Small Announcements and the Best E-mail of the Week

The beginning of December is always an awkward time of the year for me. It gets so dark so early in the evening that soon I’ll be heading home without the sun and waking up without it too.

Then there’s the whole Christmas hustle and bustle. “Are you ready for Christmas? You must be ready for Christmas. I don’t think I’ll have enough time to be ready for Christmas. Christmas is almost here, I should be ready.” This, of course, is closely followed by the sudden panic over New Year’s Eve. “Are you ready for New Year’s Eve? I was so focused on Christmas, I forgot all about New Year’s Eve!”

Then there’s the looming switch to another calendar year with a new number attached to it. At Christmas 2010, I decided to publish a book. At Christmas 2011, I enjoyed that publishing experience and then faced a whole year of marketing book #1 while writing book #2. Now Christmas 2012 is approaching and I still have to make a big plan.

But not today. And not this week.

No, this past week was typical of the whole writing/publishing experience. It was a week of little things and baby steps and small victories – which eventually, and hopefully, add up to bigger things…

••••

So today I get to announce that another Toronto bookstore has agreed to sell my book! First, there was Nicholas Hoare on Front Street. (Now closed!)

Now there’s Another Story Bookshop on Roncesvalles Avenue.

Two completely different bookstores in two very different neighborhoods, both committed to serving their customers with the best variety of Canadian authors. And just in time for Christmas too!

••••

Then I was finally listed on Amalfi’s Hotel Lidomare website. Without exaggeration, this small online inclusion was months in the making.

I revisited the hotel back in July (on my Italian Book Reunion Tour). The hotel manager didn’t recognize me, of course, but was very keen on reading about his hotel in my book.

I showed him the first page where the Hotel Lidomare was mentioned and quickly explained that this wasn’t a guidebook; it was more of a novel, so he shouldn’t expect a long explanation about the hotel and its services. He understood immediately. “Yes, yes, it is a drama.”

After reading a few paragraphs, he grinned and asked me what I wanted. “So do you want to stay the night? I give you a room for free. No problem.”

If I had known that was even a possibility, I would have accepted. “No, no, that’s totally unnecessary, I already have a hotel tonight back in Salerno.”

But I did want a mention of my book on his website. In exchange, I would mention his hotel on my website.

I completed my end of the bargain back in August. And after several e-mails, both in English and Italian, the Hotel Lidomare has finally completed our website transaction.

Now, unfortunately, my book mention isn’t readily apparent on the front page. You have to click on “the hotel” section at the bottom. Then you have to click on “John Meyer Book” section where you will read this:

“The Hotel Lidomare is a prime location mentioned in John Meyer’s fictional travel memoir, ‘Bullets, Butterflies, and Italy.’

‘I crossed the middle of the piazza then ascended Via Lorenzo d’Amalfi, ducking into the alley staircase that led to my hotel…Finally I landed on Via Piccolomini, a piazzetta that leads to another staircase, the doors to other apartments, and to Hotel Lidomare.’
page 41, Bullets, Butterflies, and Italy”

And yes, I wrote that description for the hotel. But the design and management of the site is all his. And hopefully, future guests to the hotel will see this page and order my book online or at my website. I know the Hotel Lidomare already has a signed copy.

••••

Then I received one of those great e-mails that can really make your whole day.

At ET Canada, we don’t praise each other much. We’re each focused on our own individual tasks and then race to get things done on time and without errors.

So during the past few weeks, I’ve had to rewrite the bios of all the hosts and reporters on our company website. This meant interviewing each one of them and devising a new way of informing our audience just who these people are in a casual and conversational way. And I got to be a little cheeky and funny.

There was no drama in any of this except for the lack of time at my disposal. My deadline was Friday and I completed the final bio around 6:30pm (with the evening sky already pitch black suggesting that it was already the middle of the night). And then I had to wait for that person to read it, make any corrections, and send it back to me, so I could then submit it to my boss and call it a day.

So it’s late, I’m chomping at the bit to head home, the office is empty, the cleaning staff is closing in…and then I get this e-mail:

“JOHN!!! I AM CRYING!!! I LOVE IT BEYOND AMAZING YOU R TALENTED!!

I CALLED U ….I LOVE YOU ….SO GOOD”

Now that’s how you end a long week of work at ET Canada! And suddenly, I didn’t mind heading home in the dark anymore.
 

For more posts about the day in the life of a writer, check out:

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/a-day-in-the-life/

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/golden-globe-envy/

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/changes-great-and-small/