pre-pre-view: press conference essentials

The item of witty black clothing. This shirt, as worn by poet and translator Charles Leblanc, also speaks to living in a kinda-sorta bilingual province.

Apt, as Charles was at the presser to talk about the THIN AIR French events. Apt, as THIN AIR is one of two venues where the usually distinct French and English literary communities co-mingle (the other being the Manitoba Book Awards).

(This pic is sort of cheating, as I posted an image of Charles wearing the shirt in the hospitality suite last year. But, but...it is still compelling shirt. Which is why he wore it again and why I photographed it again.)

The books. Unlike sequins and feathers, books are weighty buggers & have a presence aside from their role as a square-shaped container for words.

These, of course, were meant to be a representative sample of books whose authors would be appearing at the festival. But they were really only books that McNally's currently has of authors that will be appearing at the festival, because some of those books aren't out yet.

And, given that McNally's likes their displays to be pretty, there was probably a few display-type-decisions that had more to do with contrast-y colours than literary heft.

(Here's a game for you. How many of the books in the pic can you pic-out?)

The free nibblies. Though I twittered that I was disdaining the mini-muffins (bah! mini-muffins!), there were other things on offer at this presser.

Small candied cinnamon buns. Squares that were actually triangles. Five carafes of hot beverages.

I made Michael Van Rooy, there as a representative author/giant, eat slowly for me. It was worth attending the presser just to boss him around.