A Slip of the Keyboard by Terry Pratchett Read Free Book Online

practical table and they save the coffin for Anne Rice, who knows how to do this stuff.
    On to:
    Another Big Specialist Bookshop, Citycenta.
    Nice place, this. Been there on every tour. Despite this, loads ofpeople with lots of backlist. And a banana dakry. Oh, and a Goth. Fourecks seems to have a thriving Goth culture, if
thriving
is the right word. I think Goths are fun. It’s not a proper signing queue unless you get at least one Goth. In Worralorrasurfa they’ve got surf Goths.
    Back to the hotel where, hooray, I have a suite with extensive views of the curvature of the earth.
    Day 10
    So’s I don’t get bored on my day off, there’s a set of proofs been sent here from the U.K. Read them and make three pages of corrections. Plan is that, since hotel has got a Business Centre, I can use one of their printers and then fax the pages back.
    … except that today the person who knows how their setup works is away. Spend an engrossing hour until I find out that their printer switch box is wired back to front. Oh, and the default printer on the network is not, in fact, the one next to this machine. I find this out when someone rings down and says, “There’s some rather odd stuff coming out of the LaserJet in the manager’s office. Who is Captain Vimes, mate?”
    Day 11
    Fly to Purdeigh Island.
    Noon: Busy signing at general bookshop; foreign authors don’t often come here, so everyone’s got everything.
    And down the length of the island to:
    Evening talk/signing organized by local bookshop in the Country Comfort Hotel. What a lovely name for a hotel.
    And then a real early night because:
    Day 12
    Up at 4:30 a.m. for flight to Crowtown. Aargh! There’d been a much more sensibly timed flight, which got cancelled. This isn’t life in the fast lane, it’s life in the oncoming traffic.
    Crash out for an hour or so at hotel. Today we’re going to try four signing sessions with bits of media in between, just so no shop feels hard done by. This means starting signing at a couple of shops a few doors from one another, splitting about two hours of queue between them. Then down to some mall for sushi fast food, which Eckians have really taken to. That’s something you don’t see in England—ladies who look like your great-grandmother scarfing California roll and sashimi off a fork.
    Then round the corner to a Small Specialist Bookstore, which is another one that makes an effort. They got someone to ride his Harley into the shop on the
Soul Music
tour, and for the
Feet of Clay
one they built a 180 kilogram golem in the shop. This guy knows his stuff—he’s provided a bucket of ice cubes to combat wrist ache, too.
    6:00 p.m.: Off to a talk organized by one of the morning’s shops, which has managed to browbeat enough people to fit a large hall. And more signing. A few MSS dumpers, but one guy has brought in a flask of Wow-wow Sauce, made to the recipe in
The Discworld Companion
.
    And then off with the shop manager to a meat-pie floater wagon to sample this most famous local delicacy. Forgoing, for reasons of economy, the Gourmet Pie Floater (containing named meat) at $3.60, I opted for the basic variety at $3.30.
    It was piquant. No worries.
    Day 13
    Long flight to Sand City. Got a suite in the hotel, wow. But it’s sort of odd. There’s this huge room but the furniture is arranged as if it’s a small room, so there’s the sofa and chairs and table and stuff and then an acre of carpet all around.
    Off to a signing in a mall. People say, hey, you must see a lot of the world on your travels, but what you mainly see is malls. This is a good mall.
    The shop reported a huge crowd when we were on the way, although it was easily dealt with in under forty-five minutes, which just goes to show.
    Back to the hotel for an interview. Journo and I take a taxi across the carpet to the distant sofa.
    6:30 p.m.: Talk/signing.
    One of the most enjoyable events of this tour. A full house—about 250 people—and I was fairly relaxed