Sunday Times

Last week I gave an interview to Sunday Times about "Look Wot I Dun" and today you can read the outcome in the paper.

Book signing in Stereo Studio, Silkeborg, Denmark

Saturday the 9th of October Don and I did a book signing in Don's Danish "hometown" Silkeborg. It was the record store Stereo Studio that had invited us and when we arrived a quarter to one on that Saturday noon, the shop was already crowded with people who wanted to buy the book and have it signed by Don and me.

Some of the people had ordered their books in advance and that was a good thing, because within 20 minutes every single book in the shop was gone. As there weren't enough books, some people bought Slade CDs instead and had Don sign them. Others had brought their own old LPs and had them signed.

At the signing we met our old friend Jonas, the drummer of Danish band The Guv'nors with whom Don has worked in 2007. It was great seeing him again. We also met 4 guys from my hometown Odense who had travelled all the way to Silkeborg to have their books sign - because they hadn't been aware of the book signing in Odense on October 22! When Don had to leave for a birthday party straight after the book signing, these 4 guys invited me on a drink in a nearby pub, so that I wouldn't have to stand alone at the station for an hour, waiting for my train to arrive. Thanks guys! I hope to see them again in February 8th, 2014, where Slade will be playing in Naestved in Denmark - their first Danish gig in ages!

UK "Look Wot I Dun" Waterstones book signings (Don Powell only)

There will be 6 book signings in the UK to tie in with Slade's Xmas tour, but only Don will be present at the signings as I can't afford to go and the publishing company doesn't pay for a book signing tour. Anyway, you can buy a copy of the book and have it signed by Don (only) at these Waterstones book stores:

Wednesday November 6th at 1pm
Waterstones, The Tontines Centre, Parliament Row, Hanley
Stoke-on-Trent ST1 1PW


Monday November 11th at 1pm
Waterstones, 15-19 Buttermarket
Ipswich IP1 1BQ


Tuesday November 26th at 12.30pm
Waterstones, 24-26 Orchard Square
Sheffield S1 2FB


Thursday November 28th at 6pm
Waterstones, Emerson Chambers, Blackett Street
Newcastle NE1 7JF


Monday December 2nd at 5pm
Waterstones, 174-176 Argyle Street
Glasgow G2 8BT


Thursday December 5th at 12.30
Waterstones, 28-29 High Ousegate
York YO1 8RX

Hopefully more bookstores will be added throughout December.

Look Wot I Dun for Kindle

The book is now available as an ebook for Kindle at Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FSV7JI2

Thank you Chris Selby and Gary Jordan for telling me, as we haven't been told by Omnibus Press.

"Look Wot I Dun" promotion in Odense, Denmark

After a slow start in the Moby Disc Records shop in Odense yesterday afternoon where only a handful of people came to buy the book and have it signed, things improved in the evening where Odense Music Library hosted a talk/Q&A with Don and me. So many people turned up that the Music Library had to put up more chairs!

The event at the Music Library lasted for 1½ hours with me introducing myself and the book in Danish before Don joined in and we talked about his life for about 40 minutes. After a short intermission where people were able to buy beer and soft drinks, the audience asked Don questions and had their books and other stuff signed by Don and me. By the end of the day, most of the books from Moby Disc Records had been snapped up after all.

Don and I had a lovely day and it was fun saying hi to so many of you. A big thank you to all of you who turned up!

The first Danish promotion

My local paper, Fyens Stiftstidende, wrote a bit about the talk/Q&A that Don and I are going to do here in Odense, Denmark, on October 22:

Dansk/English update:

"Look Wot I Dun" promotion i Danmark 2013

Her er programmet for det danske reklamefremstød i 2013:

22. oktober: Don og jeg signerer bøger i Moby Disc Records, Nørregade 39, 5000 Odense C. kl. 15-16.

