King Event Toronto, Canada 10/24/2013

[EXPLORER]

Here is one of the King and I


and one of the Queen and I


and the line 1 hour before event

[EXPLORER]

Here is the LOYALIST #1 placeholder.....

and should be considered a #1+ Wife. Ms,Roseannabarr

[k9 mommy]

My DREAM came true!

This was the first time I had seen or spoken to Stephen in person. And what a great gift he gave me. A kiss to remember for the rest of my life...and the talk with him was so amazing...

WOW,wow, wow he is such a warm, smart and witty person. I was able to have a moment with him (a dream of mine for 40 years) and it was incredible.
The back and forth chatting he and Owen had over the night it was plain to see the bond.

A big thank you to Tippy4 for being able to suppling us tickets.

Sorry Toronto was so cold.....hope the warm people made up for it.

[Merlin1958]

Here is one of the King and I


and one of the Queen and I


and the line 1 hour before event

That first photo made me think that it's a testament to Mr. King, that he has not obtained a 'TRO" on you!!! Especially, considering all the times you, "ran into him coming out of the bathroom" at Spring training plus, all the signing events!!! LOL

Congrats, couldn't happen for a nicer guy and his even nicer wife!!!

[Bad Penny]

Congratulations to all Toronto attendees (you lucky, lucky buggers) and it's awesome that so many of you were able to get a whole bunch of books signed (major signature envy on my part, for sure)

[Merlin1958]

Congratulations to all Toronto attendees (you lucky, lucky buggers) and it's awesome that so many of you were able to get a whole bunch of books signed (major signature envy on my part, for sure)

I'm with ya on that, Grant!!! LOL

[RichardX]

A very nice event. I got to meet Tippy and talk with David. Picked up two signed copies of Dr. Sleep and got my 30+ year old copies of Cujo and Christine signed. The event itself was well organized. The staff was polite and things went smoothly. A few folks rushed out of the program while it was still going on to get in the book signing line, but no big deal. Very little news from the event itself. SK and Owen both did readings. King mentioned he would be interested in teaming up with Peter Straub once again. The location was a bit odd on the third floor of what appeared to be a shopping mall/office complex. Toronto is a much bigger and busier place than I anticipated. Traffic was awful day and night. The people were very friendly and polite for such a large city. Those energy saving light bulbs have to go though! My hotel had them in every lamp and it was like being in a dim cave. I thought I was going blind. A long agonizing drive back home. It took 5 seconds to enter Canada but over an hour waiting in traffic to get back through US Customs. They were walking dogs down the road, interrogating people and creating a general backup for hours. It was like entering through checkpoint Charlie at the height of the Cold war.

[tippy4]

King mentioned he would be interested in teaming up with Peter Straub once again.

I was the one who posed this question to King in Toronto. I had asked him the same question in October of 2006 in Beverly Hills when he was touring for Lisey's Story...and he gave me pretty much the same answer then as well.....which was "we've talked about it". I interpreted that to mean it will never happen.

[The Library Policeman]

Great stories and pictures, guys. Thanks for sharing them. The Toronto trip certainly seems to have been really successful!

[Roseannebarr]

Dave did a nice job of summarizing the event and discussion See below


From DAvid at BEtts Books


I HAVE FLATSIGNED COPIES OF DOCTOR SLEEP FROM THE PEN CANADA BENEFIT THURSDAY NIGHT!


LIMITED QUANTITIES!



SUMMARY OF KING SIGNING EVENT IN TORONTO 10-24-13

Stephen King and his son Owen were the featured authors last Thursday night in Toronto Canada to kick off the Pen Canada Week. The ultimate draw that led me to secure 2 tickets (I took my wife) to the event was that each ticket guaranteed you a signed copy of Doctor Sleep and one book of your own choosing to be signed by Stephen King (Owen was signing his books as well). To be able to bring a book from your own collection to get signed by King is a fairly rare special treat and given that I had two tickets, that meant I could get 2 of my own books signed by Steve.


