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Mid trip surfacing
Apr. 18th, 2005 09:03 pmSara and I got home from Bologna yesterday and leave for Barcelona bright and early tomorrow am.
Today I've been in a bit of a slump, not unsurprisingly.
The Bologna Book Fair was strange this year. Very low energy, low attendance from both exhibitors and visitors, crisis everywhere, editors grumpier than usual, etc. We wound up both giving out fewer of our catalogues this year, but also picking up fewer catalogues than in past years. And of the editors we spoke with, no one was very enthusiastic about anything they'd found at the fair. It was all a lot of the same old same old, most people thought (and we agreed). Although I was sort of in a fog for the latter half of the fair, so that might've colored things. Who knows what, if anything, will happen in the end, but given the odds of 10 or so meetings a day for a few days in a row I'm hopefully that at least some projects will result.
During the fair I did have an email from a Colombian publisher who was not exhibiting, wanting to buy a story I'd sent them last year, which is nice, and they reached me in time to not offer the text to other Spanish-language publishers during the fair. (I'm going to need to get fingerprinted at the Colombian Consulate again to sign the contract... but at least now I know what to do!)
What else? (Did I mention that I'm still in a fog?)
Turns out there is a typo in my own email on the catalogue of Sara and my books that we printed. Oops. Hate that.
This link (in Spanish) is a review of CECILIA Y EL DRAGÓN on a major Spanish internet portal (like msn.com) which compares me to H.C. Andersen and also says that Sara and I together form an "almost-perfect tandem."
Bologna is, as always, very yummy food all the time.
And the woman who runs the bed & breakfast where we stay, even though it's maybe 40 minutes on the bus away from the fairgrounds, is so incredibly sweet. She made us a fresh walnut focaccia for the plane ride home to Madrid, for example (not to mention at various points during our stay) and also invited us to dinner twice with a mutual friend of Sara's from Torino, who was down visiting. (That's who we know about the B&B from.)
Now, off to BCN for class visits at the Liceo Francés and a booksigning (tomorrow), then a radio interview on Wed morning, various editorial meetings Wed-Friday, and then signing on Sant Jordi on the Paseo de Gracia and the Rambla Catalunya.
Must go finish packing again.
I am looking forward to seeing some friends in Barcelona and all, but will be glad to come home on Sunday and collapse!
Today I've been in a bit of a slump, not unsurprisingly.
The Bologna Book Fair was strange this year. Very low energy, low attendance from both exhibitors and visitors, crisis everywhere, editors grumpier than usual, etc. We wound up both giving out fewer of our catalogues this year, but also picking up fewer catalogues than in past years. And of the editors we spoke with, no one was very enthusiastic about anything they'd found at the fair. It was all a lot of the same old same old, most people thought (and we agreed). Although I was sort of in a fog for the latter half of the fair, so that might've colored things. Who knows what, if anything, will happen in the end, but given the odds of 10 or so meetings a day for a few days in a row I'm hopefully that at least some projects will result.
During the fair I did have an email from a Colombian publisher who was not exhibiting, wanting to buy a story I'd sent them last year, which is nice, and they reached me in time to not offer the text to other Spanish-language publishers during the fair. (I'm going to need to get fingerprinted at the Colombian Consulate again to sign the contract... but at least now I know what to do!)
What else? (Did I mention that I'm still in a fog?)
Turns out there is a typo in my own email on the catalogue of Sara and my books that we printed. Oops. Hate that.
This link (in Spanish) is a review of CECILIA Y EL DRAGÓN on a major Spanish internet portal (like msn.com) which compares me to H.C. Andersen and also says that Sara and I together form an "almost-perfect tandem."
Bologna is, as always, very yummy food all the time.
And the woman who runs the bed & breakfast where we stay, even though it's maybe 40 minutes on the bus away from the fairgrounds, is so incredibly sweet. She made us a fresh walnut focaccia for the plane ride home to Madrid, for example (not to mention at various points during our stay) and also invited us to dinner twice with a mutual friend of Sara's from Torino, who was down visiting. (That's who we know about the B&B from.)
Now, off to BCN for class visits at the Liceo Francés and a booksigning (tomorrow), then a radio interview on Wed morning, various editorial meetings Wed-Friday, and then signing on Sant Jordi on the Paseo de Gracia and the Rambla Catalunya.
Must go finish packing again.
I am looking forward to seeing some friends in Barcelona and all, but will be glad to come home on Sunday and collapse!
