Well, it didn’t kill me, and, considering how I felt when I reached Europe and still had nine hours to go, the tour not killing me is something for which I’m very grateful.
I’d like to thank the dozens of people who joined in with me as I rocketed around the world gibbering inanities, and the dozens of new Twitter followers I picked up along the way – some from as far away as the USA (and some from places closer to home, like Russia and India.) I picked up some very odd bots too – like the one from Syria that was retweeting me – but we won’t dwell on that. I was very glad of the company and enjoyed myself immensely. Some people (like my friend Em) went out of their way to offer me succour on my long march. Some (like Merrilee and George and Joanna and Jan and Valerie and lots of others) shouted out welcomes as I passed through their neck of the woods. It was all very much appreciated.
I was expecting it be a fairly humdrum affair, with me blethering about the book and people politely ignoring me (and some not-so-poiltely telling me to shut up already.) It was exactly the opposite. It was exciting and intense (for me!) and I often had several conversations going at once. People actually said they enjoyed “following” the tour around the world (bless you all!) But I have to say, virtual though it was, I really felt at times that I was on the frozen Siberian wastes, or back in California, or watching scenes from TimeSplash in the back-streets of Berlin. I’ve travelled about a bit – in real life as well as in my fiction – and it was great to go back to some of those places.
Many people retweeted my posts and the wonderful Andy Shackcloth kept up a constant sream of tweets about the tour and the book. Best of all (I mean, given the reason I did all that) was that people actually bought the book and even read some of it during the tour, telling me about it in real time. One person bought and read the whole book, and blogged about it before the tour was over! Aren’t people great?
But the 24-hour non-stop round-the-world Twitter tour was just a sideshow to the main event: The TimeSplash 2010 Blog Tour. Some great things have already happened there – including Andy Shackcloth’s thoughtful review and Luz Zakari’s impromptu interview. But check the schedule and stand by for lots of fun over the next couple of months.
Congratulations, Graham! As you know, I had reservations, but I’m happy to report that it turned out to be fun from the watching side, too. So pleased for your sales and three lovely reviews so far.
I hope the blog tour goes as well!
Hooray! I enjoyed it immensely, whether it was the little factoids about the places you were ‘visiting’ or little anecdotes about a previous visit there, or just tweets about how you were feeling, all added up to a highly enjoyable day.
It’s a great idea. Can I steal it? ;o)
I think it reflects hugely on you, Graham, why people have re-tweeted your tweets (by the way, I simply HATE the word, tweet!), nevertheless, it’s served a huge service to you, of which I’m delighted
I just loved the whole idea of the 24hr world tour, thought the concept for a start of tour was/is brilliant!
I’m with em, I’m going to steal it and there’s nothing you can do about it. Muh-ha-ha!
Just one peeve, there seems to be loads of comments about this andy shack… chap, thought this was THE GRAHAM STORRS tour. How about we hear more about him, you know the talented one, and give the other upstart a rest.
And as George Angus said “I wanna be a Brick.”
Till the next stop (TTNS)
The upstart
@Merrilee – Thanks! You weren’t the only one with reservations. I stopped trying to explain it to people beforehand because they kept telling me I was mad. Of course, they were right – but in a good way, yes?
@Emma – The factoids and anecdotes weren’t planned. It was weird but, during the tour, the places I remembered came back very strongly. And yes, of course you can steal it. This is the Internet after all
Mi idea es su idea, as they say.
@Wendy – Thank you! I agree about ‘tweet’ but what can you do? I hate the word ‘google’ too but will they change their name? No. So selfish.
@Upstart – Yeah! How come you get so many mentions? It’s not like you’re the world expert on blog tours or anything. No. Wait a minute. You are the world expert on blog tours!
TTNS
Graham,
Welcome home!
I tried to read a segment of the book from the link on your web page, but got NOWHERE. I think there is a tech error.
But, I just bought the ebook, so I can read any segment I want…
Great story-thanks for writingit!
Dwddly
Donna, thank you so much!
And it’s definitely good to be back
I’m sorry about the technical hitch on the site. I’ll poke around in the innards today and see if I can find what’s wrong. I’m very glad you didn’t give up in disgust!
Donna, I found and fixed the problem. Thanks for letting me know about it. I had made a typo in the code.