Cover and interior calendar design by Troy Palmer. Isn’t he a genius? We love him so, so much!
Hard to believe, guys, but the moment has finally come. After a year of hard work, we got the chance to show off the beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL Bare It For Books calendar at the 2013 Eden Mills Writers’ Festival this past weekend. It was, in a word, awesome.
Allegra picked the calendars up, fresh from the printer, early on Saturday morning. Here’s the text that she sent to Amanda upon seeing them:
Needless to say, we were a little excited! Amanda arrived at Eden Mills the next morning, anxiously anticipating the arrival of the calendars. Here’s the sign that marked our table on Publishers’ Way:
And really, with a start to the day that was as auspicious as that, how could things not be completely wonderful? They were. Allegra arrived, we set up our BIFB table (with a tad bit more merchandise and professional swag than we had a last year’s fest!), and off we went. Here are a few pictures of people checking out the CanLit goods…
We have a banner! We are officially official!
Grace O’Connell, Iain Reid, and Ms. November herself, Saleema Nawaz, checking everything out.
Sheree Fitch! THE ACTUAL SHEREE FITCH! HOLDING A CALENDAR! Oh my goodness.
And here’s a picture of your friendly literature lovers, happy as clams, almost a year to the day that we started it all in Eden Mills…
Huge thanks, as always, to the wonderful folk at EMWF for being so spectacular in their enthusiasm and support for this project. And thanks to everyone who came out, and carried their opened calendars around to various readings on the day, drumming up excitement and enthusiasm for the campaign. It was a spectacular day.
Next up: WOTS Toronto! We’ll be chilling (figuratively, not literally — at least we very much hope so) at next weekend’s WOTS festival as part of Literacy Lane. If you’re in the area, please consider dropping by. This is, after all, your chance to get the calendars before they’re fully released to the public! The calendars themselves will go on sale through our website and through select independent bookstores across Canada as of October 3rd. Keep an eye on this website and on our Twitter account — we’ll be tweeting the names of participating bookstores closer to the release date. Of course, if you can’t wait to get your hands on a copy, you can always pre-order the calendar here.
Remember: all proceeds from the sale of the 2014 calendar will be donated to PEN Canada. And now that we’ve held it in our hands, we can say that it’s more beautiful — and even more sexy — than we could possibly have imagined. Trust us, dear friends — THIS is the way you want to keep track of 2014. Absolutely!
BIGGEST SMILES EVER.