In addition to its being the official release date of my new fiction book SNAPSHOT, Friday the 28th of September witnessed a successful launch party In the Burley Fisher independent book shop on Kingsland Road in between Dalston Junction and Haggerston Overground stations.
Relief, I’m not going to lie, was the main emotion that I experienced at the end of this event; now being just a happy recent memory. Rather than something that I have to await with the delicious, yet lethally blended cocktail of acute trepidation topped with the potential of some exhilarated excitement.
Indeed, this was coupled with the president that I had set for this event, which being as futile as I knew it what comparisons to draw they were, was set by the 2 tremendously successful book launch’s that I threw at the One and Other’s studio’s in York and the Pub on the Park in East London.
The launches of Battling a Brain Injury: the life that Jack built and SNAPSHOT were different, though could thankfully be classed as equally successful affairs. I was still largely based up in York when my memoir came out and my non fictional novella about my dealing with trauma was released in 2014. This little book was fortunate enough to receive a wide amount of media coverage – due to the severity and harrowing nature of my injury – as much as for having any particular literary merit other than being a painstakingly frank, first person account of a brain injury. These first two events almost felt like a celebration just of my still being alive as much as any literary merit had by the book itself…
Whereas at the first London event, I was overwhelmed by the quantity of people from different strata’s of my life and I was still a little intimidated by the friend/ family combination back then! Although I was elated by the turnout, the little stresses that I felt preoccupied with overrode the actual event itself in my preoccupied mind. As the speech that I gave – which was memorable for all of the wrong reasons – acts as testament for, I can’t honestly say that I enjoyed much of the actual event!
Whereas I relished my experience at the delightful Burley Fisher bookshop on Friday. It felt like something more of a more intimate event experience and the friendliness of the shop itself definitely transcended to the event itself. And I actually enjoyed giving the speech!
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