Diogenes syndrome

Well, sort of Diogenes anyway - he sat in a barrel and people came to him. I seem to sit in this blog and nobody comes to it!! That aside, like that awful Kevin Coster film about American rounders or whatever it is, 'People will come'.
I had a good time at the London Book Fair last week, spoke to a few interesting folk, and reaffirmed my unease at being somewhere as frantic and busy as London - definitely not for me, but each to their own. A review is due in the London Police Pensioner soon, so let's hope London takes to me more than I to London!
I also had the sales figures from Troubador for the last quarter, and there seems to have been a sudden rush of sales in the last couple of days. Curious, but reassuring.
Meanwhile, as I type, a bunch of power-hungry men are slating each other in some TV debate. I wonder if any of them would like to buy a book? One of them is going to have a lot of time on his hands after 6th May....

The numbers game

Publicity is everything, so this week's small and not completely accurate review in the Chester Chronicle is very welcome. Yesterday evening saw the book rise to the dizzy heights of about 9,600th in the Amazon best-sellers chart. It has dropped back a bit since, but that's the first time it has gone below 5 figures. A rush of sales in Canada saw Amazon.ca put it a 222nd - amazing! The rush has obviously subsided since and it is down to about 500th, but better than 120,000th which it was last week.
On a different note the weather has seen my Laverda polished up and the Ducati given its first wash in about 18 months, and both are now taxed and roadworthy again - I seem less confident as a motorcyclist than I was, but caution is not a bad thing and being aware of one's limitations never hurt.
Off to the London Book Fair a week tomorrow so I can stand in awe of the well-connected literary aristocracy. Well maybe not in awe, maybe more some degree of jealousy, but such is life.