i sound a bit husky right now. Last night I read the whole of Coraline to a full house. It took three and half hours... I suppose that extra half hour was as much from audience reaction time as anything else. They seemed happy, except for the people in the balcony at the back who wanted giant screens to see what I looked like. Standing ovation, which was really nice of them. And Daniel Handler, a close associate of Lemony Snicket, yelled "Read it again!"...
The best thing about it was how many of them had not read or heard the story. They practically cheered when Coraline... well, never mind. It's in chapter 11.
Saw lots of friends, all for less time than I would have liked.
I signed about 900 copies at Cody's yesterday afternoon and drew a sinister rat in every copy, except for one, which I drew a button in. (Many of the rats were not sinister. Some were cute. Some were funny. And several of them were deeply disturbing.) Cody's should still have copies, along with the wonderfully creepy posters of the event (which were given to the people there.)
This morning Coraline is #29 on Amazon (and tops their movers and shakers list) and #38 on Barnes and Noble.
E-mail from the magnificently named Felicia Quon from Harper Canada tells me that Canada is always a couple of weeks behind the US, so copies of Coraline should be generally available there in two weeks.
Today I sign books, eat sushi while being interviewed, sign more books, and sign more books. Also going (with the kids) on a tour of Pixar.
Right. On with the motley. Will report in tonight.