Month: March 2004

Monday, March 22, 2004

it was still a wrench to throw away what I knew about tabling and embrace DIVs

So the Ireland on Sunday piece was held over, but I made it into the Turbine yesterday.

Spent part of the weekend teaching myself web layout using CSSs, working on Buedia’s forthcoming site, which will be built in XHTML.

My grasp on the practicalities of web design has always been pretty weak, but it was still a wrench to throw away what I knew about tabling and embrace DIVs and positioning using stylesheets. I swear I was dreaming about floats and z numbers and all that on Saturday night. Interesting though, and clearly the way things are going.

Also, if you’re in the UK, it seems you can just order copies of the book through your local bookshop – the distributor is Bookpoint.

Saturday, March 20, 2004

I enjoyed talking to Marian Finucane on Wednesday, and it was a fitting way to mark St Patrick’s Day. There was a skeleton staff down at RTE, but Marian asked some good questions, and it was great to be talking about Columbanus knowing that people were listening all over the country.

There’s some other media coverage on the way too – a short piece I did for the Sunday Tribune about my favourite place (a Loire valley village I visited on the trip), and an interview for the ‘In My Own Words’ feature in Ireland on Sunday.

So both of those should be in your newsagents tomorrow, and there’s more where that came from too.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

I’m on the radio tomorrow – St Patrick’s Day – talking about the book and the saint with Marian Finucane

I’m on the radio tomorrow – St Patrick’s Day – talking about the book and the saint with Marian Finucane. She’s got two hours tomorrow because it’s a special day – on from 9am until 11am (RTE Radio 1).

Went around the city centre bookshops this lumchtime, signing some copies and meeting some of the booksellers. It was great to meet up with them and tell them a few stories from the book, so they can put a face to the book and it’s not just another unit that’s arrived to go up on the shelves.

Friday, March 12, 2004

At lunchtime yesterday, Ann, the woman who runs the training room we were using appeared, clutching a copy of my book.

As I happily signed it for her, I realised that she could very well be the first real person to buy the thing. Thanks, Ann.

All sorts of press and media appearances are in the offing for next week and thereafter – more news when things are firmed up.

Back in Dublin now, after a cold and stormy train journey back up last night.

In the newly swanky and refurbished Talbot Hotel in Wexford, tired after the training – you’re giving a lot of yourself, but you forget you’re also on your feet all day so your legs are sore.

But walked up the Main Street and into a bookshop, looking for my book. Nothing in the Just Published area, but there beside the travel writing section was a pile of Accidental Pilgrims on the floor, waiting to go into the Ms next to Tim Moore.

I’d unsurprisingly thought that the first time I saw my book in a shop would be in a familiar shop in Dublin, and so it blindsided me that it happened here in Wexford (even if I was looking for it). I should go back tomorrow to see if any have been sold.

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

So that’s it. Around 10:15 this morning a car pulled up outside the house and a guy with a clipboard and a smallish box got out and walked up to the door.

We all knew what was inside, and I quickly signed for it and plonked the box on the table inside. Pausing only to wait for folks to get their cameras (it was good to have people there to witness the event), I opened the box and there inside their layer of bubblewrap were ten copies of my book.

After three years of work there it was – The Accidental Pilgrim by David Moore. An object, a book, my book. Not just a set of BBEdit files, or a honking Word document, or an Acrobat file, or a printout from QuarkXpress.

I’m staring at three copies here at work now, and I can’t quite believe it. I know all about books, and I know all about the words I wrote in all those files. But it seems mad that the words have turned into a book. You know, like real writers write?

A thing that should be in your shops very soon if you’re in Ireland. And it’s entirely possible that if you’re in a bookshop over the next while you’ll see me there, looking at it and shaking my head gently.

Sunday, February 29, 2004

The book should be in the shops next week, and in preparation for the big day, the new Accidental Pilgrim website is launched today. It aims to satisfy a number of different audiences: those who haven’t read the book yet can try a couple of sample chapters and buy the book online, while those who have read it can find out more about the journey and the saint, and look at some photographs from the road. There’s also a press area for journalists.

There are still some things I’d like to tidy up on it, but I’m pretty happy with it, and I hope it proves useful to people. Thanks to Paul for all the work.

And tomorrow I should get to hold the book in my hands for the first time. Which is more than a little frightening.