One ARC. 90 days. How many stops can it make?
My debut novel, THE NATIVE STAR, hits the shelves on August 31. To celebrate I’m conducting a Transcontinental ARC Tour! One special custom-bound ARC will be making it’s way across the United States. Will it make it through the hands of almost 20 readers, writers & bloggers? All within 90 days?* We shall see!
Where’s the ARC today?
| 8/30/10 | The ARC has made it safely to California. Once again, I had to resend it from Oregon City because the postal service doesn’t like my little game of having tour participants send it with the name of their favorite character as the recipient. So I think I’ll have to tell the remaining folks on the tour not to do that, and just to address it to “ARC Tour Participant.” I wonder if the postal service will like that better? They probably will, those damn humorless bureacrats. |
| 8/20/10 | The ARC left Salt Lake City, arrived in Albuquerque NM, and is now leaving Albuquerque, NM! Next (3) stop(s), California. Hurry up, little ARC! Only 11 more stations before you make it back home! |
| 8/9/10 | Just as easy as eight, nine, ten … the ARC has left Texas and is on its way to Salt Lake City, UT. Interestingly enough, the first transcontinental railroad (built between 1863 and 1869) did NOT pass through either of the biggest cities in the Great American Desert—namely Denver or Salt Lake City. Lots of interesting political reasons behind that. I’m reading all about them in Nothing Like It In The World; The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863–1869 by Stephen E. Ambrose. |
| 7/29/10 | The ARC is on it’s way to its LAST stop in Austin, TX! Keep on truckin’, little ARC! |
| 7/17/10 | The ARC has made it back to Texas (that was fast!) This transcontinental ARC tour is turning out to be even more transcontinental than I expected. One more stop in Texas, and then on to Salt Lake City, UT! |
| 7/14/10 | The ARC has hit it’s first–and second!–snag. It arrived back on my doorstep today, marked “Undeliverable.” Part of the ARC game is that all the readers are supposed to remain anonymous, so when a reader sends the ARC on to the next address, I’ve asked that they address it to the name of their favorite character in the book. Well, the US Post Office apparently doesn’t think very highly of this. So I wrote the person’s REAL name on the package and sent it back off … only to discover that I’d written the wrong name on there! (I counted on my faulty memory instead of consulting the list. Foolish me.) So it may be coming back to me yet again. Ah well, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey, right? |
| 6/30/10 | THE NATIVE STAR is blazing across Texas … well, across *Austin* at any rate. It has already left for it’s second stop! |
| 6/29/10 | Per the USPS tracking information, the ARC arrived in Austin, TX yesterday. It has *three* (count ‘em) *three* stops to make in Austin, so it may be a while before it escapes the unique gravity of the Lone Star State … |
| 6/26/10 | The ARC arrived in St. Louis, Missouri and has now left for Austin, TX! Fly, little ARC! Fly like the wind! |
| 6/17/10 | The ARC has now LEFT Vancouver and is winging its way to Missouri. Updates when it gets there! |
| 6/15/10 | Can you believe that the ARC did not make it to Vancouver, BC until the 15th of June? Jeez, Canadian Postal Service! |
| 5/27/10 | The ARC went out to the first address on the list today! The “official” launch date of the game is May 31, but since the ARCs first stop is out of the United States, I thought it made sense to give it a bit of extra time to get there. Next stop … Missouri! |
*NOTE: As of August 31, 2010 there are still several stops left on the tour. And since it’s my tour and I can do what I want to, I’m going to let it keep going until it makes it’s way to every single participant. For those who care about such things, in 90 days the ARC managed to make it through seven out of seventeen stops. It would have made it further if I hadn’t incurred the return-to-sendery wrath of the U.S. Post Office. But hey, I’m a girl who pushes boundaries. A big huge THANK YOU to all the amazing participants!
