Book launch report by popular request

Four people have asked why I didn’t blog my European book launch.

The evening was wonderful with old and new friends and a few strangers too.
The location was my hairdresser, maybe a strange place for a book launch, but the two brothers that own the salon, use it as a gallery and a place to support the arts or maybe vice versa.

The night was horrible, rainy, cold, damp – thank goodness Swiss buildings are well heated. I did say before I read selections from THE CARD that I wasn’t sure I would have gone out on a night like that.

Some people are shy about reading. I take great pleasure in it, especially when people respond as I hope they will. It takes so long to produce a book, and even when I am in the middle of writing it, I am never sure it will find a reading public. So when people laugh where they should, or cock their heads at just the right moment, there’s a feeling of “I nailed it.” Of course, there’s always the fear that blank faces will look back at you, but this did not happen.

The question and answer period after also touched me. One of the women in the audience remembered me reading one of the same selections in Zurich over ten years ago. At that stage, the book was still a seedling.

Christmas music played to create the mood. The son of my housemate played bar tender and made a new friend, a plus for helping me out.

My last book launch for CHICKPEA LOVER had been at the now defunct book store Elm (hopefully there was no connection to their going out of business and my reading). That night was as hot as this was cold. But that reading had something special: my daughter and neighbour were there. For this reading they were in two different countries, and I did miss their faces in the audience. However, I carried their warmth with me.