I am excited to be hosting Ally Condie, author of Matched and Crossed, to share the hour-by-hour experience of being an author on tour. Enjoy!
A Day in the Life of An Author: On Tour/Traveling
Loren Long, Ally Condie and Brian Selznick
I’m writing this before I go on tour, so this is a record of my most recent travel day prior to the tour—October 12:
8:00 a.m. – Wake up in Providence, Rhode Island, where my publisher has sent me for a bookseller’s convention (NECBA). It’s 6:00 a.m. back home so I’m kind of tired. Debate going for a run but decide time would be better spent working. When do I ever have a full day like this to write?
8:00-9:00 a.m. – Shower, eat breakfast.
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Write, pausing now and then for phone calls to and from home answer questions for husband, remind husband about things, schedule doctor appointment for youngest child, talk to kids before they go to school.
12:00-1:00 p.m. – Eat lunch, finish getting ready.
1:00-3:30 p.m. – Write and work on presentation. Call home to make sure everyone remembered that there is an appointment this afternoon for one of the boys, and a field trip coming up which requires an extra permission slip in addition to the usual ones. Find out from my husband that it appears insurance WILL cover the cost of the minor accident my mom had today while driving my kids around while I’m gone. Also find out that a medical report on one of the kids came back— we’ve been waiting anxiously for it. All looks fine. Breathe enormous sigh of relief.
3:30-4:30 p.m. – Go down to the ballroom of the hotel to sign 150 books that will be given away to conference attendees. Make sure presentation works on conference computer/audio visual equipment. It does. Hooray!
4:30-5:30 p.m. – Back up to hotel room, write a little, feel nervous because the other presenters are Loren Long and Brian Selznick.
5:30-6:30 p.m. – Pre-dinner mingling and cocktail hour downstairs in the ballroom. Meet many lovely booksellers and librarians.
6:30-10:00 p.m. – Dinner at NECBA. Give speech in between Loren Long and Brian Selznick, who are both talented, charming, extremely kind, and truly invested in storytelling, art, and children. They both say things that make me tear up and feel grateful to be a writer and to be in this room at this moment. Talking with the booksellers has the same effect—they all want to change communities and put books into children’s hands.
10:00-10:45 p.m. – Pack up and climb into bed for 4:00 a.m. wakeup call (my publisher kindly booked me on the earliest flight of the day at my request, so that I can get home as soon as possible to see the kids).
This was a really lovely travel day. Most days on tour are school visits all morning and afternoon, then a signing at night, and then either a late night or early morning flight to the next location. Which is also awesome, but a lot more hectic than this day was!
For those of you in the USA, check in tomorrow to win a finished, hardcover copy of Crossed!
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