Confessions Of A New York Taxi Driver

Well, off she goes on her own into the big old world.  Confessions Of A New York Taxi Driver was officially published in the U.K., with distribution to the Commonwealth countries, on Jan. 17th.

I received a couple of advance copies on the 16th and placed one conspicuously on the dashboard of my taxi on the 17th, Publication Day, which was also a driving day for me.  It was a cheap ploy to attract attention from alert passengers onto the freak occurrence that their taxi driver had written a book about taxi driving in the same city in which they happened to be riding in a taxi.  This desperate plea for attention resulted in two sworn intentions to buy the book, several lively conversations, and in each case above-average tips.

So now I know that even if the book is a complete flop commercially, I have found yet another way to increase my tips.  Brilliant!  Or "brill", as my U.K. friends would say.

I am enthusiastic about how the book looks and feels.  The spacing of the paragraphs between the stories in each chapter is easy on the eye.  Its size and weight make it consumer-friendly, I think, and its length of 391 pages seems to me to be not too small to feel that there's not enough and not too big to confront the idea of reading it.   

And I think you'll find that the book "moves", meaning it takes you from one place to another rather effortlessly, like a ride in a taxi with a good suspension.

Now all you've got to do is get it.  And since you're a reader of this blog you are morally obligated to do so, or my agents at HarperCollins will track you down.  They know where you live!

If you're in the U.K. or in a Commonwealth country, you should be able to find it in your local bookstore.  Or if not, you can order it from Amazon.co.uk, of course.

If you're in the U.S. it can be ordered from Amazon.com. But you could also order it here for no shipping charges.

I hope you'll get it, read it, love it, and want to marry it.

And your comments would be most welcome, as always.

Be Lovely Day

My dear friend from Liverpool, Jodie Schofield, for whom I would swim the River Mersey if she asked, has requested that I lend my voice to "Be Lovely Day".

The idea is to be, well... lovely... on this coming Saturday, January 12.

Read all about it here.

And at Jodie's own blog, here: http://jodesters.blogspot.com/2013/01/be-lovely-day.html.

Brill, Jodester!

 

In Case You Missed the Radio Interview...

...and you'd like to hear it, here's a link that will bring you to the station's website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01phn2f

When you've got the website up, first click on "See all previous episodes from Up All Night" which is on the right-hand side of the page.  Then, when the next page comes up, scroll down to the episode of 02/01/2013.  Start the video and go to two hours, thirty-four minutes into the show.  That's where my interview begins, and it goes for about twenty minutes.

It says there are only five days left to hear it, and that was two days ago, so better make it quick!

The interview went quite well, I thought.  The presenter, Andy Crane, had already read the book (given to him in advance by the PR company organizing the promotions) and I think this was why the conversation moved along rather fluidly.

On The Radio Tonight

A quick announcement for anyone who may be interested... I will be doing an interview tonight on a late-night radio show in the U.K., BBC Radio 5 Live Up All Night which is scheduled to be aired at 10.30 p.m. Eastern Time in the U.S.  That would be 3.30 a.m. in the U.K.  Not exactly prime time, but, hey, one takes what one can gets.

The show is accessible on the internet, so you can hear it from anywhere in the world.

I hope you will read this in time to be able to tune in.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.