authors in action

Mind the Gap

It’s an exciting time for Marina Cohen, YA author of Ghost Ride, and most recently Mind Gap. This is a fast-paced, exciting story with some supernatural elements for teens set on the TTC here in Toronto (the main character actually shares the same TTC stop with me, in the east end, which was pretty cool to discover!). Marina is currently up for the Red Maple Award, sponsored by the Ontario Library Association. (We’ll find out next week if she’s won.) Marina recently launched Mind Gap in the coolest way possible – at the Phantom Subway Station, located at Bay and Bloor. The phantom what?? you ask? Located one flight below the current Bay station, the lower station once allowed trains on the Yonge-University line to connect with the Bloor-Danforth line without switching. It’s been out of use for ages (apart from the occasional Open Door Toronto, or movie shoot). The TTC very kindly allowed Marina access to the space for a school group presentation. We brought about 120 kids down into the cold, echoing station for a reading by Marina, on a subway car. Interesting, a few corpses showed up as well (corpses by day, by night they were YA authors Deborah Kerbel (Lure), James Bow (The Young City), Helene Boudreau (Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings) and Natale Ghent (Gravity Brings Me Down). A great photo of the author with her corpse crew appeared recently in Snap Toronto. Good luck next week, Marina!

Tags: deborah kerbel, ghost ride, James Bow, Marina Cohen, Mind Gap, phantom subway station, school group, TTC, YA authors

About the author

Karen has been active in the Canadian publishing industry for almost fourteen years. During that time, she's worked in the marketing and publicity departments of numerous publishers including Owl Books (now Maple Tree Press), Stoddart Kids, and Penguin Group Canada. She joined Dundurn Press in October, 2009 as their Publicity Manager. While she enjoys a good scary movie, she doesn't like it when people sneak up on her.