MAD World

This has been one crazy, whirlwind of a week.

Last Saturday morning David and I flew to Isle of Man to meet up with Frazer Hines and Rob Craine for Frazer's first show of his pre-christmas run of 'Frazer Hines - 50 Years in Showbiz Tour. The first was to take place at Erin Arts Centre, in Port Erin. When we got to the venue, however, it looked like disaster was going to strike and we'd have to cancel. Frazer's DVD's wouldn't play in their machine. Fortunately David rescued the situation by figuring out a way to play the film clips - but this only got sorted minutes before the show was due to start.

The show got underway and tech issues continued to plague us with Frazer's microphone constantly going on and off. Like a true professional he plowed on. It's safe to say the audience loved him! It was laughs all the way and the interval came around way too quickly!

The second half of the show I went on with Frazer and fielded the Q & A. Erin Arts Centre patrons asked great questions and as always I learnt something new about Frazer through his answers. He's a man of many talents! And - the laughs continued to the end. This was a very appreciative audience.

Later in the week I drove to Derby to meet up with Frazer to prepare for his show on the Thursday evening. We had lunch, went the the venue, only to realise we'd sold out of the final few copies of his autobiography and so had none to sell there. Fortunately a new delivery was due in the next day - but we were very sorry to disappoint the Derby Whovers (or is that Whoovers?).

The show went very well that night, however. This took place at The Quad, Derby and it was extremely well organised with excellent technology - phew! - and was followed by a very informal chat with the audience immediately afterwards.

But the week didn't end there. Straight after the Derby show we drove back to Wales. Frazer and I had a signing at Waterstones in Llandudno and of course there is still Frazer's show taking place this evening at the Scala in Prestatyn.

But I do really want to talk about Llandudno yesterday. What a well promoted event this was. I'm so very pleased with the sales we made and the excitement that our visit created. Huge thanks goes to all of the staff at Llandudno as they made such a massive effort the last few weeks to tell people we were coming. This consisted of them ordering a lot of books prior to the event and displaying them in full beautifully (we even had Cybermen!). Doctor Who music was played throughout the day and there was a superb poster in the window. We were placed in a prime position and - WOW! - what a busy store! By 4pm we were still in the thick of it as the sales continued to ring up and we'd been booked until 3pm. What a great day!

It really was super for me as a local author to have such a successful signing at Waterstones. So, naturally we went out with friends to celebrate!!

Well, that's the catch up on my mad, mad week so far... There's still more to come so watch out for my next appearances in Yeovil, Truro and Spalding.