all those outlet shops at Gunwharf Quays, famous old ships and seaside promenades:

But there was more than that for me yesterday.  There was a large and busy Waterstones, full of lovely, helpful staff who were waiting for me with a table and chair right by the front door.  They placed my Tangled Roots poster in the window and let me get on with it.  The next few hours went quickly as I talked to some of the nicest and funniest bookshop browsers I’ve met so far.  There was the jazz singer who decided to buy a copy even before I finished giving him my sales pitch.  There was the older gentleman who asked me to tell him all about the book, but prefaced the request by saying, “Oh, I should mention I’m not going to buy it – I never buy fiction.     I’m just curious about what you’ll say.”  And there was the computer engineer from China who wasn’t very interested in the book either, but wanted to talk about the American election and poetry.  But I have to admit, my absolute favourite person there of all that entire day was the generous, fascinating, warm, wonderful, and soon-to-be bluechrome-published author, DJ Kirkby.  You really do get to feel like you know people through all this blogging, and Denyse is someone I have felt was my friend for a while now.  But finally, yesterday we met.  Not only did we get to have a good long talk face to face, but while she was chatting with me, her infectious good humour relaxed me, made me stand up and giggle and then drew others over to my little table of books.  Thanks Deej!  And so the result?  As always, 3 sold (what is that all about?), 12 signed copies left, and an order for 8 more being placed by the shop to the distributor.  Victory declared!

And then today?  Well, there is nothing quite so fun as spending an hour talking about yourself, I always say, and the good folk at ExpressFM 93.7 made it the most fun ever.  The radio presenter, Rob Richardson, a writer himself, put me at my ease and deftly steered me through a conversation which covered everything from Tangled Roots (I even got to read a few snippets), bluechrome and it’s intrepid editor-in-chief, Anthony Delgrado, CurvingRoad and our new play SH*T-M*X (whose title I was not allowed to say on the radio!), my poetry and more that I can’t even remember.  And all of that was interspersed with some great jazz tracks.  The interview will be aired on Tuesday night, 23 September, between 7 and 8 pm UK time.  But they will also be sending me a link that can be downloaded, for those of you interested in listening but not able to be glued to your radio just then.  I’ll pass it on when I get it.  

So I think my book tour might be over for now. How sad 🙁   Nothing new is planned, but you know me…I’m always happy to take to the open road and meet the great British reading public! Let me know if you have any ideas about where I can go to next.