fans – Elspeth Cooper

From time to time I get requests from people wanting to send their books to me, have me sign them, then send them back.

This makes me feel really awkward, because I hate saying no to people, but there’s a couple of reasons why I just can’t do this.

Firstly, once you’ve said yes to one person, it becomes very difficult to then start saying no. As much as I like every single one of you who’s parted with their hard-earned to buy my books, if I spend all my time unpacking, signing, re-packing and getting taxis to the Post Office, I’m not going to have much time for writing. And you all want more books from me, I hope. Don’t you?

Secondly, I’m a bit leery about giving out my home address. As much as I like every single one of you etc etc I’m not quite ready to invite you all in for a cuppa, because then I’d have to get the hoover out. Plus, it would totally ruin the authorly mystique. Continue reading

I tweeted recently that I’d had a request for an interview from a fantasy fan in Cuba. Here he is – Gonzalo very kindly sent me a picture of himself and his much-prized copy of Bajo la Hiedra. Note the finger carefully marking his place . . .

Fantasy books are pretty difficult to obtain in Cuba; due to their currency not being internationally traded Cuban readers can’t just pop onto Amazon or The Book Depository whenever they fancy something new to read. After hearing about my book on the Internet, Gonzalo only managed to get hold of a copy by asking a friend to bring it with her when she came to visit.

If you speak Spanish, Gonzalo runs a fantasy blog and was impressed enough with my last rant to go to the trouble of translating it for his readers. I don’t know what on earth came over him.