I’m now on my world (by which I mean London, Sweden, South Africa, and parts of Asia, all in twenty-seven days) book tour!
Today I did so much, I’m reeling from le tiredness (pardon me if I start speaking in French but you know I AM right across the Channel from there). First I got up at an ungodly hour (because you know writers make their own hours and mine are not European) and had a real English breakfast:
Then I was off to a stock signing in Eastbourne. In case you don’t know, a stock signing is when they send you to a warehouse or book outlet and have you sit and sign thousands of copies of your book for them to then send on to shops to be sold as “autographed copies.” Literally, you sit there and sign for hours (or, if you’re like me and you espouse the “crack and stack” theory of signing and are extremely competitive and ask to be timed, you sit and sign them in one hour. More in a later blog on crack and stack).
Action shot of Meg, Cracking and Stacking. Notice all the books on the floor in the background still to be cracked and stacked. Yes, I have to sign all those, too!
Here’s a shot of a lot of Princess Diaries books, all signed and ready to be sorted into stacks of 9 (PD 1-9) and sold as autographed sets in independent shops serviced by the book outlet I visited.
London is, as always, beautiful! I haven’t seen much of it because I just got here yesterday, but in that time I’ve already seen Buckingham Palace (well, I’ve been driven by it). My driver, Richard, has been on the inside (well, where the drivers wait while guests to the palace are being feted) and he says the bathroom there that the drivers are allowed to use is nice:
I also went by Big Ben and Parliament:
Here’s a groovy Dyson hand dryer I got to use in the ladies’ loo. I’ve heard about them but never seen one before. They really work (shut up, it was a very exciting moment to me):
And I saw a pink limo!
I think that’s a BIT conspicuous.
After my stock signing, I hurried back to the hotel, where I had a phone interview, then changed clothes and dashed over to the Ritz for tea with Kayley, winner of Go Girl magazine contest, and her friend Olivia:
Are they the cutest or WHAT?
We had a blast and didn’t spill anything and only got yelled at once for taking photos at the table.
I’m trying to assimilate the culture so I’ll know what people around here are talking about. So far I’ve watched a show called “Hollyoaks” which appears to be a television drama about people who spend a lot of time in bed with their clothes of receiving cell phone calls which make them widen their eyes when they see who the caller is, and “Mortified,” about a young girl just starting high school who is told by a teacher she smells bad. Both are excellent!
Tomorrow I’ve got to get up even EARLIER than today and go to the Dover Girls’ Grammar School and have a signing to christen their new library. Then I’m having afternoon tea with the winner of the Mizz magazine contest at the Lanesborough Hotel, and finally an invitation-only party with the Meg Cabot Ambassadors at an exclusive location. Honestly, I’m going to go to bed now just to be ready for it all. I don’t know how Princess Mia does it.
Hopefully, I’ll see all of you at Waterstone’s Piccadilly here in London at 11AM on Saturday! Click HERE for more information.
To keep you entertained in the meantime, enjoy this super romantic video, which was sent to me with the subject line, Every Teenaged Girl’s Fantasy—And Yours Too, Don’t Deny It by my friend Beth:
More later.
Much love,
Meg
