Dublin Launch
Dublin Leg
The Dublin “tour” was much the same as in London, including three days of nonstop interviews, except this time live national TV was included in the schedule. I had a spot on the television morning show, Ireland AM, and about 20 minutes on the very popular Gerry Ryan radio show.
I love Dublin, and enjoyed soaking it all up as I made my way through the city, on foot or in cabs. Taxi rides zipping through Dublin traffic proved to be very entertaining. Dublin taxi drivers have solid opinions about America, the international economy, local politics, and even more about their native son, Bram Stoker and Dracula, and are not afraid to share their thoughts. One of the drivers even took it upon himself to help prepare me to get “up” for the Gerry Ryan show. He felt I was too relaxed and laid back and should be on the edge of my seat to be ready to go toe to toe with Gerry. His work was not in vain. I met several people over the next few days, who had listened to the show and remembered me.
Other than the many radio and newspaper interviews, I did two power point presentations followed by book signings at the Pearse Street and Ballyroan Libraries, and another signing at Chapters, the largest independent book store in Ireland.
Kudos to the Dublin based Harper Collins publicist Moira Reilly. She had all the details of the publicity tour organized well in advance, and was lots of fun to work with. One day we emerged from a quick lunch at our hotel, Buswell’s, to catch a cab to a book signing, and were nearly swallowed up by a peaceful political demonstration as about 10,000 people blocked the street, adjacent to the Irish Senate. Moira joked that she was quite the publicist to arrange such an impressive turnout for me. I replied that if she were a really impressive publicist all those people would show up at the book signing!
I was not really sure what reactions to expect from local book enthusiasts, after all this was Dublin. Considering Dublin’s rich heritage in Gothic literature, I wondered if I would be “preaching to the choir”. As it turns out, most of them knew very little of the details of Bram’s life and family in Dublin, or his seven year process of writing Dracula while he lived in London, and were quite interested in the information I presented. Dublin’s Douglas Appleyard, a Stoker cousin, has been very helpful to me in regards to Stoker genealogy. He has been able to fill in many blanks in the family history for me, and I appreciate his help. Everyone I met in Dublin seemed to embrace my effort as a member of the Stoker family to regain some of the family’s literary legacy. I am grateful for their acceptance.
I also had several interesting discussions with my good friend Brian Showers, author and enthusiastic supporter of the Bram Stoker Society, which is based in Dublin. He has agreed to provide material to Ian and me for the script development for our upcoming trailer for a book industry website. Brian and other members of the Bram Stoker Society are also working with the Bram Stoker Estate in our efforts to have a Bram Stoker statue commissioned and placed in Dublin.
On the weekend, the very gracious and learned John Moore, shared his extensive collection of Bram Stoker papers and books with us. He made Jenne and me feel so welcome, but in four hours we were able to digest only a fraction of his library treasures. Hopefully, we will be able to visit him again, perhaps during our next trip to Dublin, tentatively planned for May 2010.
Jenne’s agenda/desire was finally able to emerge from underneath the Dracula cloak and take center stage on our last day in Dublin. We rode a city bus out to Enniskerry, County Wicklow to get a glimpse of the Irish countryside, and toured the impressive gardens at Powerscourt.
We took a day to completely relax, unwind, and pack our bags, to head home to South Carolina, where we anticipate the US book launch on October 13.