Antigonish, at last! Erin and I are hugely tuckered out. We've been driving, driving, driving, and we're now thoroughly sick of it. But we've had a great time.
I'm blogging this from the home of David and Jeanette Lynes, who have kindly put us up. Erin and Jeanette co-launched their books at the best venue yet, the B2G Cafe in downtown Antigonish. It was standing room only, with the attendance levels more than doubling the attendance levels of the other readings combined, and the energy was really up there. Erin read first and got a great reaction. I helped sell copies of the books, and both moved briskly.
Thanks to David and Jeanette for making us feel so welcome, and for organizing the co-launch, which really brought our spirits up after some lacklustre readings. Moncton and Charlottetown had good vibes, and Fredericton was nice (though not well attended). I'm sorry to say that Halifax was something of a disaster. The library did do their best to make us feel welcome, but we had only three people in attendance, with one of those people being a regular that comes to every Thursday reading, and was a little put out that we'd moved the chairs from their usual rows.
Anyway, we're in Antigonish, now, and we'll probably drive to Moncton this afternoon. We had thought about returning to Halifax, but that's just too much driving. We might stay in Antigonish for the afternoon, as it's a great town with a huge writing vibe (much like Stratford), but there are rumours of snow in the wind, and we should probably head to Moncton earlier rather than later. Our plane departs the Maritimes at 5:30 AST tomorrow.
Thanks for all the comments on the blog. Yes, the Confederation Bridge stretches from New Brunswick to PEI. As for the presence of trees, perhaps I'm not expressing myself properly. Although we avoided the wilderness of New Brunswick (which has a surprising amount of it, especially in the north), there is something very different in the character of the landscape between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and I'm not sure what that is. The colour of the sand, perhaps? The more rolling nature of the terrain? Some of the best terrain I've seen is around Antigonish, however, which looks decidedly Appalachian.
With luck, I'll be blogging tomorrow night from my bedroom in Kitchener.