Author! Author!
Just to prove I really am an Author - moreover, an Author Of The Month - a friend of my son's (thanks, Mel!) sent me this picture of a display in Borders.
Meanwhile, I've finished my first week travelling around with the Books Alive! campaign. Except for Tuesday, I've been in tandem with the charming Toni Jordan, and it's been a hoot (Tuesday was a hard gig, and I am very grateful to Pellinor enthusiast Ann for providing a friendly face in the audience, lugging 15 kilos of books into Fitzroy for me to sign, and for laughing at my jokes...) I met another fan, Patrick, on Wednesday, and that was charming too. The real pleasure of this is the chance to meet readers.
Last night we were in Warrnambool, at the local library, and that was enormous fun. Despite Penguin sending the bookshop 15 copies of Book 3 - instead of the more immediately useful Book 1 - people bought it and asked me to sign it, promising they would buy the first two books. They even (yes) laughed at my jokes, and paid attention, and were all-round a friendly and warm audience. Toni has been on the author trail since February, and is a trooper - two weeks is, I suspect, my personal limit. I must be a delicate flower: it's very hard work doing this stuff! But the Books Alive people - on the Warnambool trip it was Fiona Lange - make sure we're well looked after and very well fed. Last night's treat was a dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant, just down the road from the Warnambool Library. I consumed with great pleasure a chicken breast stuffed with chestnut and a rocket and pear salad, rounded off with some roquefort washed down with a botrytis wine. If being an Author means this kind of thing, I'm all for it...
Update: the Sydney date on Monday night has been cancelled (see comments) - my apologies to those Sydney readers who might have been there - maybe we'll catch up next time!
16 comments:
Congratulations for being Author of the Month :D
I'll second that! Cheers! :)
Congrats! but they only gave you author of the month!!! what happened to the other 11 months of the year that you so rightfully deserve ;) oh and see you next monday @ Mosman!
Cheers
Yay! Congats, Alison! I agree w/ amanda, you deserve Author of the Year and more! Have fun on the rest of your tour! That food sounds great; it's making me hungry....
dear alison
i was so looking forward to seeing you at mosman library but i when i rang up the library just now, i was bluntly told by the rudest librarian that it had been cancelled and would not be rescheduled. she then hung up on me before i could ask why. I hope everything is ok and that you can make it to sydney some time soon. i was really looking forward to meeting you.
Gosh, e, I'm really sorry to hear that! The Books Alive people told me just this afternoon that they cancelled the session because there weren't enough bookings - the very sweet person looking after me said they'd had problems with all the evening sessions (except in the country - yay Warrnambool) and would probably not do them next year.
However, I was always doubtful about charging people, as Mosman was - all the others were free, and so they should be, especially as the authors were not getting paid! I'm really sorry that I won't get to meet you (yet) and for your disappointment. And more sorry that the librarian was so unnecessarily rude - perhaps it was one of those people who think that authors are better off being books than people! I am also sorry because there was a chance I might catch up with Kate Forsythe, who is a lovely person, and it would have been fun. But I am also relieved, truth be told, it makes next week a little easier - I have a LOT of prepartory work to do for the Melbourne Writers Festival. Anyway, next time...!
what no mosman!!!...were we supposed to book coz i was just turning up. words CAN express how frustrating this is, but i dont think that kind of language would be acceptable ;) i had got off work early so i could get all the way to mosman time :( oh well at least i found out before i actually got there. sorry to hear we wont get to see you :( maybe next time
Hi Amanda - two people I missed meeting! I'm very sorry - I'm not sure when I will get to Sydney, but you never know.
*sniffles* I paid. And booked.
:( and now I don't get to see you. Sad.
Hi Maille, again, I'm so sorry! I hope the library pays you back pronto.
i have a question what month was the naming (the gift) written because im doing a projec on this bool
Hi Alison. I laughed at your jokes because they were funny. And the books weren't THAT heavy. :)
Thanks for being so tolerant of my babbling and for signing all four books. I loved your talk, personally. It was a shame about the rest of the crowd.
Yours,
Ann
I'm glad you were there, Ann! And it was a pleasure to meet you.
It was a pleasure to meet you too, Alison. Hope you do another tour again sometime.
Yours,
Ann
Yes, I believe you...
OMG! Of COURSE your the author of the month! you should be like, author of the year!
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