What's it Like to be a Superstar Author?

Last week I received a personal email from bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith. I was fortunate enough to meet him last year at the Baltimore Book Festival and found him to be a most entertaining and charming person.

In his email -- just as polite and charming as he was in person -- he described the National Book Festival in Washington DC as one of the most enjoyable book fairs he’s attended. He shared that he had been at the end of a two-week, 12-city book tour in the United States and then was on his way to another book tour in Canada.

As he typed his email, he said he was leaving in half an hour for another book tour -- in Italy -- followed by one in the United Kingdom. "And so it goes on!"

Sounds like his book tours are demanding. But for many writers -- myself included -- such a demanding book tour would be a dream come true!

The same weekend he spoke at the National Book Festival in DC, I read from my novel, TRACKS, at the Baltimore Book Festival.

"Perhaps our paths will cross at one of these events," Alexander McCall Smith said in his email.

That, too, would be a dream come true.

Visit Alexander McCall Smith his website.

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/mccallsmith/