22. oktober: Du kan møde Don og mig på Odense Musikbibliotek, Østre Stationsvej 39, 5000 Odense C. kl. 19, hvor vi vil snakke om bogen, vores samarbejde og Dons liv. Foredraget varer ca. 1 time incl. en kort pause, hvor man kan købe øl og vand. Herefter bliver der åbnet for spørgsmål fra salen. Arrangementet er gratis.

9. november: Don og jeg signerer bøger i Stereo Studio, Søndergade 2C, 8600 Silkeborg kl. 13-14.

Der bliver ikke yderligere promotion i Danmark i år, da Don er på juleturné med Slade, men der kommer efter alt at dømme flere bogsigneringer og foredrag i januar 2014.


"Look Wot I Dun" promotion in Denmark 2013

The schedule for the Danish promotion this year looks like this:

October 22: Don and I will be signing books in Moby Disc Records, Norregade 39, 5000 Odense C., between 3 and 4 p.m.

October 22: Don and I will do a talk/Q&A at Odense Music Library, Ostre Stationsvej 33, 5000 Odense C, at 7 p.m. The event last about 1½ hours and we'll talk about the biography and Don's life. After a short intermission where you'll be able to buy soft drinks and beer, you can ask us questions. There is no admission fee.

November 9: Don and I will be signing books in Stereo Studio, Sondergade 2C, 8600 Silkeborg, between 1 and 2 p.m.

We can't do any more promotion in Denmark this year, as Don is on Christmas tour with Slade, but more book signings and/or talks will be added in January 2014.

Book signings in the West Midlands

Last weekend I went to the West Midlands in the UK to sign books with Don Powell. People were able to buy "Look Wot I Dun" - the authorised biography that I have written about Don - ten days ahead of the official release date. Friday we were taken to Waterstones in Wolverhampton by Matt Bourne, the National Account Manager with Omnibus Press, and it was a lovely surprise seeing people queuing all the way out into the street!

Don and I had to sign some pre-ordered books upstairs first, so we were a little late for the actual book signing, but at 12.10 p.m. it all started. For the next 90 minutes we signed around 120 books, although we were only supposed to sign books for 60 minutes! It was great seeing so many of you there and even Don's sister Carol and her husband Gerald turned up to the surprise of Don! After the book signing we did an interview with The Express and Star, which went online Monday.

 After the book signing Don had a charity event at the Connaught Hotel in Wolverhampton - "Afternoon tea with Don Powell" in support of the National Autistic Society - and again it was great seeing so many of you. Afterwards we did an interview to The Midlands Rocks, which I hope went well.

Saturday Matt Bourne and his wife took me to Waterstones in Walsall where we met up with Don. We signed some posters for the on the first floor and when we got back down into the bookstore, there was a long queue of people all the way through room and Don and I were happy to sign over 50 copies within 40 minutes. In Walsall many of my friends turned up too and it was great seeing them and the rest of you there. The past twenty minutes of the book signing we spent signing books for people who had pre-ordered and we signed every single copy of the book in the store so that people would be able to buy signed copies even after we had left. After the book signing we went back to the Connaught Hotel to do an interview with Classic Rock Radio - one of the few who has realised that I wrote the book and not Don! I think the interview went well and after that Don and his stepson went down to London, whereas I went back to Sutton Coldfield by Birmingham. All in all a wonderful weekend and thank you so much for your kind support!

A photo a day countdown, day 7

This is the last of the countdown photos. Hope you've enjoyed them all. I'm looking forward to seeing some of you tomorrow in Wolverhampton and Saturday in Walsall. When I get back to Denmark next week, I'll update you on the Danish promotion of Look Wot I Dun. You'll be able to buy the book and have it signed by Don and me in both Odense and Silkeborg. Or you can just come say hi at our Q&A event in Odense. More to follow...

A photo a day countdown, day 6

Sepia coloured Don and me!

A photo a day countdown, day 5

 

Today we are going totally Psycho Jello. And yes, I DID write a biography about The Monkees, too!

A photo a day countdown, day 4

Here we are at the beautiful Silkeborg lakes. Notice the dramatic effect!

