Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Author to appear at McAdam Railway Station this Sunday

With the new Christmas novella well into production and the audio-book version of Volume 1 now available, things seem to be humming along in the Abigail project.

Author Mark Walma is now preparing for an appearance at the McAdam Railway Station and Hotel this coming Sunday, July 27 from 1 to 3 p.m.

"The McAdam Historical Restoration Commission has planned a series of appearances by local artists to complement its already very popular Railway Pie Sunday events," Mark explained, "and I'm quite honoured to have been invited to take part."

Mark said his role is to set up his table and then chat with the people who drop into the Station for pie.

"Many of the people who come out are likely from McAdam and the surrounding area so they likely already have purchased the original three Abigail books," Mark said. "My appearance there is not really about the sales of the books but more about thanking people for their support for our project and the Station, adding even more interest to their visit and getting them excited about the upcoming book."

Artist and designer Lynn Walma is currently working very hard on the drawings and layout of the new Christmas novella, "A McAdam Station Christmas", which is due out in November.

"We're very excited about this new book and looking forward to the launch late this fall," Mark said. "We are thinking of having two different launches -- one at the Station and a second in Fredericton -- so watch out for that!"

Friday, July 4, 2014

An awesome Canada Day for Abigail

Canada Day in McAdam turned out to be an awesome experience, Abigail author Mark Walma said.

"What a great day we had," he said recently, his face still showing the slightest hint of sun from the day spent outside the McAdam Railway Station. "Lots of people, lots on interesting conversations, lots of kind words about the Abigail books and even a few sales."

Mark spent six solid hours staffing a table at the Canada Day event, taking the project's new point-of-sale book display and audio book out for a test drive and catching up with a lot of friends out in McAdam.

"They've got a great bunch of people out there," Mark said. "The group who make up the McAdam Historical Restoration Commission, people like Gail Swan, Elsie Carroll, Elaina Goss, Kim Dunphy and Dave McInroy, are just wonderful, hard-working, supportive people. And they get great support from the Village mayor, Frank Carroll."

Despite the fact that it was one of the hottest days of the year, Mark said he thoroughly enjoyed the day.

"I was lucky," he said. "My table was in the shadow created by the eaves of the Station and got a nice breeze off the pond. It was quite comfortable."

He said he was especially delighted with the many compliments he received from people from all over (some from as far away as Toronto, Edmonton and even California) about the first three volumes of Abigail stories and the excitement that greeted the news that a fourth book, A McAdam Station Christmas, will be coming out in November.

"One woman actually did a little dance when she saw the poster," Mark said, laughing. "She told me she'd enjoyed the first three volumes but had been worried that there wouldn't be any more coming out. She was absolutely thrilled."

And then there was the little boy from Toronto who complained that he just couldn't wait until November to read the next book. "He was eventually convinced to settle for a photo with the author that his mom could post on Twitter for him," Mark explained.

Next appearance for Mark will likely be at the First Anniversary/Moving Party for Artful Persuasion, the fabulous Fredericton artists' co-operative store that was one of the first sales partners for the Abigail books.

The Artful Persuasion party was planned for this Saturday, July 5 but has already been postponed due to the fact that Arthur (be he a Hurricane or a Tropical Storm by then) is expected to roll into town and dump up to 100 mm of rain on the city throughout the day on Saturday. The new date will be announced soon.