A Day in the Life

With Christmas approaching, events are hotting up and I'm out in bookshops every Saturday and Sunday between now and Christmas, with signings every day between 17th and 22nd December. On Sunday I remembered to take my camera to Waterstones in Uxbridge and here's a photo record of my day:

I arrived before the store opened. I like to be early! Luckily I knew a coffee shop was just over the road so I was able to take a break before the day had even begun.

As usual, the bookshop put on a great display.

Here we go with the first sale of the day! Pretty soon the books were flying off the table, with a lot of fans dropping by for Road Closed and Dead End. Like the first guy to buy one of my books, readers new to Geraldine Steel were happy to buy Cut Short.

A lot of readers decided to buy all 3 books, either for themselves or as Christmas presents. Here's a selection of customers w ho were kind enough to agree to let me photograph them in the bookshop!

This lady bought a few copies of Dead End  as Christmas presents.

At last Michael arrived at 3 o'clock and we went out for tea!

Another book signing event was over, we had virtually sold out, with just 4 books left for the shelves, and the bookshop was pleased.

I really enjoy signing at this store and look forward to returning there

in 2012.

Thank you to Waterstones in Uxbridge for hosting a signing, and to all the local readers who came in to support their local bookshop.

Vote for Dead End as Best Crime Book for 2011

Thrilled to see Dead End has a vote on Best Crime Books of 2011 - Vote on this link: http://www.crimetime.co.uk/mag/index.php/showindex/best2011

Christmas Presents

I hope all my fans are buying my books to give as Christmas presents. Please contact me on http://leighrussell.co.uk/ if you'd like me to email you a signed personalised Christmas message to accompany the book.



Great Crime Sleuths

Honoured and excited to see that Geraldine Steel has been selected by LoveReading as one of the Great Crime Sleuths, along with Tess Gerritsen, Ann Cleeves and Elly Griffiths. What an accolade!  http://www.lovereading.co.uk/genre/cri/Great-Crime-Sleuths.html

Here's what Maxim Jakubowski wrote about Geraldine:
"A truly believable female sleuth with a sad knack for coming across cases where the bodies just sort of accumulate in her passage, Geraldine Steel is a classic British cop, part of a tight knit murder team, in which she proves to be a vital cog. Adopted at birth and still marked by the fact, and prone to flirting with her pathologist, Geraldine proves great fun and a character who grows on the reader with every successive title in the series."
http://www.lovereading.co.uk/genre/cri/Great-Crime-Sleuths.html

And thank you to my loyal fan Gordon who sent me this photo he took at  my signing at Waterstones in Guildford today, and to all the local readers who bought my books. I hope you enjoy them!

My workshop at Get Writing 2012 has already sold out. Thank  you to all the writers who rushed to sign up for it. I look forward to meeting you in February. If you didn't sign up in time, there are plenty of other workshops going on so check them out and I'll see you there! Please come and say hello.

Tunbridge Wells

Thanks to one of my loyal fans for sending me this photo he took at Waterstones in Tunbridge Wells.

I'm looking forward to seeing you next year, Alex, when I'm back in Tunbridge Wells, signing Death Bed.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to signing at Waterstones in Guildford this Saturday, 19th, and Waterstones in Harrow on Sunday, 20th. On Thursday 24th I'll be supporting Pinner Pantomime Evening, signing my books at WH Smith's.

Life is starting to get hectic in the run up to Christmas!

News

Edited manuscript for Death Bed, fourth in the Geraldine Steel series, went to my publisher today!

Dead End was Number 49 on the kindle Bestseller List for 2011, so it's officially a bestseller in the UK as well as internationally.

In the words of my publisher, "Nice one!"   

News

I haven't posted for a while as I've been so busy! My three workshops for the Society of Authors were good fun and challenging. All were sold out and everyone who participated and appeared to enjoy themselves, and the Society provided a great lunch (thanks to M & S). As usual, we had a wide ranging group of authors attending, from bestselling crime authors like myself to those experienced in writing non-fiction and considering tackling a new genre. The standard of writing was, of course, excellent, as everyone who came along was  a successfully published author in their own right and I was privileged to be running such a high-powered workshop. (Yes, and a little daunted!)
I am always pleased to accept invitations to give talks in libraries. Followers of this blog know how passionate I am about supporting libraries, so I won't say too much about that here. Please check my earlier post if you'd like to read my views about the importance of supporting our libraries. As always, the audiences at Mill Hill and Pinner were interesting, and interested in what I had to say. Thank you.  And of course it's always a real thrill to meet fans of my books!
You can see the schedule of my future appearances on http://leighrussell.co.uk/ under Events. Please come along and say hello if I'm in your area.
NEWS
My publisher emailed this morning to tell me I am now officially an 'internationally bestselling author' as Cut Short is at number 1 on kindle on amazon.de, number 66 overall, and number 3 on amazon.fr for female detectives.
Thank you to all my overseas fans who have been spreading the word! Please keep mentioning my books to your friends. Without a marketing budget word of mouth is the only way my books are being promoted so I really do appreciate (and need) your support to keep sales going.