.blogspot.com/

And another big thanks to Meike at the Indigo in the Eaton’s Centre. It’s just a couple of blocks from the World’s Biggest Bookstore.

Oh, and we were diverted while driving downtown by the Occupy Bay Street protest which I didn’t mind as I think it’s an important issue to redress the insane imbalance in wealth around the world. Not sure I’m all the way with Robin Hood on this, but the capitalist system is clearly tipped too far in one direction right now.

Ok, end of politics, back to books. There is just something about being in a bookstore that seems to bring out the best in people. I’ve been meeting the nicest, most helpful folks you would ever want to encounter. Had a long, fascinating talk with Lance at the WBB about military history. He’s a bit of a mirror image in that he’s American and moved up to Canada to work.

Lot’s more to come so stay tuned.

Chris and Regai inadvertently plugging Starbucks in the Chapters in Ajax