People who haven't published books think of an author tour as a glamorous adventure with limos and lackeys and elegant hotel rooms.
Earth calling.
Even best-selling authors sometimes find touring exhausting and frustrating. Publicists who have never been east of New Jersey think it's possible to sign books from Santa Barbara to San Diego in the same day. Often, authors spend their own money and drive from store to store, staying with friends. It's more Kerouac than Audrey Hepburn.
That being said, I'm on the road right now. I went to Bouchercon two weeks ago and am now speaking at the Surrey International Writers' Conference in Surrey, BC. I like going other places and meeting new writers and fans. I like going places I wouldn't have visited on my own. Tonight, I went down to the lobby and there was a meeting of Mounties. All those wonderful uniforms AND a bagpiper. My camera's battery went dead. Sorry. So, I'm including a photo of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, a place I wouldn't have visited if I hadn't been on the road promoting my books. Traveling from town to town is as tiring for an author as for a vacuum cleaner salesman, but in the end, it's worth it.
Sounds like you are having a great time, Sharan! More tales from the road to share... :-)
Posted by: Ann | October 21, 2012 at 03:23 PM
Oh, a bagpiper! Love them but that may be in my DNA as much as having grown up near Surrey BC. One odd bit: I came to love aspects of jazz I did not understand before by seeing a relationship between Coltrane and bagpipe music. OK, so I'm a bit odd but, as the commercial goes, it is only weird if it doesn't work...
Posted by: Priscilla | October 22, 2012 at 06:23 AM