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First came the book launch at Beechey Island. We were sailing through the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada when, thanks to a myriad of volunteers, the party just erupted. OK, we didn't party ON the island, site of the graves of the first three men to die on the 1845 Franklin expedition. That would have been disrespectful. But on video, we caught bits and pieces of both the island and the event, as you can see here. And I will go out on a limb and suggest that this Dead Reckoning extravaganza was the first-ever book launch at Beechey. We brought aboard 65 copies of the book and presto! they were gone! This is not J.R. Rowling territory, but I've made my peace with that. Now, tonight, comes the downtown Toronto launch at beautiful Ben McNally Books. It's not a first, and won't be a last, but me, I'm looking forward to it.
So how cool was that? We had a bagpiper precede me to the stage, we had publisher Phyllis Bruce of HarperCollins Canada produce a bottle of champagne, and we had Matthew Swan announce a fantastic contest involving the book and my next voyage with Adventure Canada. The book is How the Scots Invented Canada. The occasion was the Toronto launch at the Dora Keogh Pub. And the contest will involve sailing through the Scottish Isles, though details won't be announced until next week. For the rest, revelers ended up singing Northwest Passage, and Ben McNally Books moved 50 copies of the opus -- a sell out! Here, in a photo by Peter Rehak, you see Matthew capping an array of gifts with . . . wait for it . . . a can of haggis. Maybe you had to be there.
