THE HANDSOMEST MAN IN CUBA: AUSTRALIAN BOOK TOUR BLOG

UPDATE AUGUST 9, 2003: Sydney again

Well, I did the Peters of Kensington book signing today. A new experience, in that I did not talk, but sat poised behind a pile of the books, aided by some props (including the folding bike) and a store announcement every so often for 3 hours. Penny tells me that straight book signings are not always great events, as anyone less than John Grisham/Stephen King etc might find themselves twiddling their thumbs embarrassingly while shoppers glide past their signing table. The big irony was that I was surrounded by Lladro $400 porcelain figurines, Wedgewood dinner sets, Hasselblad cameras, Tag watches & Gucci sunglasses... not to mention, over there, a $250,000 Liberace-esque crystal table... I attempted to subtly divert attention from the rich atmos by displaying a few humble boxes of cigars, Cuba books, a bottle of Habanero salsa and a Tropicana-esque feather mask. Amazingly, I managed to sell and sign 34 copies in 3 hours. This feat was a done deal due to my sales savvy mother who abandoned her post by the Wedgewood and Orrefors counter without authorization to spruik about Cuba. In one case a gent was politely moving away from the scene of the hardsell and mum thrust a copy under his nose like a summons... he ended up buying one as I crawled out from under the table... "Great Christmas presents," she proclaimed again and again. One woman obviously thought so - she bought 5... So now, I am at the end of the book tour, and on Wednesday I head back to Eugene Oregon where ironically, the sun is shining like a good Aussie surfing day...the book was #8 on the travel book chart in the Sydney Morning Herald today...in hindsight it might be a few notches higher if I'd fabricated lurid details of an unseemly dalliance with that Handsomest Man in Cuba...

UPDATE AUGUST 8, 2003: Canberra

{Note: A new review has been reproduced on the above webpage). Ah, Canberra.. my old stomping ground. It's Australia's National Capital, where I spent the formative years of my life, aged 12-25 or thereabouts. It's where I got my first job as a bottom-feeder at the Division of Computing Research, running around in a singlet and shorts and letting the plotter paper run out much to the consternation of the beslippered boffins...

My talk was under the auspices of the Department of Computer Science weekly seminar series. Or rather, I had to find a way to segue Cuba and Computing given the NASA-ish sounding titles of other talks in the series. In attendance were a mixture of Faculty staff, graduate students, curious onlookers and a few old buddies from as far back as year 7 high school! Plus a lecturer of mine who was probably thinking, yeah, she never was any good at numerical analysis and this goes to prove it...

How did I get to be showing my face on a rostrum at the Australian National University? Well, I'd slogged my way through a Computer Science degree part time way back in 1981. And when the ANU Public Relations department got wind of the book they sent out what was apparently an 'over the top media alert' which made me look like an impending Nobel prizewinner for literature, said convener Tom Worthington. In fact, The Handsomest Man in Cuba knocked the best-selling Sex Life of the Venezuelan Beaver Snail PhD Thesis off the top of the university charts for 2 hours running. "The Most Interesting Woman in Canberra" bleated the vaguely embarrassing introductory slide prepared by Tom, which doesn't say much for the rest of the populace...

I noticed it wasn't so easy raising a cackle from this audience. They sat stony faced through the stories that had tickled the folks in my other bookshop talks, though I was saved by a couple of lame wisecracks about the Cuban internet which had them rolling in the aisles...

Tom took me on a guided tour of the new IT building, pausing to peer into the "museum" - a room housing the old DEC-10 equipment I used to bang out my assignments at ungodly hours of the morning... the chattering lineprinter... that blinking white box on a VT-200 terminal...it all came flooding back like an overwrought cistern. There was also an impressive bank of around 700(?) tower PC's that won an award for being the fastest supercomputer for the money. "Eco-friendly too," said Tom. "When one dies you simply replace it, and recycle the casings and innards." A bit like those carpet squares, and a far cry from the big Cray indivisible boxes that were affectionately known as 'supercomputers' in the old days...

Well, my Apple ibook screen flickered and died yesterday, which means I've not been able to prepare my latest photos and movies for your eager viewing pleasure...thankfully, it's still under warranty, but methinks it's all a calculated plan to get one to finally break down and beg for the $300 extended warranty...

Tomorrow I attend my last signing: at Peter's of Kensington, a crockery and cutlery emporium selling $200 dinnerplates for 70% off. Ah yes, all I have to do is segue Cuba with Wedgewood dinner plates ... just like Fidel segues little capitalistic ventures with the big communist one...

