Rhys Bowen's Blog, page 32

The Book Tour--fasion disasters.

Tomorrow I set out on a book tour--nine cities in nine days, drop in signings, events, a lunch, a dinner and little time to breathe--and no time at all to launder clothes.

I've done this before so I know what I'm in for, especially the car arriving at crack of dawn to whisk me to the airport. And I've learned from my mistakes, especially fashion mistakes. I don't mean that I've ever shown up with clashing colors or last year's leopard print, heaven forbid, but I've learned the following:

If...

Royal Blood about to be Spilled!

Tomorrow, Tuesday 7th Sept, is launch day for my new Lady Georgiana book ROYAL BLOOD.
I'm kicking off with a bloody good launch party at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA.
Anyone within reach, please come and join in the festivities.
And if you're not in the area, please check out my schedule online and see when I'm coming to your town.

I had a fabulous weekend at the Festival of Wales, a great appetizer to the main course of my book tour, as it were. And now I'm trying to pack so that I have clot...

Into the Wide Blue Yonder

Tomorrow my crazy September really gets going.
I fly to Portland, OR, for two days at the Festival of Wales. (No, it's not, as one old man thought, about the ocean creatures, but the country, stuck to one side of England, where my mother's family came from) It is the North American celebration of all things Welsh. There will be fabulous male voice choirs and Welsh foods and stories about Welsh pioneers in America--and me. They are holding a meet and greet cocktail party for me tomorrow evening...

In Search of Bull's Blood!

I feel like NASA! Only seven days to go before Royal Blood is in stores and I set off on a book tour.
First stop the launch party at my own local and wonderful bookstore, BOOK PASSAGE is Corte Madera CA. If ever there was a perfect bookstore, this is it! Every book you'd ever want, events and classes going on all the time, a delightful courtyard to sit and read plus a geat little cafe so that you can sip a latte at the same time. It's reader heaven.

I always try to put on a big party there for ...

Juggling Two Series

People often ask me how hard it is to juggle two series. Do I get get them mixed up and have Lady Georgie say what Molly would have said? The answer usually is no. When I'm writing one,I'm completely involved in that world. I'm living with Molly and Sid and Gus and crossing those busy New York streets. When I'm with Georgie, I'm into drawing rooms and afternoon tea. Most of the time I don't find it too hard, either and I actually believe that writing two such different books one after the oth...

The TwentyFirst Century Writers Life

I'm a writer--and what I want to do is sit at my desk and write books. But I'm just back from vacation and the next two months have a schedule that would make the queen of England turn pale. Because these days writing is only half of an author's life. The other half involves selling the books.
Now you might naively think that selling the books is the job of the publisher and bookseller. Unfortunately it's also become a requirement of the author. When you have time check out my schedule at http...

Home Again, Home Again..

I'm back home, sitting at my own computer. It's three in the morning and of course I can't sleep because in England it's already eleven. So I'm using the quiet to catch up with all those things that were waiting for me. Did I really promise to guest blog in so many places, to do so many interviews?
I had a magical weekend with old college friends, staying in a dorm at our old college. It was sad to see it in a way--the college itself is no more, victim of budget cuts within the university. I ...

Recharging the Well

I'm heading to London today for a really BIG event: a reunion with 25 college sisters, some of whom I haven't seen for over 40 years. We are celebrating the arrival of the day we met, long ago in the sixties. We have arraged to stay in our old college dorms, we're eating one night in a local chinese restaurant (because going out for chinese food was about the only thing we could afford those days\) and we have a caterer coming in for the big meal on Saturday night. I'm currently staying with ...

Thoughts on Bathrooms

Im' back in UK now after two weeks in France and one deep thought has been going through my head all the time: how come Europeans just don't GET bathrooms?

I could understand if I stayed at a five centuries old inn that the plumbing might be a little eccentric. But new hotels are apparently built with baths and showers that take an engineering genius to turn on. And they provide tubs with a shower attachment but with no curtain. How are you supposed to wash your back and your hair without spra...

Summing up France

I'll be leaving France in two days and some observations on the French have been jotted down along the way:
1.They love to make rules and then totally ignore them. There are signs saying "It is absolutely forbidden to park here," and everyone does. We watched a car calmly pull into the "bus only" bay.
Near our hotel there is a walkway that has the sign, "Forbidden to pedestrians." So we walked around for a few days before we found that everyone else cuts through there.
However--on the buses and ...