Borders book signing

I don’t know why writers put ourselves through this humiliating process. I am to sit at a table near the open door of the Cheshire Oaks Borders book shop tomorrow to sign Exit, Pursued by a Bee. Wrap up well, is the advice from the events manager, wise words for the soul as well as skin. There are enough books for 20 or so people but more than that and I’ll be signing IOUs. In the unlikely event of running out the shop has copies of my humorous thriller, Escaping Reality, so there’ll be no excuse for anyone to go home without one of my books! Hah, who am I kidding? Anyway, I know some folk who said they’ll definitely come along to support me so I won’t be lonely all day. One of them is Brian Lux, retired dentist who now lives in Llandudno. He has to be there because he is signing his own book, Court of Foxes. It is a children’s / teen book and expects to sell shelf-fulls. Perhaps I ought to cut out the sex and add more violence so I can call my books childrens.

Chester Writers reading & signing at Borders Nov 16

We are going to have to do something with the Bear & Billet public house in Chester.  It’s a fine black and white tudor-style building, five floors, re-built 300 years ago. Our meetings of the Chester Writers is every third thursday of the month on the third floor. Of course there are mullioned windows, beamed ceilings and an air of historical provenance. What could be more inspiring to discusss our poetry and prose? A problem brought our Chester Literary Festival event there to several halts last night.  Other literary events took place in the capacious Town Hall, university lecture theatres, theatres, hotels and the cathedral. We, like Chester poets, were in a room smaller than most classrooms, in an active public house and a very loud party going on the floor beneath! Arrrggh. We had a sound system with two microphones but even that couldn’t overcome the raucous guffaws from below. Then last night were three literary events competing. If I wasn’t reading an excerpt of Exit, Pursued by a Bee, and supporting fellow local writers, I would ran across town to the university to hear Professor Alan Wall’s lecture Creative and Destructive Writing. I dunno why because I could have made a stab at giving that lecture myself!

Bear and Billet pub in Chester, UK

In spite of the competition our little room filled to bursting even though much of the readings became inaudible. I was second to last, but only George had slunk off home by then. I had a dilemma on whether to read a literary 5-minute moment such as when journalist Tabitha Wish fought her hissing saucepans and dependent family in order to grab a coup scoop on the spheres, or my favourite scene. One of the advantages of writing science fiction is that we can play with time warp concepts such as making a modern youth appear in front of a man and his dog, Kur, 20, 000 years ago. So I read the latter and made sure my words boomed over the party noises. In fact I think the party stopped to listen.  Hah, as if. Several of the group came up to me and said how much they enjoyed my five minutes.

You can read the actual words I used in the five minute reading here

The problem was, I’d forgotten to mention my book signing coming up!  In case I’ve not mentioned it I am signing Exit, Pursued by a Bee at

Cheshire Oaks, Borders, on Sunday Novermber 16th 1-4pm.

At least I won’t be on my own.

My friend Brian Lux is also having a signing there with his new book the Court of Foxes. Written as a children’s book, following his successful Loppylugs, this new book is proving popular among adults. See it here.

I have a feeling with the significantly lower price for Brian’s book compared to mine, and it has already won a prize, he will be chased by a pack of buyers compared to me. Nevertheless, I should try to attract Christmas shoppers hoping to please their science fiction loving friends and family. If you live anywhere near

Borders location
34 Coliseum Way, Cheshire Oaks, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
CH65 9HD

If you or your friends and family live near by please ask them to drop buy on Sunday afternoon, November 16th.

 

 

So much going on

October 11-12 Northampton Fishmarket, at NewCon4 I’m selling & signing Exit, Pursued by a Bee, and Screaming Dream books with Ally Bird (Running Bulls for Girls) , and sharing a table with author Toby Frost( Chronicles of Isambard Smith). I’m also meeting up with the gorgeous Sam Stone to acquire her Killing Kiss book for review.

October 23rd Bear & Billet pub, Lower Bridge Street, Chester. As part of the Chester Literary Festival and subsection, Chester Writers, I’ve been allocated 5 minutes to read an exciting bit of Exit, Pursued by a Bee.

November 16th, Sunday, 1-4pm at Cheshire Oaks Borders, I am doing a signing of Exit. Please tell everyone so I am not a Billy no mates there! I know I can’t match the enormous queue generated by Abi Titmus when she signed there last, but it would help pass the time if someone came to talk to me.

Borders

I took two copies of my thriller, Escaping Reality, and two of the Escape Velocity (pure coincidental similarities in the titles even though maybe Jungian?) to my local Borders – a huge bookshop chain –  a few weeks ago. The store buyer wasn’t available so I had to leave contact details and a note. Today I popped in and finally met the buyer in person. She was friendly, sympathetic and helpful. She couldn’t take the EV magazines cos HQ is rationalizing to reduce the number of independents magazine publishers they have to deal with. But she gave me the name of a wholesaler they deal with who specializes in independent mag publishers!  If you want a copy of Escape Velocity then please visit http://www.escapevelocitymagazine.com the ebook costs less than a bus fare to anywhere, and the paper version is less than a hairbrush yet more satisfying  

She did take Escaping Reality. 10 copies on sale or return. I don’t know if they will sell them at the RRP of £7.99 or less. So that’s big news. They are the largest shop to take my book.
So if you are shopping in Cheshire Oaks, Ellesmere Port then pop into Borders and buy Escaping Reality!

If my editor at DDP is reading this, I’ve revised up to 2/3 of Exit, Pursued by a Bee. It is amazing that no matter how often we re re re revise a novel, we always find another phrase to improve – often by cutting it out.

 We tried out a satnav device today. We often get a bit lost finding a hospital in Liverpool. It is on Crown Street. So I punched in the address into the GPS device and we set off. I know the post code might have been better but it responded with a different street name. We were impressed with the way the nice woman’s voice directed us out of Chester – warned us that our opted route included a toll tunnel, then she shut up in the actual tunnel. Sadly, I didn’t know there are two Crown Streets in Liverpool and it chose to take us to the wrong one! So after annoying a Liverpool bus trying to squash us, I punched another road I knew of and the first instruction was: “Do a U turn.” Arrgggh – we were on a four-lane road in Liverpool where only taxis and bankrobbers do U turns! It did finally take us to the right place but you just know that the woman inside the box was being sarcastic and demeaning when she said: “You are at your destination. Everyone applaud.”