Wednesday

Diary of a book promotion tour part 1

So, here I am in the Days Inn Motel, Barstow, California ... the epitome of hopefulness. You see, we (my husband, Lion, and I) are on our way to Las Vegas to promote my new novel The Miracle Man. A targeted mail-out from my publisher's US publicity company, Ascot Media, will be hitting Las Vegas media tomorrow. And so am I.

I have two gigs booked in Vegas, at Unity Center in the Valley this coming weekend (looking forward to those very much). The hope is all on the publicity. I shall present every local radio and TV station with a copy of the book and show up looking like a very interesting interviewee. I am doing this totally on spec. I am putting myself where my heart is. I love this book and I am willing to travel across the globe to give it the chance it deserves in the world.

Will it work? Yes of course it will. After all, as Woody Allen said '90% of life is about showing up.' Am I scared? Sure. But feeling scared and feeling excited are twin sisters so sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. And I do understand that it may not work in exactly the way I hope that it will. But on an energetic level - yes, and I say yes, and yes and yes!

Why Las Vegas? Because The Miracle Man is based there. It's the story of a modern day Messiah who comes to Vegas and heals the city of all its reasons for being known as 'Sin City.' And he does it on live network TV because he's a judge on a TV talent show just like America's Got Talent.

So, this will be my blog of just how I get on in Las Vegas. One thing's for sure, I hope they have some vegetables there. Or a juice bar or two. I'm not a vegetarian but after three days traveling in California my whole body is yelling for produce. San Francisco, where we landed, was fine. Fantastic in fact. Cafe Gratitude is stunning and the food yummy (even though I'm not a raw food fan in general). But rural California? That's a different story.

Here in Barstow - and in our previous overnighter, Cayucos — there wasn't a restaurant in town that knew what a vegetable was. Salad, yes — but there's only so much lettuce a girl can eat (their standard of salad just here is pretty British as in 'throw a tomato and some dressing at it and it's a salad). And I can't get anywhere close to my five-a-day on orange juice and lettuce. It would be better if I liked Mexican food because I guess the beans count.

It's not just me. Beloved Lion who is the carnivore of carnivores, a petrol-head currently wearing a Cream teeshirt from the reunion concert at the Albert Hall, London, in 2005, is also pining for the green stuff. In fact it was his suggestion, after we had trawled the town, to buy salads from the produce section in the local supermarket and take them back to the motel for supper.

So we picked up the green stuff and took it to the check-out ... where the assistant said: "I'm sorry Ma'am, the produce section is for display purposes only." (just kidding but it really is that crazy here).

Tomorrow, we arrive in Las Vegas. I'll see you there...

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Time For Some Not Fake Food.