Ficlets

First, a picture of me holding up the German and Japanese versions of my book Old Man’s War. Are these my personal copies? Of course they’re not – they’re the property of a fan who brought them along to the reading and signing I had last night in Seattle. I don’t have my copies yet – it was all I could do not to try to distract the fellow with hand movements and then steal the books. One the other hand, I suppose it’s good to know I have fans who are motivated enough to get my books before I do. Grumble grumble.

Yesterday was my first reading/signing for the tour, at the University Book Store in Seattle, Washington. I don’t mind telling you that I was a little bit nervous about the reading ahead of time; as any writer can tell you one of the great fears about doing an appearance is that you’ll get there and you yourself will outnumber the audience (yes, this has happened to me, too). So I was mentally preparing myself for small numbers. Fortunately, my preparation was pointless; we had a full house for the reading and when it came time for the signing, the line went from the signing table to the back of the store. I felt shiny, and also relieved. In Seattle at least, my publisher got its money’s worth.

One of the things I am quickly learning about touring behind a book is that one actually has far less time to do things than one initially expects. Friends have given all sort of tourist sights to see when I’m out on tour; I have to reply to them that I just don’t have the time. Yesterday, for example, I saw some of Seattle’s wonders – it was just as I was driving by them on the way to bookstores to sign their stock of my books, or on my way to a lunch with a representative of my publisher and staff from some of Seattle’s finest bookstores.

To be sure, none of this is hard work – being driven from place to place to scraw my signature or to eat with people is not, shall we say, on the same level as dredging the Panama Canal with a shovel – but it does eat up a lot of time, as does all the time traveling to and from airports, and of course, being on planes (whether or not they’re in the air – I was stuck on a runway this morning for a good long time, waiting for the weather in our destination to improve). So what this means is very little touristy stuff for me, I’m afraid. Maybe next time.

However, so far, at least, the appearances are fun enough. If they’re all like Seattle – lots of people, neat conversation and questions, and a great space for a reading (not to mention great people – University Bookstore’s Duane Wilkins, who spearheaded the event, is one of a kind, and not just because he’s a full head and a half taller than me) – than I can’t imagine I’ll be able to complain about not getting out to see the sights.

Tonight: Off to Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. Tune in tomorrow to find out how it went.

Also, of course, if you have any questions about life on tour, feel free to ask them – I’m here to tell all! Well, maybe not all. That’s be oversharing. I’m here to share most, shall we say.