AJLR speaks further
So, last night . . . er, this morning . . . I had FINALLY got to bed, late even for me, and I have this really terrible habit of lying there as I’m drifting off to sleep, running through the day just past and looking for, you know, holes. There always are holes. And every time I hit a hole, of course, I trip, and wake up again. Sigh. Here follows a yesterday’s hole. I almost got out of bed again to post it and then I thought Go to sleep, McKinley, it’ll be freaking dawn in about half an hour. So I did. But I meant to get this up about twelve hours ago. . . .
Btw, update on the survey results – 19 people have, in the last 48 hours, indicated their enthusiastic wish to come to a London signing or publicity event. I’ve written to the Transworld email address myself and if others of the potential Londonites could do the same…(perhaps mentioning the positive cloud of book-buying friends and relations slavering to come along too) ?
Nineteen people are not, obviously, going to make balance-sheet logic for a signing (although you’re already sixteen and a half more readers than I believed I had in Britain) but I would have thought that nineteen emails would at least be annoying, and nineteen emails promising enormous extended families and friendship networks of people with vast disposable incomes, a mysterious, unslakeable desire for literary blood, and the habit of popping in to London to see if there are any authors signing books in town that day. . .might rouse a flicker of interest.
I’ve written to Merrilee, to see if she has any advice about bringing off this unlikely achievement we’re aiming at.
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Oh dear, horrible moments, those ‘jerk awake’ ones…
I couldn’t sleep after 05.15 this morning (sigh). Never mind, it is possible to start the day with Georgette Heyer at 05.30 am and not feel particularly awful while one is actually in the book.
And today’s survey figure is…22
And in case you’d like something else that devours time? :)
http://www.logan.ws/games/penguin.asp
(NB: the link near the top of this page to the ‘Bloody Penguin’ version is not for those who go wobbly at sight of the red stuff. Bit too much for me, even as a First Aider…)
22! Gosh! (Somebody must be signing in more than once . . . :))
Oh dear! I don’t think I want to club the penguin! –Which is just as well, since I can’t get it to work. Duh.
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Penguin power – just click somewhere near the penguin’s rock to start it, and then click again to draw the yeti’s club back and let swing at the right moment. Click the ‘OK’ box to start again.
22 – let’s not stop there…42….102….the World! (Mwahahaha). I’ve come back from seeing ‘Mamma Mia’ at the cinema, all energised and cheerful! :)
102 would be good. We’d actually *fill* a bookshop at that level. Well, not a HUGE bookshop. :) (How was Mamma Mia? The reviews were awful.)
well, I haven’t signed in at all, as I really can’t commit to a London trip. Which isn’t to say I wouldn’t do it at any cost, I would love to come meet you, but I couldn’t in all honesty say I’d definitely come. So your UK readership is at least 1 bigger than signed in, and I’m digging through my boxes of books (having recently moved) to find copies to lend to friends to get them hooked too. I can think of at least three potential fans (all of whom will wander off to purchase back catalogue) and maybe some more.
LOL! You don’t have to be THAT honest! :)
oh but I do. It makes life terribly difficult. :-|
Hello again from the theater director lurker in New York! I can’t make it to London, but will you be coming to NYC on your book tour? I’d love to know so I could try and fit it into my schedule. Will you be posting your plans on the blog?
Oh dear–I’m not doing a tour–this is all kind of a joke. Someone said I could tour the UK because it’s a nice *small* country and I said not THAT small but I’d come to London for a signing if someone would set fire to my publisher. (Inspirational fire, you understand.) If I ever get trapped into touring again I will CERTAINLY post an itinerary.
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I WISH I lived in London, or thereabouts. All the good writers live in England or New York, and I’m much too far away from either of those places to be of any use…
Sorry. :(
Holiday time? :)
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I WISH. AGAIN. Holiday time would be SO VERY NICE.
Well, I’d love to go but, sadly, I’m in Florida which is nowhere near London. However, if they happen to invent the instantaneous matter transmitter between now and the date in question, I will be there.
Meanwhile, all I can offer is lots of moral support. Good luck!
“However, if they happen to invent the instantaneous matter transmitter between now and the date in question, I will be there.”
Yay! A transporter–I’ve been wishing for years! (Sorry, I am a bit of a Trek fan. :)
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***Comment by Angelia
2008-08-16 01:39:59
“However, if they happen to invent the instantaneous matter transmitter between now and the date in question, I will be there.”
Yay! A transporter–I’ve been wishing for years! (Sorry, I am a bit of a Trek fan. :) ***
No need to apologize, Angelia. In addition to being a Buffy fan, like Robin, I too am a Trek fan. Obviously, I was thinking of Scotty as I wrote this.
