Exciting few days

It's been a really exciting few days for SSJAS. On Tuesday I had an email from Susan at Pengwern Books, saying she had almost sold out and desperately needed more copies. So I drove round to her place after work with a fresh batch. Meanwhile, there were some hilarious tweets flying back and forth between fern dell bed and breakfast and frantic twitter Shroppiemon, pleading with Susan to reserve them a copy, and threatening to wrestle each other for the last book.
Then, on Saturday, an innocent little tweet from me to Ashley's Bar in town, saying they are mentioned in SSJAS resulted in an invitation to pop in later in the day. I took them a comp copy for them to keep behind the bar as a talking point, plus a pile of SSJAS business cards. And Ashley arranged for the two of us to have our photograph taken there and then for Ashley's Facebook page and for them to tweet to publicise the link between the bar and the book.
All good fun.
That same Saturday, a quick trip to the market hall resulted in signing a copy for one of Susan's customers and the news that Susan was again running short of copies!
Great to see my book on prominent display as well.
Must get some more copies in.

Outside the station... appropriately enough

Very enjoyable day yesterday as I met up with Susan Caroline from Pengwern Books for a promotional photograph - appropriately enough - outside the railway station.
My good friend Paul Richmond turned up with his niece and a bunch of photographic equipment to capture the moment. Many thanks to all concerned!

Copies ordered for Pengwern Books

Just ordered a batch of 20 books for Pengwern Books in anticipation of a proper launch soon and some serious promotion. There simply hasn't been a good moment so far to shout about this from the rooftops, but that moment is approaching.

Early feedback. Establishing contact with Pengwern Books

A good 24 hours for SSJAS.

Last night got some early feedback. Mansel's wife, Clare, is currently reading it. Mansel told me she is enjoying it, she likes my style, and she thinks I'm on to something.
Interesting.
I look forward to more detailed feedback from Clare when she's finished it.

Today I made contact with Susan Caroline, owner of the book shop, Pengwern Books. It was great to chat with her after not having seen her for quite a while.
She sold some copies of Here Comes The Sun for me back in 2005.
I went to meet her at her shop in Shrewsbury Market and we had a long and fruitful chat.
She likes the book and has agreed to stock it.
I love the idea of working with local independent bookshops.
We also talked about doing some promotion which will help both my book and her business.
Great stuff.

First moves

By June 1, 2013, 'Shrewsbury Station Just After Six' was pretty much good to go with all the formatting complete and the cover, thanks to Dave and Laura's efforts, now in place.
I was making final preparations to push the button.
Then there were a few delays. Well of course. There are always a few delays.
The trim size for the cover had to be amended so this would have to be looked at by our Dave.
In the meantime, a whole host of other commitments got in our way.
A full-time job for starters. A holiday of sorts in Hull. Me being the judge in a scarecrow competition. Going to see the mighty Bruce Springsteen at the Ricoh Arena. The Shrewsbury Food Festival. You know how it is.
Anyway. Somewhere along the way the project was completed.
I received the first copies on July 3.
Very happy. It looks really good.

I'm guessing we're still a couple of weeks or so away from publication (and the book remains a big secret within the family for the moment), but I have to say a massive thank you to Laura for producing the cover painting, and a massive thank you to Dave for the design. Brilliant job!

Something could change for Alastair, Penelope and Vicky on Shrewsbury Station just after six.