A photo a day countdown, day 3

 

Another shot, this time we're in Don's living room. I ought to tell you that most of the photos that I post here you won't see anywhere else because they aren't suited for the press. And brace yourself: tomorrow we go psychedelic!

A photo a day countdown, day 2

This one is shot on Don's balcony by my daughter Tea. Hope you like it!

A photo a day countdown, day 1

 

I've decided to do a photo a day countdown to the book signing in Wolverhampton on Friday. Yes, I know that on the Waterstones website it says that Don is the author of "Look Wot I Dun" and that he alone will be signing books in Wolverhampton on Friday and Walsall on Saturday, but don't you believe it! I'm still the author and I WILL be at both signings!

Anyway, some of you have already seen the photo of the day as I uploaded it to Twitter some days ago. I'm a Twitter person, so you'll find much more stuff about the book and about me there than here or on Facebook. My Twitter account is: http://www.twitter.com/LiseFalkenberg

Like the rest of the new promo photos it is my daughter Tea who shot it.

Promo shoot

As Omnibus Press doesn't have a budget for promotion, Don and I had to do our own promotion shoot for the biography. Tuesday I therefore went to Silkeborg in Denmark, where Don lives, to do some photos. I had my daughter Tea with me and she shot the photos.

By chance our editor Chris Charlesworth had sent an advance copy of the book to Don and we used it in some of the shots. I didn't get an advance copy as I'm "just" the author and as such not treated very well. I've been an author for almost 30 years and I've always had great working relationships with publishers world wide, so it's weird that this particular company has decided to totally ignore me. Seven years of hard work writing the actual biography doesn't seem to count for anything, so I have to buy my advance copy at Waterstones in Wolverhampton next week like everyone else!

Anyway, the photo that you see here we are probably not going to send to the press, but I love it anyway. A bird flew by just as Tea shot the photo and Don is watching the birdie, haha!

Mød Don Powell i Danmark/Meet Don Powell in Denmark

Dansk:
Jeg har den glæde at kunne fortælle jer, at Don og jeg holder et lille foredrag på Musikbiblioteket i den gamle banegård, Østre Stationsvej 33, 5000 Odense C., tirsdag den 22. oktober kl. 19.

Jeg snakker lidt om min biografi "Look Wot I Dun", som jeg har skrevet om Don, og som udkommer på det engelske Omnibus Press forlag den 14. oktober, og Don taler om sit liv. Herefter vil der blive mulighed for at stille spørgsmål.

Arrangementet varer ca. 1½ time, det er gratis - og så er der mulighed for at købe øl og vand i pausen!

P.S. Vi kan desværre ikke sælge biografien på Musikbiblioteket, men hvis I allerede har bestilt den via Amazon.co.uk, så tag den med, og vi signerer den!


English:
Now you can meet Don Powell and me in my hometown Odense in Denmark, namely in the Music Library, Oestre Stationsvej 33, 5000 Odense C., Tuesday the 22nd of October at 7 p.m.

Here I'll talk a bit about the biography "Look Wot I Dun" that I wrote about Don and Don is going to talk about his life. You'll be able to ask us questions afterwards. There is no admission fee.

The event is going to last about 1½ hours incl. a short intermission where you'll be able to buy soft drinks and beer, and although we won't be able to sell the biography at the Music Library, we'll be happy to sign it, if you bring it along. You can already pre-order copies at Amazon.co.uk.

Book signings

Don is going to sign copies of "Look Wot I Dun" in the Waterstones book shops in Wolverhampton and Walsall in the UK on respectively the 4th and the 5th of October. These signings are early opportunities to purchase my biography about Don as the publication date remains as October 14th.

Originally only Don had been asked by the publishing company to do the book signings (which everybody found very strange, me being the author of the biography), but then some of you wrote the company and spoke your mind and that helped. I've now been told that I can join Don and participate in the book signings. Thank you so much for your help and support in this. It means a lot to me and hopefully I'll now be able to meet some of you in either Wolverhampton or Walsall!

