Auteur : ammatte

You know what it’s like when you wait a long time to meet a celebrity / favorite artist and you’re disappointed once you’ve met them?

I don’t.

Because while I waited a year to meet Terry Fallis, award-winning author of The Best Laid Plans, The High Road and the much-anticipated September 2012 release Up and Down, he managed to exceed my lofty expectations of him.

Fallis, who is teaching a U of T continuing studies class on Building an Audience – marketing for writers, is as genuine and as funny as I’d imagined him to be. He is knowledgeable and self-deprecating, and he picked up on my fandom immediately. I didn’t even have to ask him to sign my copies of the aforementioned novels, he offered.

For five weeks, Fallis will school a small group of writers in various marketing methods, including optimizing social media, self-publishing and podcasting, and mastering the art of the reading. He gleans his material from his PR experience as well as from practical examples from his own progression as an esteemed Canadian author. We were so taken with the first class that we stayed past the end time, discussing authors’ web presence and blogs. I love when learning is effortless and inspiring.

And lest this post seem like an attempt to butter up a prof for a good grade, let it be known that I’ve already finished my Creative Writing Certificate; this course is just candy. But should Fallis hand out grades, I expect to earn an A.