Christmas is coming...

Christmas is a little early this year...

Bookshops

Fahasa, the state-owned bookshop chain here in Vietnam, has agreed in principal to stock 50 copies of my book for a 3 month period on a sale or return basis.

Whilst I'd prefer them to buy outright, I mustn't grumble. It's a definite move in the right direction.

Sales

I have actually sold 34 copies of my book! I'm fairly impressed. Surely my mum can't have bought that many?

Not yet retirement potential, but one lives in hope...

Hurrah

My books have arrived in Vietnam. All is well with the world. It took a month, so I hope that some local customs official at least enjoyed the read. All set now to set up signings and dedications and then like. And I have a copy to donate to my school library...

Where is 'Is'?

'Is' has materialised as a very real physical book. But not here in Vietnam, back in the UK. So I still have yet to hold one and for it to seem real. We have been putting off a celebration of my heady voyage into authorship, waiting for the opening of the first book. I have actually sold and dispatched copies in the UK, in France and in Holland; it's very weird and even more frustrating.

It is now also an e-book, which I sell from my website as well as its being listed on a number of e-book sites. I listed it myself on eBay, which was a total washout. I'm considering the eBay route for the actual book, maybe along with some second-hand books to drum up interest and pick up on key word searches. At times, though, I do find myself asking, "Can I be bothered?" Frankly, I'd rather be writing...

www.scottlangston.org

George on vegetarianism...

We pray on Sundays that we may have light

To guide our footsteps on the path we tread

We are sick of war, we don’t want to fight

And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead.

George Bernard Shaw

I'm playing with the idea of making the central character of my next book something of a philosophical Vegetarian. Currently though, she's French..so that's not going to work. I'll weave it in somehow...

ebook

The ebook has arrived... Not sure how I feel about ebooks, but I am assured that the market is there. We'll see.

I'm not convinced that the mere fact of reading a book is equal to the experience of holding it, turning the pages, owning it...Perhaps I'm wrong and the orders will fly in?

Quote time again...

"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men."

Leonardo da Vinci, artist and scientist

Trick or treat?

Halloween. Not really something I've been bothered about especially. It's more of an American thing than a British thing, though I hearit's picking up 'back home' too. Last night we took our kids to a local restaurant, only for our daughter to be accosted by kids dressed as skeletons and scary old men. And she's three.

Nightmares all night. Thanks.

Lack of sleep makes me grumpy.