Madrid & Barcelona
Jenne, Belle, & I flew to Madrid on November 16th, and were greeted by lovely, warm weather possibly arranged by publisher and editor, Patricia Escalona from Roca Editorial. Roca put us up in the beautifully renovated Hotel de las Letras, a popular spot for many of Madrid’s publishers and their visiting authors.
During my three-day visit, about five other authors were in Madrid, with schedules similar to mine. The customary routine unfolded, which included numerous one-on-one interviews with journalists, and a few photo sessions. I made an appearance on Spanish CNN, with an interview with Antonio San Jose, a highly regarded literary critic. The superb organizational skills of Patricia and Roca Editorial shone during a press conference in Hotel de las Letras, which was attended by fifteen journalists and book critics from various news agencies, newspapers, and radio. At the press conference, I had the honor of being introduced by Javier Sierra, author of the best-selling novel “The Secret Supper”. Javier had taken a particular interest in Dracula and our sequel, and his introduction and perspective on Dracula the Un-Dead set the tone for a really productive press conference. Javier and I had lunch afterwards, and having been in the game for years, he kindly shared some of his experiences, and offered advice to me- a first-time author.
The next day, Jenne and Belle came along with Patricia and me on the high-speed train to Barcelona for another day full of TV interviews and a book signing. In Barcelona, our escort for the day was the Roca publicist, Sylvie, who could not have been more accommodating. Barcelona is a beautiful coastal city, vibrant and still bustling after hosting the Olympics in 1992. Ironically, in this lively city I spent a majority of my time filming two separate interviews in the same cemetery. It was interesting to note that in Spain, Dracula the Un-Dead had been out for one month and like the Dutch, Roca was already into their second printing.
Back in Madrid, our last day was mercifully a vacation day for me. I joined my wife and daughter as all-out tourists; we took a riotous open-top bus tour, bought some souvenirs, and had a very nice last supper.
As it turned out, a trip to Lisbon was not necessary, as I was able to convince the Portuguese journalist to come to me in Madrid, rather than my using my one free day flying to Lisbon and back.
The trip home was uneventful except it was fraught with the usual frustration of the “cattle being lead to slaughter” system that the Atlanta airport has in place for arriving international passengers. The more I travel thru this airport, the more I build my resolve to pay lots of more money to arrive somewhere else and walk home!