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.