DAY TEN: What happened to Day Ten?

That's a very good question.
Here's what I do know:
1. The Walrus party on Thursday night went so late, I thought I saw a lineup of children walking to the Friday morning YoungIFOA event as I hailed a cab to go home.
2. It was Halloween, and the hallways of the Harbourfront Centre were crawling with children all day, many of them in adorable costumes, as they attended events and made frighteningly well-themed crafts.
3. An evening of ghoulish events was highlighted by C.C. Humphreys' thrilling reading from Vlad: The Last Confession.
4. I dressed up as a guy with a massive headache, passed out in his own bed catching the first real sleep he's had in ten days, thanking the heavens his friend Becky suggested he take the night off.

SATURDAY'S MUST-SEE EVENTS!

I've got a sweet little piece of inside information for all you loyal readers out there. Actually, two sweet little pieces:
1. This Saturday at noon, Daniel Baird of Walrus fame will be hosting a round table in the Brigantine Room that is sure to knock your socks off. It's called the Eavesdrop Salon and I suggest you book your tickets now. Baird, Boyden, Quarrington, Rich and Whitlock - conversing on whichever topic their blinding intellects wish to pursue. It's no holds barred, people. Anything could happen.
2. Later on, at 4pm, my own personal editor at the Walrus, Jeremy Keehn (OK, he works with other writers, too) leads a fascinating conversation on "narrative and the passage of time" with some of Canada's most gifted, insightful and award-winning authors, David Bergen, Christopher Dewdney and Bill Gaston. Make this your pre-dinner stop on the last day of the festival. I'll see you there.

Gracious Props and Festival Plans from the Wallie

Jared Bland over at The Shelf (part of the big, fun, unruly herd of Walrus Blogs) has previewed the festival and given yours truly an uncalled for number of horn toots. Jared, you are a scholar and a gentleman. I thank you.

Seriously, though, his picks for the fest are just about the same as mine. Follow him around Harbourfront, beginning Thursday, and you can't go wrong. The only thing I'd make sure to add is the Farley Mowat interview/reading on Saturday, November 1, which Jared is actually hosting. Otherwise will be Farley's last book. This is sure to be an emotional, hilarious couple of hours.

On that note, I half-remember a story Andreas Shroeder once told me and my fellow writer-nerds in his creative non-fiction class at UBC (the best class on any subject I have ever attended, bar none). It was a long, convoluted tale about drinking ridiculous amounts of something or other with a bunch of friends/writers back in the seventies, and it ended with Farley stealing Andreas' umbrella. At least I think that's how it went. Maybe I got it completely wrong. Maybe it wasn't even raining. Maybe the two have never even met.

Wow, there's such freedom in writing memoir.