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Roller Coaster
Apr. 10th, 2005 11:43 pmHi, it's me again. Haven't been feeling very post-y lately.
First, thanks everyone for the well-wishes on the White Ravens 2005. It's still amazing.
Lately, things've been so up and down I'm starting to feel dizzy. I hate when my life is in such fluxus that I can't enjoy the good thing for any chunk of time because something else happened.
But as a friend pointed out, at least it's up and down now, instead of just a lot of down (like the 5 books cancelled so far this year).
Almost all of the places we were supposed to sign at on Sant Jordi in Barcelona have cancelled on us, from reasons ranging to "you're not famous enough" to the fact that one of the bookstore owners seems to have gone to Haiti since we talked to her a week ago, and won't be back for a few months.
Sigh.
The presentation for LA AVENTURA DE CECILA Y EL DRAGÓN yesterday went well, and we sold lots of copies of that, plus some of our earlier titles. (Well, except for MISTERIO EN EL JARDÍN, which is out of print, something we need to have a talk about with our editor who we'll be meeting with in Bologna next week, and who hasn't been answering anything for the past many months.) The editor was suddenly sick, and didn't even call to tell us he wasn't coming, but after he didn't show up, Sara and I improvised a bit of self-presentation, and that seemed to go just fine.
We normally do our presentations mid-week, and at a later time, so many friends and colleagues couldn't make it.
On the other hand, we had many more kids show up. We had a storytelling from the book beforehand, and then had the kids draw a dragon together on a sheet of large paper that Sara had brought with her...
Of course, that night I got home and found all of this writing of mine in electronic format when said rights had never been authorized.
But I contacted the editor and it has since been resolved. It was posted by a third party, which the print magazine in question had not authorized for electronic rights, just microfilm. At any rate, it is already in the process of being removed, and should be fully removed (not just mine but everyone else's writing who got posted without permission in this fashion) by the middle of this week.
But still, it was quite a downer after a successful bookstore event and celebration of the publication of a new book.
In general, that's how my life's been feeling lately: constant flux.
So I'm already exhausted, and tomorrow Sara and I fly to Bologna for the SCBWI Bologna Conference (Tuesday, just me) and then the Bologna Children's Book Fair (both of us, Wed-Sat).
Not sure if I'll have much internet access, so will definitely not be commenting next week but may try and post a ciao from Bologna.
It's gotten sudenly quite cold at least here in Madrid the past few days (in past years it has even snowed during the Bologna fair!) but the good thing is that one always eats so well in Bologna. YUM!
Also, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bgliterary pointed out, this will be the first year when Italy has a ban on smoking in effect, which even if it is only selectively enforced, should still be an improvement. (Sara has a cold right now, and I'm likely to catch one if only because you have thousands of people from all over the world carrying their germs that I don't have tolerances to cramed into a few pavillions with recycled air for a few days...)
Still haven't packed, so should probably start doing that.
First, thanks everyone for the well-wishes on the White Ravens 2005. It's still amazing.
Lately, things've been so up and down I'm starting to feel dizzy. I hate when my life is in such fluxus that I can't enjoy the good thing for any chunk of time because something else happened.
But as a friend pointed out, at least it's up and down now, instead of just a lot of down (like the 5 books cancelled so far this year).
Almost all of the places we were supposed to sign at on Sant Jordi in Barcelona have cancelled on us, from reasons ranging to "you're not famous enough" to the fact that one of the bookstore owners seems to have gone to Haiti since we talked to her a week ago, and won't be back for a few months.
Sigh.
The presentation for LA AVENTURA DE CECILA Y EL DRAGÓN yesterday went well, and we sold lots of copies of that, plus some of our earlier titles. (Well, except for MISTERIO EN EL JARDÍN, which is out of print, something we need to have a talk about with our editor who we'll be meeting with in Bologna next week, and who hasn't been answering anything for the past many months.) The editor was suddenly sick, and didn't even call to tell us he wasn't coming, but after he didn't show up, Sara and I improvised a bit of self-presentation, and that seemed to go just fine.
We normally do our presentations mid-week, and at a later time, so many friends and colleagues couldn't make it.
On the other hand, we had many more kids show up. We had a storytelling from the book beforehand, and then had the kids draw a dragon together on a sheet of large paper that Sara had brought with her...
Of course, that night I got home and found all of this writing of mine in electronic format when said rights had never been authorized.
But I contacted the editor and it has since been resolved. It was posted by a third party, which the print magazine in question had not authorized for electronic rights, just microfilm. At any rate, it is already in the process of being removed, and should be fully removed (not just mine but everyone else's writing who got posted without permission in this fashion) by the middle of this week.
But still, it was quite a downer after a successful bookstore event and celebration of the publication of a new book.
In general, that's how my life's been feeling lately: constant flux.
So I'm already exhausted, and tomorrow Sara and I fly to Bologna for the SCBWI Bologna Conference (Tuesday, just me) and then the Bologna Children's Book Fair (both of us, Wed-Sat).
Not sure if I'll have much internet access, so will definitely not be commenting next week but may try and post a ciao from Bologna.
It's gotten sudenly quite cold at least here in Madrid the past few days (in past years it has even snowed during the Bologna fair!) but the good thing is that one always eats so well in Bologna. YUM!
Also, as
bgliterary pointed out, this will be the first year when Italy has a ban on smoking in effect, which even if it is only selectively enforced, should still be an improvement. (Sara has a cold right now, and I'm likely to catch one if only because you have thousands of people from all over the world carrying their germs that I don't have tolerances to cramed into a few pavillions with recycled air for a few days...)Still haven't packed, so should probably start doing that.
