Signing my life away

Posted: Saturday, 2nd April, 2011

Friday 31st March 2011.

Spent it in a strange, middling mood that swung between excitement and wierdness.

I was in London signing first editions at HarperCollins and at Goldsboro Books off Charing cross road doing the same.

There’s something about being confronted by a table full of your book that makes you realises that it’s actually happening and not some elaborate practical joke perpetrated by deep and subtle enemies intent on ultimately pulling the rug from under you and watching your heart shatter on the floor. I’d already been greeted by the sight of a display case full of them in the reception area, which was a bit weird. I had to take a picture on my phone, natch, and wondered at the time whether I should just play it cool and pretend like I saw copies of my books lying around in the offices of major publishers all the time and walk on by. In the end coolness went out of the window as I grabbed my phone and dropped to my knee in a parody of prayer so I could get the HarperCollins sign in as well. Coolness was never really a strong suit anyway. Why start pretending now. Here’s the evidence.

Friday’s weirdness was also caused by another significant event. It was the official publish date for Sanctus in Australia and New Zealand and, just alike a major birthday, it has loomed for some time, getting bigger as it rushed towards me like a milestone carved on the side of a mountain. Also, like a major birthday, I’ve had this vague notion that I would feel different once it finally arrived.

I didn’t.

I suppose the fact that the book came out literally on the other side of the world helped make it more detached than it may have done otherwise – a particularly cruel trick I feel. I have to wait another two weeks until it comes out here. Maybe like the table full of books I had to sign it will feel more real when I can pop into Waterstones and see similar tables by the tills with my name on each cover. At least in the burble of anxiety that has underscored the whole process I now have new things to worry about over and above the writing of book two.

They get the first week’s sales figures next tuesday…

Posted in Diary.