From Waco to Mesquite and almost online

Sounds like the storms have moved on and my folks are in the clear, for the moment. They met Joleen at the B&N in Waco, then drove on to Dallas where the followed the ring road around it. Dad had a chance to visit with Linda at the B&N in Cedar Hill, Tim at the B&N in Garland, then on to couple of Borders stores, one in Plano where he chatted with Allison and then Mesquite where he met Melinda, the Merchandise Supervisor. I think the next stop is Little Rock.

My website is close. If all goes well it will debut tonight.

Day 3 of the road trip

Severe weather continues to rock the south. My parents made it as far as Waco yesterday then back tracked a bit to Temple. The day before they were in Austin where they met B&N Community Relations Manager Frank Campbell who graciously offered to take an ARC to the regional managers’ meeting. Here in NY I’m fighting a cold and wondering if American Airlines will have a plane ready for me when I leave for London on Saturday.

In other news, Tessa, my web designer, is hoping to have my website up tonight, so stay tuned. We’re going to start simple and then expand over time.

The RV-ARC road trip has begun

My parents are now on their way back to Canada from their winter digs deep in the south of Texas right on the Mexican border. Unlike their normal migration, this year they’ll be making a few detours as they stop off at bookstores along the way to hand out ARCs for A Darkness Forged in Fire which Pocket Books were kind enough to ship down to Texas before they left. My folks got as far as San Antonio yesterday and stopped in at two Barnes and Nobles. Many thanks to store manager Melissa at the B&N on the NW Loop outside of San Antonio, and to assistant store manager Marisa at the Bandera Road B&N. Oh, and a big thanks to Conrad at the 4050 N 10th St McAllen, TX B&N. Conrad, tell your wife the second book will be out next summer.

A severe weather front is moving throughout the area so my folks are going to take their time heading up to Austin. We’re still fine tuning our system, but essentially I’m acting as tower control passing along vectors to my mother who acts as navigator while dad pilots the RV to the next destination. On Saturday I’ll be passing control over to my brother in Belleville, Canada as I’ll be flying to England for the London Book Fair.

You know, I’m fortunate to have parents who love me enough to try something as odd-balled as this.

Climbing the walls

This morning I went indoor wall climbing with a friend for her birthday. She was Spiderwoman-like in her abilities, graceful and assured. I, on the other hand, was like those paintings of buffalo being stampeded by Indians over the side of a cliff. Technically, I had two near death experiences, but only near because in both cases when I lost contact with the wall I was spared from splattering on the floor so very far below by the belay line attached to my harness. In each case my friend, with my life in her hands, gently lowered me back to the floor then asked if I’d like to try again. Naturally, being male and trying to impress her, I said yes, and the thing of it was, I really did want to try it again. There’s something incredibly exhilarating about pushing your body and getting outside of your comfort zone. The best part was reaching the top of the wall then just letting go. Talk about trust. You just let go and your partner slowly belays you back to the floor.

If you haven’t tried climbing I’d highly (well, not too high to start) recommend it.

LBF to NY CC and U (decoder inside)

Next week I’ll be at the London Book Fair doing a fair impression of a chicken recently separated from its mind. I’ll be attending for my job as an editor for Stackpole Books, meeting with a lot of foreign (mostly British) publishers to make some rights deals. Essentially, I look to pick up North American, or even world rights to hard covers first printed in Europe that I can then reprint/repackage (meaning new cover, removal of the letter u from colour etc., and sometimes adding a photo insert) here for the US/Canadian market. It’ll be three days of meetings, but I will find a bit of time for other activities while I’m there. One treat will be meeting my British editor at S&S UK. Over there, the book comes out in September and will be released as a trade paperback. I don’t know, but I suspect they’ll be busy adding all the u’s to my prose which is ironic seeing as having been born and raised in Canada I grew up putting u’s in everything to start with.

The day after I return I’ll be going to my first Comic Con which conveniently is being held right here in NYC. Good thing it isn’t far because I’ll probably still be jet lagged and a bit loopy…well, more so. Pocket Books have set up a signing and give away of advance reading copies of the book so anyone interested just look for the disheveled guy dunking an imaginary scone in an imaginary cup of tea.