The Book Tour
It seems like I've been traveling for months. First came the Indian book tour in January, where I went to five different cities: Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Jaipur. I wrote an article about this which just came out in the June 2008 issue of Outlook Traveller (India).
Next came a 15 city US tour, which took most of February and a little of March. The most memorable part was, as usual, the Bay area - lots of good friends and good food, not to mention great weather. (I keep asking myself why I don't live there.) I had tough competition during the tour from an unexpected quarter: the Obama Clinton contest was in full swing throughout. But I got some great coverage - for instance a radio interview on New America Media.
After that, a couple of cities in the UK and Ireland, followed by a quick dash to Toronto for a reading at Harbourfront on March 26.
In April, I only did local events, but come May, I was back on the road. Back to Mumbai to do a Math/Writing event at the American Center (a powerpoint presentation called "The Mathematics of Fiction" which went really well), followed by a reading at Oxford Bookstore. From there, I went to France to meet my French editor (also my French translator). Then on to Wales, for the Hay on Wye Book Festival (one of the highlights was watching a show at the circus run by my UK editor's stepdaughter).
The next stop was a Mathematics conference in Helsinki, Finland, to celebrate the 60th birthday of my friend and research collaborator Professor Juhani Pitkaranta. The Finns really know how to celebrate - the conference dinner was held at an amazing restaurant on the water, where we feasted on Arctic Char and watched the sunset (which occurred at around 10 p.m.).
The final stop of this 32 day trip was a few days in London to meet up with Pakistani and Indian writer friends.
In June, there was an event in New York at the Asian American Writers' Workshop, where I read with the talented new Sri Lankan author V.V. Ganeshananthan. Then came the week-long Aspen Literary Festival (see separate entry to be posted shortly).
In July, I intend to rest.