UPDATE AUGUST 4, 2003: Brisbane

Well, the mob at Avid Reader Bookshop was a genteel and appreciative lot, and I am told that folks from an environmental center shut up shop to come down for my talk, together with some local cycle shop owners and of course, cyclists. Among them, furniture craftsman Brad Best with his 3-week old Pocket Llama, and renowned journo Phil Dickie. The owner of Avid Reader herself is an avid touring cyclist! There is a growing trend towards the intimate cafe-bookshop concept and I have to say I languished in the bookshop for hours partaking of soy hot chocolates, spinach and feta tartlets and pear and polenta friands...all the while ranting about the shortage of food in Cuba. A glaring irony really, but should serve to remind all of us to stop bloody complaining. Especially if we can even entertain the idea of owning a Bike Friday.

Incidentally, I apologise if the sound on the little Good Morning Australia clip is a little faint... in order to get that to your screens I paid the bell boy at the Sebel Melbourne $10 to stand in front of the telly with my Canon Elph in movie mode, while I rushed off to a radio interview. We just forgot to turn the telly up...! It is probably a breach of copyright so shhhhh... if they get narky I'll take it down. Enjoy it while you can.

I have had several folk email me from the USA asking me to bring back an Aussiefied copy of the book. I am only lugging back a few as it will hopefully be published in the USA before the year is out. See bottom of the above webpage for details of how to get one off me.

More soon... tomorrow I fly to Canberra, my old stamping ground, where I will try and pass off my Cuba talk as a serious Computer Science Seminar. That'll be a feat... La China

UPDATE AUGUST 1, 2003: Melbourne

Where in the world am I? Day before yesterday in Melbourne, did a talk at the Dymocks Flagship store in Colins Street Melbourne. Delighted to see old buddy Nigel Yandle (from my IT contracting days at Civil Aviation in Canberra), Fred and Angelika Surr from the Melbourne Bicycle Touring Club. Nigel, Penny and I stopped off at Pelligrini's in Bourke Street which I am pleased to report is making the same brilliant stodgy lasagna, cremem caramel and fruit cup as excellently as they did 10 years ago.

Last night was a talk to 150 wealthy Jewish mums at Moriah College in Sydney, hosted by risque TV persona Libby Gore. Also speaking was Dr Sandra Cabot with her best selling liver cleansing and natural hormone replacement therapy books, and AJ who lost 110 kilos (that's 220 lbs) with her best selling reformed dieters book. Errrmm, guess who sold the least books that night...

Right now in Brisbane, where I spoke at Riverbend books, voted #1 bookseller in Queensland. A very civil affair with sushi and wine on the verandah from the bookshop's sushi bar, it's the kind of book shop where they use the word 'genre' when speaking of paperbacks. My cousin Leslie and Malcolm drove all the way up from the Gold Coast to attend, as did good friend Erica from Redcliffe, who has not brow beaten me one bit for clogging up her storage unit in Melbourne with my stuff when I left Australia 6 years ago.

Over 40 books were sold at that event. Penny, my traveling publicist from Random House, informs me that I am selling way more books than authors usually sell on a tour - around 60% instead of 30% (um, except for the talk for the wealthy Jewish ladies last night). I think it is because they want to know who the Handsomest Man in Cuba was or more importantly, What I Did With Him. Boy, are they gonna be disappointed.

The Pocket Rocket Pro Petite lurked in the background, with heavy set once-were cyclists threatening to squash it. I hope it inspires them to start peddling again.

I forgot to bring the soft bag loaned to me by BF owner Nick Clarke and guess what? it went into one of those candy stripe $2 shop bags! OK, with the front wheel off. Take a look at the photo gallery!!!!

The Random House regional guy Nathan told me that my book was #8, then #9 now #5 on the bestseller list in Queensland. OK, maybe in the US that's like saying its #100 on the Puerto Rican charts, but no matter...

One fellow came up and said my book is the first he'd read in 7 years, as he never reads, and he read it in a day and could not put it down. I responded that it was because in reality it is a trashy airport novel and can be knocked over between boarding call and buckling your seatbelt. Hm.. no wonder I am not in advertising anymore..

Off to Avid Reader bookshop in Brisbane now, to talk to *yay* a bunch of cycling types...then off to brrr chilly Canberra ...

Check the photo gallery above for more news, more movies coming after this break!

UPDATE JULY 30, 2003: Melbourne

Well, yesterday was 4 radio interviews, taping a TV appearance on Channel 10 Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton, and a talk at Cosmos Bookshop. I was not allowed to film any of the TV machinations, but a Readers Digest Condensed Version would be: tarted up by the makeup artists for TV, which involved being physically airbrushed with spray makeup, sitting to wait in a little room with an assortment of acts including a fine young singer, a rising TV starlet with a remarkably concave abdomen, a woman exhibiting some new hi tech macrame kit and a couple talking of their book about the Nepalese Royal Family murder tragedy (Love and Death in Kathmandu I think). When it was my turn I was shuffled up to the sofa to meet Bert. With his pancake make up and the glow of studio lighting, it felt like ascending to meet a giant statue of Bhudda. We did the BF thing (see yesterdays entry) but he also asked 'What Did I Think of Fidel'. In hindsight I guess it was one of those lightweight TV questions and the appropriate answer would have been something like "I was never into beards and funny hats" or something. But I steered the convo away and said I didn't really think about Fidel, it was the people that captivated my attention.