My wife and I arrived by plane in Toronto Thursday afternoon and a customer of mine (and prominent member of TheDarkTower.Org) had loosely organized a get-together of TDT.ORG people at a pub right at the event theatre. Several of us met there for drinks, snacks and "talking King" for a couple hours prior to the event. We went upstairs at roughly 7pm (doors opened at 7:30 and event started at 8pm) and there were perhaps 150-200 people in line already. After the doors opened we filed in, found seats (capacity was just 400, so a relatively small event for King), and then I used my ticket stubs to buy (at list price of $35 each) 2 signed copies of Doctor Sleep....then headed back to join my wife in the theatre. Stephen was introduced and he read a lengthy passage from Doctor Sleep (which I had heard twice before at prior readings)....Owen was introduced and he read a passage from his first novel Double Feature (again, the same passage I had heard 4x before at prior readings). However, the moderator for the event joined the father and son King and there was a fairly lively Q&A session, a couple questions submitted via Twitter and then several taken from the audience...a MUCH BETTER presentation than New York City by FAR and equal to the Boston event I attended as well.

Following the formal event, people queued up for the actual signing part....I was probably #50 in line but having done this several times in the past I knew a) that the line would move quite quickly and b) the line moves quickly because King signs books at a speed of about 6 per minute....meaning you get just about 10 seconds in front of the man himself....you have a shot at asking 1 question and you may (or not) get a satisfactory answer. I've asked Steve many questions over the years and this time I asked a pretty lame one...."any score in the Red Sox game?" as King is a HUGE Sox fan and I root for them every year myself...My answer was St. Louis 1 Boston 0 in the 7th inning...UGH (Sox lost the game). My 10 seconds were up and time to exit....the table where they had been selling signed Doctor Sleep copies was still manned and there were a handful of books left and they told me I could purchase one additional book....so I ended up with 3 signed Doctor Sleep copies and 2 signed books from my own collection.

What 2 books did I get signed? As you can guess, it was not an easy choice. I have a rather extensive personal collection, The Dark Tower books (all versions) comprise roughly 60% of my collection, but I also have little "niche" collections within my overall larger collection, such as signed 1st trade copies of the earliest UK books. I ended up getting my Viking Gunslinger proof signed (quite rare) and a 1st UK edition of Dead Zone. While the UK Dead Zone might not appeal to most people a) I have never seen a signed copy before and b) I have signed UK 1st editions of Carrie, Salem's Lot, Shining, Night Shift, and The Stand, so Dead Zone is next in line.

[dnemec]

My 2 cents:

We met up at the pub with everyone else beforehand, which I would definitely advise to others if (hopefully when!) one of these events happen again. It was great putting faces to the screen names. (And George at C-Springs--I had a Guinness draft! Cheers!) While we all stood in line together, we got separated from some of the others when we walked in to find seats. The event itself was great, as expected. We ended up standing in line with a lovely couple, one of which was not getting a book signed. So I handed her one of my backups, which was a 1st Thinner, I took my 1st of The Shining, and Mike took IT. I also had Owen sign Double Feature, my Double Feature proof, and a 1st of We're All In This Together (which is OOP). We ended up with 3 signed Doctor Sleeps (if anyone still needs one) too.

All in all, it was an awesome event, and trip as a whole (despite having our flight moved up 2 1/2 hours without our knowledge and nearly missing it, then having United forget our bags in NY.). I managed to find a great bookstore in Buffalo (where we flew into) and I spent $220, one in Toronto that I left without $130, and another in Toronto adding $125. No more Kings, but some early Bradbury paperbacks, a set of 3 Robert Bloch proofs, and a truly awesome pamphlet from 1900 entitled: An Illustrated Lesson on Hypnotism. I'll post pics to my neglected collecting thread by the end of the week. I'm certainly glad I went, and was very happy to meet everybody.

[Merlin1958]

My 2 cents:

We met up at the pub with everyone else beforehand, which I would definitely advise to others if (hopefully when!) one of these events happen again. It was great putting faces to the screen names. (And George at C-Springs--I had a Guinness draft! Cheers!) While we all stood in line together, we got separated from some of the others when we walked in to find seats. The event itself was great, as expected. We ended up standing in line with a lovely couple, one of which was not getting a book signed. So I handed her one of my backups, which was a 1st Thinner, I took my 1st of The Shining, and Mike took IT. I also had Owen sign Double Feature, my Double Feature proof, and a 1st of We're All In This Together (which is OOP). We ended up with 3 signed Doctor Sleeps (if anyone still needs one) too.

All in all, it was an awesome event, and trip as a whole (despite having our flight moved up 2 1/2 hours without our knowledge and nearly missing it, then having United forget our bags in NY.). I managed to find a great bookstore in Buffalo (where we flew into) and I spent $220, one in Toronto that I left without $130, and another in Toronto adding $125. No more Kings, but some early Bradbury paperbacks, a set of 3 Robert Bloch proofs, and a truly awesome pamphlet from 1900 entitled: An Illustrated Lesson on Hypnotism. I'll post pics to my neglected collecting thread by the end of the week. I'm certainly glad I went, and was very happy to meet everybody.

