Freedom From The Mundane

Clockwise

Image: FMD

Check me out today over at the blog of freelance writer, photo journalist, and long-time cyber buddy, Diane Parkin!!! I’ll be answering questions all day after what was a very different and interesting interview to do, so please check it out.

I seemed to be running late by at least 90 minutes to the rest of the world yesterday, and not once did I come close to catching up.

I had intended on being in the office by 7am, but never woke up until 8:30am. When I realised the time I bounced out of bed and logged on, because yesterday was the first day of ticket sales for this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival.

To my utter disappointment I was unable to get through either online or over the phone, and by 9:30am I had to stop to start getting ready for work. The plan was to shower and dress in quarter of an hour, call a cab, and be in the office for 10 so I could re-start trying to get those treasured tickets I was after.

Only, the taxi never came. They sent three different cabs before one finally showed up, meaning I never made into the office until half past 10. I thought my chances were screwed by this point, but eventually, after much browser refreshing and URL typing, I finally managed to get onto the booking system.

I worked my way through my list of events, entered my card details, and hit the PAY button. Result! For the third year in a row I managed to bag tickets for every one of the events I had pulled out of the festival programme.

I never realised at the time, but all of my events are squeezed into the first 9 days of the festival. The rest of the time I have earmarked for networking, promotion, and any other events that still have tickets I may want to attend. Here’s my list of events – It’s going to be a great August!

Kate Atkinson Sat 15/08/2009 11:30 AM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
Iain Banks Mon 17/08/2009 6:30 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
Alan Bissett & Ewan Morrison Mon 17/08/2009 8:30 PM at: PEPPERS THEATRE
Ian Rankin Tue 18/08/2009 8:00 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
Neil Gaiman Wed 19/08/2009 4:30 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
William McIlvanney Thu 20/08/2009 3:00 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
Griff Rhys Jones Fri 21/08/2009 1:30 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
The Art of the Short Story Sat 22/08/2009 5:00 PM at: SCOTTISHPOWER STUDIO THEATRE
Alexander McCall Smith Sat 22/08/2009 6:30 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
Irvine Welsh Sat 22/08/2009 9:30 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
Will Self Sun 23/08/2009 6:30 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
Quintin Jardine Sun 23/08/2009 8:00 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE
Frank Skinner Sun 23/08/2009 9:30 PM at: RBS MAIN THEATRE

With all my attention diverted towards book festival tickets, I forgot two vitally important things I had to do this morning.

First, I forgot to make the draw for the winner of the free copy of STELLA over at http://catemasters.blogspot.com. I did this in the evening, and am proud to say a copy of my new book will be winging its way via e-mail to Loretta Canton.

The other thing I forgot to do, which was way more embarrassing, was to send in the copy for a guest blog spot I am on today. Having had all well to write it I wanted to make sure it was as close the remit as possible, then forgot to send the damn thing in with all that was going on. It all worked out in the end, and I’m delighted to say that you can find me over at Diane Parkin’s Blog.

One thing that did come in on time was the approval of my own author web page by the kind people at Amazon. Click here to check it out.

And finally, better late then never, those cheeky little scamps, the penguins of Edinburgh Zoo, now have their very own web cam to show off to. Click here to watch the penguins in live action!