The talk in the evening was a small, intimate crowd, which included my cousin Trish, Michael and Tom, Mick Jamieson, Carl Hemmings, and John Harland and Tamara both from the Melbourne Bicycle Touring Club. Plus a guy in a Che Guevara-style uniform who started asking me all kinds of questions about the Embargo. I pointed him to the relevant shelf in the bookshop on Cuban Revolutionary writings. He disappeared, clearly unimpressed by this upstart trashy airport novelist standing before him... more soon!

La China PS I am to talk in Canberra at the dept of Computer Science Seminar Series, Aug 6, which is where I did my Comp Sci degree. How I will segue computer science and Cuba together I have no idea... I know .. Cubans don't 'ave computers!

UPDATE JULY 29, 2003: Sydney

Whew... I have been running from place to place, doing 4 radio interviews a day and the stand up routine.

The Mosman Library/Pages & Pages Bookshop talk was quite a big bash - 100 folks paid $A6 hear me and then paid $A22.50 for my book. I was overwhelmed by a flood of cousins, nieces and nephews. My ex bought the first copy! Buy, did I have a field day signing his! My divorced parents turned up and managed to stay at opposite ends of the long room so as not to mar this momentous moment in their parental history...they were thinking: perhaps I shouldn'd have told her I'd never tolerate a starving artist or writer in the family after all...

I was delighted to see BF owners Nic Clarke (who scored a free copy of the book from a bike website contest), George and Christine Floyd, and also good friend Dennis Workman who drove all the way from the boonies to hear my 30 minute diatribe.

Right now I am in Melbourne, having just taped an appearance on Good Morning Australia. Now in this program you have to be very careful not to blatently advertise, as they have infomercials for that. Well, the compere Bert Newton kept asking about the Bike Friday, the origins of the name, how does it fold (I demonstrated it) etc until we did have an infomercial after all! All I can say is thank bhudda I practised doing a 10-second fold before going on.

Right now I am preparing to talk at the Cosmos bookstore. On this entire tour I am being chaperoned by my publicist, the very able Penny Page who you can see on my Cuba webpage at the link above.

"La China".

UPDATE JULY 22, 2003: Eugene

Folks, from Thursday July 24 til Wed August 13, I'll be in Ausralia doing my Australia/Random House book tour.

I have had some BF owners contact me and request an Australian copy with all the aussie-isms unaltered (ie 'bonnet' instead of 'hood', 'kerb' instead of 'curb', 'torch' instead of 'flashlight', 'bite yer bum' instead of 'have a nice day' (just kidding). And probably signed by me if desired! Let me know via lynchiang@yahoo.com if you want me to bring you a copy complete with Vegemite stains (FYI, Promite is superior, though less famous). It'll be priced around $US15 plus postage.

Email me on the road at lynchiang@yahoo.com +++

UPDATE July 16,2003:

Well things are hotting up downunder. On July 5, 2003, the chapter 'La Casa de Lolita' appeared in the Weekend Australian, with a great review in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

The book appears in major stores now and my mother can't help but tout it to the sales assistant when she sees it in passing (mum, you are s'pose to be touting it to the burrito-to-go brandishers).

It was also given as a prize on www.bicycles.net.au and other sites - and I notice Metro owner Nic Clarke and good friend Megan Moreton are listed as the winners...

Clarence St Cyclery, Sydney, donated $1000 worth of kit to accompany the Dymock's bookchain promotion.They're a TREK importer and though manager John Thacker likes us but is still umming and ahhing about taking the plunge, I clearly did a number on him. Way to go, John!

Finally, I am to be interviewed early August on the Good Morning Australia show with Bert Newton (bit like Good Morning America with Jay Leno). I better practise folding the bike and making sure that new paint on the hinge don't make it stick. Woe betide me if they ask me to pack it in 2 minutes on national TV!

See the link below for movie, map, sample chapter, my review of the Lonely Planet's Cycling Cuba review...

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UPDATE: As of January 2008 the book is no longer available from Random House (dang, I knew I should have fabricated that dalliance with the Handsomest Man in Cuba ...) Ask for the USA Globe-Pequot edition of the book at your local bookstore, or buy from the Bike Friday Online Store and of course, Amazon.

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For more information, follow this link http://galfromdownunder.com/cuba