*music*
It's the beginning of the book tour! I just arrived at Waterstones and there's the whole queue.
*music*
Hello, I didn't do much vlogging this morning, because it was an early start, I was knackered. and-
I just didn't get round to it. I didn't bring my camera out my bag. Just arrived in Bristol. I'm in the Hotel Du Vin,
I have never heard of these hotels before, but I've just been informed that apparently there are eightteen across the UK,
and it's the quirkiest little hotel ever. Apparently they like
pick old,
listed, quirky buildings
to turn them into hotels, so it's just- look at it.
It's so cozy and so sweet, but I just walked into the bathroom and get ready for this.
*Carrie gasps*
Look at that bad boy.
*Carrie moans*
Now I love a bath,
but nothing makes me happier than a freestanding baths with lion paws.
Oh, I'm absolutely jumping in this later, and I'm so excited about it. Oh my god, and that's the shower around there.
*Carrie gasps* Oh, look at it!
This is amazing.
Absolutely thrilled. What are these in here? *Carrie struggles to pronounce 'L'Occitane'*
I never know, but-
fancy shampoos and stuff.
I'm in the Willi Opitz room.
I don't know if that- Oh yeah,
there's a bottle of it there, although an empty bottle of it. So that doesn't really help me out.
I must have done about four million costume changes in my room,
and couldn't decide on what to wear, and I ended up just going with
exactly what I was wearing before and hoping that putting my hair up is enough of a change.
*music*
C: I feel like I've done something to my back. Woman: Oh really? C: Yeah.
W: Did you sit up, working, on the pillows? Because I defi- C: Yeah, maybe that's why I did.
*cheers and applause*
*music*
Oh, I've just got back to the Hotel Du Vin,
after my wonderful signing in Bristol, it was so lovely. Everyone was so nice.
I mean, you're gonna hear me say that a lot, because I can't imagine ever having a signing where everyone isn't super super lovely.
I have just ordered cheese on toast with
Worcestershire sauce. I can't say that. Worcestershire sauce.
A hotel where the late night menu includes cheese on toast and a diet coke.
It's like my ideal hotel. Hotel Du Vin, I'm a really big fan.
And that rhymes.
So I'm an even bigger fan now. My plan for this evening is to go through these two bags of
lovely letters and whatnots,
to charge my camera because it's just started blinking red at me, and to FaceTime Oliver Ormson, who
should be home very soon from Norway. That is all to report for today.
See you tomorrow, when I'm travelling to Cardiff and then Exeter.
*music*
Good morning, I have had a shower. I've gotten into my scruffs, cause I'm going on a train and I'll get changed when I'm there.
I've had some breakfast. I had some eggs Benedict, which was
really good. Well, I think I ate it too fast.
I'm feeling a bit sick now. Saying goodbye to the Hotel Du Vin,
athough I think I'm staying in another Hotel Du Vin in Exeter
tonight. About to get on a train to Cardiff, although if I don't hurry up, I'm gonna miss the train to Cardiff.
So I shall see you in a moment.
*music*
Hello ladies and gentlemen of the internet, I am now in Exeter.
We had a little bit of a train delay on the way back from Cardiff- so we went from Bristol to Cardiff, from Cardiff
to Exeter, but Cardiff to Exeter was back via Bristol, and then we got delayed in Bristol, but it's fine.
We made it with plenty of time. I'm wearing these gorgeous bat earrings, that someone in Cardiff made for me.
I don't know if this is going to focus on them, but-
I think they're pretty spectacular. The event tonight is a talk and a Q&A and a signing, and it's in a theatre,
so I've decided to wear a swanky dress. You say theatre, I dress up. This is a dress from-
I can't remember where. I will check and put it in the description.
A belt from Vivien of Holloway, and nice sparkly gold belt. I don't know if I- a pair of pants there.
I don't know if I entirely like it with tights and shoes, but I don't really have time to figure something else out.
I do have another pair of shoes with me,
but they are slightly broken as I discovered. Only slightly, but enough so that it makes it really difficult to walk in them. So-
Never mind. Why is this not focusing? But yeah-
So this is what I've decided to go for today. And now I need to leave and go to the event.
*music*
That was a lovely event, thank you so much to everyone who came to see me in Exeter.
I've never been to Exeter. I was gonna say on a book tour, but I don't think I've ever been to Exeter ever, so-
Thank you very much for having me. And on the way home, we have snuck in a cheeky
Nando's, and I think I'm the only person who goes to Nando's
with their favourite thing being the vegetarian option that's got no chicken in it.
It is the halloumi and portobello mushroom wrap.
Ooh.
Mango and lime spice. I'm a very very happy Carrie right now. I'm watching some Friends, might have a bath in a minute.
Life is good. See you tomorrow. They must have outdone themselves.
Confetti table. The queue- I can't quite figure out where the queue goes, but-
Gotya- through the entire store. But a confetti table, well done Plymouth. Well done Plymouth. Thank you, Plymouth.
*music*
Hello and welcome to Plymouth, I'm currently walking through the Barbican, which is where my second novel
'All That She Can See' is set, and I'm currently approaching
the psychic shop where I had my fortune told a couple years ago.
I will link to that video somewhere on the screen right now. It's been two years since
I've been here, and it's just really nice to come back and see like the gin distillery and Blackfriats Lane where there's apparently a
ghost that walks from one side of the lane to the other and goes through the wall of the gin distillery. And now we are
approaching Gypsy Acora.
I'm just really excited about it. I'm really excited to be back in Plymouth. I love Plymouth, it's great.
Woman: How did it come about?
W: Was it something that you had an idea yonks ago when you started your first
novel, and- and then progressed into this?
C: Well, I was- I was working on another idea before 'When the Curtain Falls' materialised,
that I'd kind of gotten a bit stuck with and just wasn't too happy with the way that it was going,
I'd sort of set it to one side, you know doing that classic procrastinating, like
'I'll think about it later',
and then when we were starting The Addams Family last year.
And we started in the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, and just as I was walking along for stage during our tech run of the show-
So I'd never seen the set before and we were walking onto
on stage, seeing the set for the first time, there's a big plaque near the stage that says 'here lies The Great
Lafayette", who is an illusionist who died in a fire on stage when one of his illusions went wrong. And I was like 'ooh,
that's interesting'. So I went back to my dressing room in a break, and googled who he was and
was researching this- this illusionist and yeah, it all sort of started from there.
When I thought a ghost story might be fun to write.
Carrie: Thank you very much!
*applause*
*music*
Morning, it is currently
somewhere between seven and eight in the morning, I'm not entirely sure.
I'm just waiting for a cab to pick us up, and then I am embarking on a five-hour journey home.
It turns out flying would have taken me just as long getting home than the train would. Once you checked in and once you've
waited around and got your flight, and then waited for your luggage at the other end, and then travel back home from Gatwick,
which is really far from my house,
getting the train into London was way quicker, and way easier as well.
It means I can have a Diet Coke in my hand luggage.
So yeah, that is the first leg of the tour done. I've met with just around
seven hundred people.
Which is insane. And then with Summer in the City on top of that, it's like well over a thousand,
cause I met with five hundred people at Summer in the City, so-
I've met with a lot of people, seen a lot of faces,
written down a lot of names, written a lot of my own name. It got to the point
where at the end of our signing- So my brain- my name just stopped looking like my name and started looking like
squiggles on a page. So yeah, now I'm just waiting for Stephie, my lovely publicist. That's my little red case.
There.
Now I'm getting the train home, and I've got the weekend to chill out and see some family.
*click click*