At the moment Don and I are planning our own book signings and talks/Q&A sessions in Denmark and maybe Omnibus Press is going come up with more book signings in the UK as well. Dates to follow…

Final cover

Here it is, the new "improved" cover where my name is finally spelled right! It's still difficult to see that Don is a drummer, though, and NOT a Noddy clone. It's difficult to see that the title of the book is "Look Wot I Dun" and NOT "My Life in Slade". It's difficult to see that I wrote the book and NOT Don. And it's difficult to see that the book is about Don's amnesia too and NOT just about his work with Slade. What it's not difficult to see is, however, that Don and I had no say in how the cover ended up looking as this is definitely NOT what we wanted! But to be honest, we were never told about the cover and didn't know it had been made until we saw it on Amazon! But here it is and I guess, although we had imagined it a lot different, it could have been worse. They could have spelled my name wrong or something…oh, wait! They did, didn't they? And didn't correct it until last week….
Be assured thought, that despite the cover being misleading, the book itself is what Don and I wanted, telling the true story of an ordinary man with an extraordinary job and his lifelong struggle with amnesia that altered his personality and changed his life forever. We hope you're gonna like it! :-)

Photos finished

We finished picking the photos for the biography a week ago and it was a long and troublesome process. Originally we'd sent the publisher 33 photos for the biography, but the photo editor wanted more, so we sent her another 19, the final number being 52. At least for a while. Then the number was cut down to 32 of which only 17 of our original photos were used as well as 7 from our "second choice" batch. The remaining 8 photos the publishers picked from the usual Slade/Don Powell promotional pics from the 1970s.

The selection is okay, I guess, but it was sad to see so many old and rare photos being rejected and replaced by Slade photos that we have all seen a hundred times before. This was done in the name of promotion, but I think the rare photos would have done the book a greater favour than the usual Slade photos. Oh well… Hopefully I'll be able to show you some of the rejected pics here sometime.

Biography cover

I saw the biography cover for the first time today. They have spelled my name wrong....

Express & Star

This article was in the Express & Star yesterday: http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/07/04/i-still-cant-remember-tragic-crash-says-slade-drummer-don-powell/

Originally it said that the book was an autobiography, but they changed that after they had talked to me. I like it better than the misleading article in Sunday Mercury last week. I'll write a bit more about that soon, but until then; enjoy the Express & Star article!

Sunday Mercury

Here's the link to the Sunday Mercury article about the biography: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/slade-drummer-don-powell-facing-4750241 Unfortunately the interview that I gave to the paper didn't make it to this online version, but the comments from Don and Chris Charlesworth are there. Can't wait to see the paper version as there should be more photos and a longer article.

Promo

The promo for the biography has started. Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, UK) did an interview with me last week and the journalist managed to get hold of Don for a comment yesterday. Hopefully the article is going to be in the paper this Sunday.

Photos

I heard from the photo editor today. She wants MORE photos. Usually they want less! :-D

Back flap bios

At the moment I'm writing the short author bio that is to go on the back flap of the book. As Don has been made the co-author of the book for commercial reasons, the editor is writing his back flap bio, so I only have to write my own.

Copy edits

I finished going through the copy edits of the biography earlier this week. Had to send it back to the publishers 3 times before things were okay, but now it looks fine.

Copy editing

The copy editor has finished work on Don's biography and at the moment I'm going through the edits. I've seen the finished back cover text as well and it looks fine.

Signed

Don and I have signed with Omnibus Press. You can already pre-order the hardcover edition of Don's biography on Amazon.co.uk:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Look-Wot-Dun-Powell-Slade/dp/1783050403

Contract

I'm happy to tell you that Don and I have now received the contract for his biography. More to follow soon...

The cat is out of the bag

As it seems that everybody already knows - especially now that Don has told it on Twitter - I might as well come clean too: yes, it is true that we have found a publisher for the biography. I have negotiated the deal with their editor most of December, and the reason why I have kept it a secret is that we haven't received or signed the contract, yet. I had hoped to keep it a secret until the contract was signed, but alas… Oh well, now you all know.