It really is a gas to "put a face to the name" ain't it? Congrats to you for your haul and your generosity!!! The "Community" extends beyond the "Internet".!!!!

[Randall Flagg]

BTW from left to right: David, Dez (dmarc?), Davids wife (valerie? Veronica? Vicky? God I suck with names), Jim (Surly), Randy (randyUK) and Jim (Explorer)

[herbertwest]

Looks like it was a great evening

[TwistedNadine]

Epic event and what a blast to hang with other members! Finally home, settled back in and have pics to post (well a few anyway..).
Smoothly run event, King was in an exceptionally good mood and happy to sign. He really looked like he was having just as much fun as we were.
What I particularly liked about this event was the team effort between members and it really paid off for all of us. You guys are wonderful. And what a joy to finally meet Surly, RandyinAK, Dnemec, and Evalish.

Heres some pics of hanging at the Bar before the event:

WizardRainbow, Dnemec, Mrs. WizardRainbow, Surly behind her, RandyinAK then Explorer


Here is Dnemecs friend and RandyinAK


WizardRainbow, Mrs. Explorer (YOU ARE AMAZING!!), and Explorer


Here's Tippy working the crowd (There was a point before the event when we were looking for people to attend using our extra tickets so we can get more things signed. Turned out we really didnt need the extra bodies but at the time we didnt know that...)

[TwistedNadine]

Heres some pics of the event and signing ...



Explorer getting something signed - Hard to see King tho...


Tippy with King




Here's a view of the Venue, Brewery and Raddisson Hotel (where a few of us were staying). The venue is the rectangle building on the harbor all the way to the left. The hotel is the building on the right with the pool also on the harbor, and the brewery is the building just left of the hotel closest to the harbor with the grey A frame roof. I took this while eating lunch at the Tower.

[TwistedNadine]

Heres some pics of a few things I had signed. I ended up with 8 signatures. The first thing I handed him was Reapers Image - he waved it at Owen saying "Look at this!". The next item was Ubris then Marshroots. As he's signing Marshroots he looked up at me, gave me a big smile saying "You're taking me on a trip down memory lane!" and then: "Love the hat!" (I was wearing my Top Hat). As much as I loved the comments I kinda wish he had kept his attention on signing 'cause the Marshroots signature ended up looking weird.









A big Thank You to Tippy for this one:


And this one is just an odd quirky thing I wanted. This book is one of my all time favorites and I wanted it signed with a silver sharpie (which I brought with me). I handed King the book with the sharpie and he decided to sign it like this:

[jhanic]

Wonderful, TN!

John

[TwistedNadine]

Lastly I thought I would share a few other pics of sightseeing. This first one is the CN Tower (where I took aerial pics of the venue and hotel). King did an interview here the morning of the event. The tower has a restaurant that rotates 360 degrees with views of downtown Toronto, the harbor, and Lake Ontario. Cant' say I was overwhelmed with the food but the wine was delicious!


The aquarium which is right below the Tower




The mall downtown (apparently one of the largest malls in the world)


A little town on the outskirts of Niagara Falls called Niagara On The Lake. Loved the Cemetery




And of course last but not least Niagara Falls. Pics cant do it justice. Like the Grand Canyon its just one of those places you have to see in person to get the full mind blowing effect...

[sentinel]

Great Stuff TN!!!! Really wish I had been there! I know I missed a good one! Very jealous!

[RandyinAK]

Quit calling me RandyinUK ) in all the pictures! Ha that was great times!

[Stockerlone]

Great storys and pics !!!

[bdwyer19]

Great pics TN!! Very jealous. Actually, I blame my wife... If her travel schedule hadn't been so busy, I just might have been able to be there!

[Randall Flagg]

Great pics TN!! Very jealous. Actually, I blame my wife... If her travel schedule hadn't been so busy, I just might have been able to be there!

I blame my wife too. She said "we have done enough author events lately, take me to Playa del Carmen".

[EXPLORER]

I blame my wife TOO. I tell her there is another King event and she says, "Okay, Where do we get to travel to this time?"

Got to love her attitude .... We just got back a couple hours ago. We stayed in Toronto for a couple extra days & events.
We then got a car to wander down to Niagara Falls to play honeymooners and flew out of Buffalo this morning.
We and the BOOKS all arrived home safely (had to mail home clothes).