Well hello there, friends and fans alike! It’s official: ‘tis the season! Starbucks has rolled out its red cups*, the Hudson’s Bay Co. has done up its holiday windows, the Eatons Centre has installed those gargantuan metal reindeer—the holidays are here!
I know there will be those of you who stubbornly dig your heels in—who resist the premature holiday creep—who will exclaim with dismay that ‘It isn’t even December yet!’ To those of you I say Humbug! Most decidedly, Humbug! For the holidays are the most glorious time of the year!
Let me explain my reasoning. First of all, it cannot be denied that the cookies are fantastic. If you are fortunate enough to have a baker among your friends then you will know that holiday cookies are absolutely the most delicious type of cookies on this Earth. Next, you will have to agree that snow is beautiful. There is no better experience than waking up to the sight and smell of fresh snow first thing in the morning. And let us not forget the things that you can do in the snow: skating, skiing, sledging—even curling up in front of the fire and drinking hot chocolate is a completely acceptable winter sport in my books!
But best of all, certainly best of all, are the holiday book fairs! You cannot tell me you don’t like the holiday book fairs—the book fairs, held at exactly the right time of year—the book fairs where you can go and buy piles and piles of books, and all of them for other people! It is the perfect time of year for guilt-free binge-book shopping.
Surely, you must agree.
Surely you must!
Well, Quill friends, it is with great pleasure that I announce to you that PQ will be participating in two book fairs this holiday season! So you may come and buy your fill! All those books you have been itching to get your hands on … all those old favourites you have been dying to pick up for a loved one … wait no more!
This year you will find us at …
the Ontario College of Arts and Design University Annual Book Arts Fair on Saturday, December 3rd, at the Great Hall at 100 McCaul Street from 10am to 5pm and
the Annual Small Press of Toronto Winter Book Fair on Saturday, December 10, at Hart House at 7 Hart House Circle from 11am to 5pm.
We will have a range of titles available! In particular, at the OCADU book fair we will have with us those titles which feature illustrations and wood engraving. We will have a many of George A. Walker’s books as well as the graphic novels he edited, created by his OCADU students (Stefan Berg, Marta Chudolinska, Megan Speers). For the DA fans out there as well, we will have copies of the Devil’s Artisan, especially the issue featuring Walker!
I hope to see you at both events, Quill friends! And I wish all you Scrooges better holiday cheer! After all, it only happens once a year!
Until next time … Porcupette out!
beautiful reindeer engraving taken from our very own Devil's Artisan
*I would, however, like to express a particular pedantic dislike of the Starbucks holiday catch phrase, ‘Let’s merry’, which we dissected most cruelly in my Tuesday evening copyediting class. It is neither witty nor catchy, it is just grammatically incorrect. Humbug!