Now, I’m curious what Robin thinks of Trek? Robin, would you care to weigh in? I know you have plenty of time to comment because you don’t need to sleep or anything… heh heh!
And I would be another one who would adore to come to meet you and have my new on order copy of Chalice signed, but Im in NEW ZEALAND, and, well, its a bit far :(
I’m really quite baffled by the lack of response you’ve gotten. I was under the impression that bookstores usually jump at an author offering to come do a signing, particularly if they’re an independent (which admittedly I don’t know regarding the one in question since I’m not totally familiar with British chains). It’s an easy source of publicity for both author and shop, particularly with those like you who don’t do lots of tours and such.
I hope it’ll work out for the sake of you and your U.K. readers. Alas, between hellhound digestion and my finances and fibro, it’s not likely that there will ever be a signing I’ll be able to go to.
I’m really quite baffled by the lack of response you’ve gotten. I was under the impression that bookstores usually jump at an author offering to come do a signing
************** I wish. No, there’s usually more of the hiding under the table response. Unless you’re JK Rowling.
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Actually, if I had like, a year of notice, I could arrange to be in London. (Unless, of course, we are successful at this house auction tomorrow morning. In which case, it would need to be about ten years notice.*)
So if you do end up committing to anything way in advance (like you mentioned in the Wiscon speech)…
* Should “years” have an apostrophe somewhere? This one always confuses me.
Well, it belongs to the ten years, so presumably it’s ten years’ ? Yes?
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Yup, makes sense.
Oh! clearly I mis-read / mis-interpreted your earlier post… Sorry, wishful thinking! Funny story: I am visiting outside of Seattle right now (working on a show) and walked into a second-hand bookstore today… on display in the glass counter up front was a lovely first-edition hardcover of THE BLUE SWORD, autographed, including a typewritten thank you note from you tucked inside. On sale for $100! Sadly, out of my price range, but I thought you’d like to know it’s in their “specialty offerings”. Perhaps one day the book tour will come to town and I’ll get my very own autographed copy of something. ; )
Well, I do sign bookplates. Sometimes I even remember to post them.
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“on display in the glass counter up front was a lovely first-edition hardcover of THE BLUE SWORD, autographed, including a typewritten thank you note from you tucked inside. On sale for $100!”
OH, I want!
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“How was Mamma Mia? The reviews were awful.”
WordPress is having a hissy fit and not offering the option of replying above, so…
I thought Mamma Mia was great, a real feel-good film. OK, the plot is too daft to bother with really and there was total sillyness everywhere you looked but somehow none of it mattered. All the actors looked as though they were thoroughly enjoying themselves (well, blue sky, warm blue water, the Med, why not?), the music bounced along, the energy levels were high, the acting (where there was space for it) sketched in the characters reasonably well and it was just…wonderful. Greater than the sum of its parts. It’s not often these days that you see an entire cinema audience coming out smiling at the end (and it wasn’t because the film was over in this case).
Reminded me of the summers I used to spend in Cyprus, too. :)
Oh. Smiling. That would be nice. :)
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Some friends of mine saw the stage show of Mamma Mia when it was touring, and they thought it was a fun evening. Brainless, but enjoyable.
“Oh. Smiling. That would be nice. :)”
It was, very restful. Having been aware of Abba songs (how could one not be) but not a devotee I had gone along prepared to lift the upper lip in one corner. However, I was charmed out of it – very restful, turning off the critical faculty for an evening, I recommend it. :)
very restful, turning off the critical faculty for an evening
********* YES. And while we were sitting around waiting for the bride to get on with it one of the other bell ringers said exactly the same.
“very restful, turning off the critical faculty for an evening”
Yes! I wish I could do it more often–sometimes I get so TIRED of thinking. :)
I haven’t seen the movie “Mamma Mia” yet, but I just saw the musical earlier this spring (part of why I’m holding off on the movie a bit; I’m not sure how it will compare). Since I haven’t seen both, I don’t know exactly how they match up. However, my take on the play was that it was (duh) mostly directed towards Abba fans (oops, not “Abba vans” like I first typed; it’s late). The plot was mostly structured around the need to work in as many different specific songs as possible. If you liked Abba music (the three of us who went did) then you were entertained and appreciated the clever ways they found to fit things in. If you didn’t like Abba music, I’m assuming it was tedious. It does help that the actors and actresses were all wonderful and made their characters (and the old, familiar songs) come alive as much as was possible. Don’t know if that helps at all. :)
Right, forgot to mention that I too would potentially try to make it to a London booksigning if I had LOTS of advance notice. I’m currently trying to raise money for a visit to Romania and France (two places where I’ve lived in the past and where I have friends poking at me for a visit). London isn’t that hard to get to from the part of France I’d be visiting, and I even have friends in London to visit as well.