Monday! flying, interviews, Christine

God! I have so much to write about I don’t hardly know where to begin! *runs around frantically!* :) I’ll just put these behind cut tags, because they’re loooong and there are three of them now and more to come later. :)

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So the Monday interview with Jack Frost went very well, I thought. Dad and I had brought him a copy of the book and a press release and things the Thursday previous, and he’d read at least the first five or six chapters by the interview, ’cause he had specific questions that he couldn’t have asked without reading the book. :) Among other things, when I gave my spiel on what the book was about–“A Seattle cop with no use for the mystical is given a choice between death or life as a shaman; when she takes life, she finds herself involved in a murder mystery and up against a couple of old Irish gods”–he protested with, “Well, she’s actually *dying* when she’s given that choice, isn’t she?”

I said, “I didn’t say it was a *good* choice!”, which made him laugh. :) And it turned out he’s part Cherokee himself, and so took issue with Coyote, who is not a part of the Cherokee mythos, but I promised all would be revealed in later books, so that got us off on being able to discuss that it was the first in a series, and that was good. I can’t remember if I plugged the website and the first chapter being online or not.

Part of the press release thing that Dad did talks about how although it’s a fantasy novel, it’s likely to appeal to readers of such mystery novels as those by Tony Hillerman or Margaret Coel, and Jack said Hillerman happened to be one of his favorite novelists, so where was I coming from on that being something Hillerman fans would like. I said that those books, being about Native American characters, often had mystical elements that really affected how the story went, and so if that appealed to the reader, then almost certainly so would URBAN SHAMAN. So it all went very well.

I met up with Christine Saunders, my PR person, after the interview (she was a little taken aback by my costuming; Tuesday, when I reappeared for dinner wearing jeans and tennies instead of a skirt and heels she said, “Now that’s more like what I was expecting!”), and we went to dinner at a very fine restaurant just down the street, and got on like a house on fire. Turned out we’re both entertainment rag geeks, so we had a good ol’ time talking about Angelina and Brad, and we talked about writing and PR and our respective careers and it really was a great time. She (like everyone) said that it was her job to make sure I was happy, and I was like, “Jeez, and here I’m figuring it’s my job to make sure you like me!” So it went well. *laugh*

I staggered back to the VERY NICE hotel room and was in one of the most comfy beds I’ve ever slept in before ten, but I didn’t sleep all that well, due to being afraid of oversleeping. Not so much with the nerves, though–I was nervous with the mock interview that I did with Jenn Novak a couple-three weeks ago, but I wasn’t nervous at all calling a zillion radio stations to talk to total strangers about my book. So that was good.

I was at the Alexis Hotel in downtown Seattle, which, when I told my parents where I was staying, caused my Dad to say, “Whooo-hoo-hoo-hoo!”, ’cause it turns out that’s the nicest hotel in Seattle. And damned if it isn’t a very, very nice hotel. The room was about the size of my downstairs minus the kitchen area (like 400 square feet), which was PERFECT, because I pace when I’m on the phone (an old Malone tradition), so I was pacing back and forth and back and forth while doing my interviews, and I had plenty of room to do it in. V. nice. And the comforter and pillows, omg. Down duvet, down pillows. You can actually buy them online and I’m seriously coveting them. :)

Anyway, crashed out and I’ll continue with…