You may not have seen me around on the blog or social media these last few weeks. That’s because I went on a two-week trip to Europe, from which I just returned a few days ago.
I had some novel research to do in various places, and the German edition of TERMS OF ENLISTMENT was released on June 15, so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and combine both occasions for a business trip. Heyne (my German publisher) hosted me at their office in Munich, and they organized a reading/signing for me at Otherland, a great SF/F indie bookstore in Berlin. In between, I visited my mother, who spends the summers at her vacation home in Croatia’s Istria region, and I squeezed in two days to see a good friend in London. It was a fantastic trip, albeit a very tiring one involving criss-crossing northern and central Europe a few times.
The reading/signing at Otherland was awesome. Made a bunch of new friends and read my work in German for the very first time, which was a novel experience (no pun intended.) They treated me like a rockstar and made me feel very welcome, and their store kicks some serious ass. If you’re ever in Berlin, you should go check them out (and tell them I said hi).
Currywurst, the most popular blue-collar fast food in Germany. You can get it just about everywhere. Even McDonald’s Germany offered it once upon a time as McCurrywurst, but they couldn’t compete with the traditional wurst stands.
My book! On the shelf! In a Berlin bookstore! (My awesome tour guide Charleen and I stopped at every book store we passed to check inventory, of course.)
There it is again, next to some genre heavyweights.
Marko Kloos im Otherland! I know that guy.
Seeing my name on those covers never gets old.
There were people there! And I didn’t even have to bribe most of them to come!
So yeah—lovely trip, met lots of readers, made new friends and reconnected with old ones, saw lots of sights, and had a blast. But after two weeks of GOGOGOGOGO, I’m also happy to be back home and get back to work.
Very nice, and congrats Marko!
Yeah, that was my first thought, too: Bier in a bookstore? Awright!
Is someone handing out beer in the bookstore?
That’s the way to sell books!