April 12, 2005
Busy, busy day. I had to drive down into Detroit and give a talk for the U.S. Attorney's Office in celebration of Library Week. This was, I would guess, a pretty spectacular success. It was their "brown bag" lunch and about 30 to 40 people showed up. I ran my mouth for about 50 minutes, including reading from Dirty Deeds. A big chunk of it was just responding to questions. They seemed to like it. I managed to sell five books, my last two copies of Catfish Guru--guess it's time to order a few more--and three of Dirty Deeds. Also managed to give out 20 or so stamped order forms, so hopefully some of those will turn into sales, as well.

The day started with an interview at 9:00 with a health marketing expert. Then I proofed a galley, then I changed into my writer clothes, got the dog settled and headed down to the big city. Just got back around 3:00 and am busy trying to respond to my voicemail. Of course the people I wanted to talk to and set up interviews with called while I was gone. Naturally.

The Q&A was all over the board. People wanted to know about agents (of course), about the publishing industry, how much money I made writing freelance (not much, but enough), and we careened all over the place talking about the difference between mysteries and thrillers, talked about a few mystery authors--Tony Hillerman, Nevada Barr, and I blithely pitched a couple writer friends like Jeff Cohen. Overall a very positive experience, which I must say is not always the case when it comes to promotion.

I've decided which novel to work on next--working title Falling Angels--and I'm going to go hip-deep into research. Already started by deciding on the location, a 5-star resort in Colorado Springs. Starting to get excited about the possibilities, which is always a good thing.

Ah well. Time to hunt down a Tylenol, do some bookkeeping and wait for people to call me back.

Best,
Mark Terry