Archives for posts with tag: book launch

So, the book is launched. I had my five minutes of fame, and now I am left with the minor problem of selling the print run. At the moment you can’t get the book anywhere else than in my office. And boy, every poor person who comes through the door, is greeted by three puppets and a grinning me. If they want it or not, they have to listen to my story and nobody leaves the room without having bought a book. It won’t be long and I will have exhausted all the people I know and I will  slide back into my hermit state, because everybody is avoiding me (just kidding).

Being a real artist, of course I have procrastinated the selling task.  I always said, once I have the books in my hot little hands, I will put them up on fishpond.co.nz (that is sort of the New Zealand answer to Amazon) and also on our own website. I dutifully read up about how to put a paypal button on a website and I am in the process of updating the website generally. Paypal says it takes 15 minutes to set up the button… Yeah right! I haven’t figured out yet, how you can charge different shipping costs for people here and overseas. But maybe I am just too tired now. Tomorrow is a public holiday in New Zealand and I will try with a fresh mind then. Thankfully, I have to sell books and not cream cakes. So it doesn’t matter if they are not sold by the weekend.

I have sent the 2 required copies to Legal Deposit Office of the National Library yesterday, that means that the book is now officially published in New Zealand. That’s at least something!

 

More launch images

I have put up a new page on my blog site with some images from the launch last week Thursday (click here). The images were taken by Sonya Roussina. It was really worthwhile to have a dedicated photographer there and not trying to take the images myself or ask my friends to do it.

I am pleased how well the format of the launch worked. It started at 7pm. The puppet show was scheduled for 7:15… I had asked my boss from the polytech, where I teach, to introduce me to the crowd before the puppet show. He was just brilliant. We had a talk for about 20 minutes and I could explain the art background of the puppets and my thoughts behind the entire project. And then I did a puppet show of maybe 5 minutes. Re-enacting what happened when the puppets found out that Hermit had written a book.

I am still smiling today…

author photo I just looked through the launch images my friend Renee had sent me.

I think this is a beautiful one of Hermit. It was taken right after the puppet show and the actors are pretty tired. Ducky, (the one in the foreground) wasn’t part of the actual show, but he has always something to say and wants to be centre stage. Pig (lying on the table) drank the entire bottle of snaps by itself and is now out of it.  Pirate (at the top) casts his good eye around for the next opportunity to make money. And Mouse (on the left) is just exhausted from running around all evening (tongue hanging out). Witch, Devil (very obscured) and Deutsch Fraulein are protecting Hermit from being recognised (:

Of course everybody knows by now Hermit is actually a Hermitess. It is the age of equal opportunity after all…

what's next

When I was tidying up in the Gallery yesterday, I overheard a conversation between Devil’s Advocate and Sunny Boy. Sunny was very excited how well everything went on Thursday night and said confidently we all could go on holiday now – The Gold Coast would be nice, thank you! He even suggested, I should pay for the entire troupe, as I must have made loads of money by selling the book. But Devil’s advocate has a good head on his shoulders and put Sunny right… He said: “This was only the beginning. The majority of work is still to come”. Ah, Sunny is such a dreamer…

So, that was it… the big night… the launch of the Hermit’s Web book. To be honest, I was totally overwhelmed. It was such a wonderful crowd. In the picture above  (taken by Sonya Roussina) they are engaged in watching the dede puppet show. I still haven’t processed all my thoughts about the event. It was just very very exciting.  A big big Thank You to all those who came along. We were close to a hundred people of all ages and the vibes were just fantastic.

And of course a specially big Thank You goes out to all the people who helped me on the night. You were all just brilliant and made my life so easy (:

Sonya took a lot of pictures and I will put a good selection up next week on a seperate page. I just love to see all the smiling faces in the photographs.

While I was doing the puppet show, I didn’t see much, but I clearly felt the excitement of the spectators and I am looking forward to seeing all the other photos.

So, it is all set up for the big night at the Gallery. Here L’artiste, Detail and Skeleton are having a chat about what to expect. They don’t seem to be particularly happy campers. I will report tomorrow how they liked it.

I still have to do some name plates for the puppets, but most importantly, the wine is in the fridge… I even rehearsed my puppet show this morning at breakfast with two spectators. They had some really good input. My biggest problem will be to make sure, I am not laughing the loudest about my own jokes.

Hermit is on a creative break today… I have to organise the last bits and pieces for the launch tomorrow night, like building puppet stands.

I’ve also got the first books from the bookbinder yesterday, hurrah. They are looking great… But there are only 14! so far. I will get another installment today and one tomorrow afternoon.

scared villain This should have been the villain in the puppet show.

Looking at him now, he looks just plain scared, not scary. If I were a puppet, I guess, that would be me at the moment.

I am soooo looking forward to my breakfast on Friday, when it is all over…

rest a while

I am getting increasingly nervous about Thursday and the book launch. The printed books should have arrived today, I’ve just heard, the bookbinder hasn’t finished them yet. They are now promised for Wednesday. This is a  bit of stress I don’t really need. I am trying to work through all the other items on the list in the meantime. And put some calming images up on the blog for now…

CarefulThe book launch is exactly one week away now.

Last night I worked on even more new puppets. I really shouldn’t… there is still so much other stuff to do… I haven’t even build the puppet theatre yet! It’s only in my mind.  I wonder if I will start freaking out at one stage (that might not be a pretty sight for the people around me!). I haven’t asked for RSVP on the invitation, so I have no idea how many people will come. I have heard from a few people who won’t be able to make it, though.