So today, I went into Waterstone’s Hanley to share Waldo the Worm with the local people of Stoke on Trent.

I got to the car park by the Victoria Hall at about 9:30am, I had £4 on me in change but that only bought me 3 hours (rip off). I figured I would sort something out later in the day.

At Waterstone’s I met Christine, the lady who had sorted out and allowed me to come in today, we had a general chat about stuff and she told me that she was worried that the order for the 10 books wasn’t going to come in time, so she had ordered a further 6 books that were in Waterstone’s stores around the country. The original 10 came in time, so I had a total of 16 books to shift.

My stall was right by all the Stephenie Meyer stuff, I didn’t realise the impact her work has had on teen fiction, as there is now a ‘Dark Romance’  section packed with books that look similar to the Twilight saga. Maybe Waldo should become a vampire.

The Day started off quiet, but picked up around dinnertime, lots of lovely people came in for a chat, some people bought their kids and got involved in colouring Waldo in and sticking stickers about the place.  Here is a pic of my old school friend Adam and his boys Josh and Byron having a go at colouring Waldo a different colour.

I started to get worried about my car at about 11:30am, so I called my mum to see if she was coming up so she could bring some change, I don’t think she quite grasped the concept of time as she said she would come about 1pm, 30mins after my time on the car park expired, I explained the situation again, but she insisted she would see me at 1pm. So I resigned to the fact that I’d have a ticket on my car, the attendants are right sticklers on a Saturday.

It was an excellent day overall, I managed to sell 10 books!!! A lady had reserved a signed copy that I have left there, so lets call it 11!

I’d like to say a big thank you to Christine and all the Staff at Waterstone’s for letting me go in and making me drinks and letting me make a mess.

Also a big thank you to everyone who stopped by to show some support and have a chit chat! It would have been quite lonely otherwise.

One final thank you to the traffic wardens of Hanley, for not checking my car during the 90 mins it was without a ticket! Woo hoo!!

Next stop is the O2 Centre Waterstone’s in London. See you at the end of July