David Poulsen, author of Old Man, sojourned from Claresholm, Alberta to Toronto this past week for the Ontario Library Association Conference. He recounts his experience below.

Wow, what an amazing week. The OLA Conference in Toronto was huge and it’s always great to mix and mingle with my favourite group of people on the planet–librarians. Add to that the excitement of the launch of my new book, Old Man, and you can understand why I was pretty pumped about my time in Toronto. Dundurn Press is the publisher of Old Man (my first book with them and I am really excited about the forty years of experience this fine Canadian book publisher brings to the table, coupled with the unfettered enthusiasm the folks at Dundurn have for the work they do and, happily, for my book.

I arrived in Toronto when it was a balmy plus 12 but sadly that didn’t last and I escaped the clutches of Canadian winter for only one day. Stayed at a delightful B and B–Ainsley House in the beautiful old Rosedale area of Toronto. I certainly stayed busy while there…lots of book signings and promotional moments, a stop at the house Hemingway lived in when he was in Toronto (pre-Paris) and another at Mable’s Fables, a Canadian institution when it comes to bookstores. Then it was back to Saskatchewan (where it really IS winter and probably will be for a very long time, I don’t care what the groundhog says)…Back to my work as Writer in Residence at the Saskatoon Public Library and to start getting ready for the western launch of Old Man at McNally Robinson in Saskatoon on Thursday, February 28.

Love you Toronto (okay, maybe not the Leafs) and thanks for everything!