Posted from Denver

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"How did you survive the other night?" my Media Escort asks the bookstore owner, and immediately I know. "Let me guess," I say. "David Sedaris?" They groan in happy misery, having been up until 2:00 in the morning for one of his legendarily long book signings. "He's trying to set a world record," someone tells me.

Everywhere I go, it seems, David Sedaris has been there before me. And now I discover that he'll be signing books at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena the night before I'm due there. I can see it now, the fatigued bookstore clerks, the empty store that had been crammed with Sedaris fans only hours before. I am the clean-up crew, following in his wake. It's a good thing I'm one of his fans.

The LongPen

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Let's face it: Margaret Atwood was mocked for creating the LongPen. It didn't help that the first Big Event failed. But now it works and I hear it talked about in the U.S. — someone had seen it in an Ann Arbor bookstore, seen A Wolf at the Table being signed by Augustan Burroughs, who was in New York. "A miracle!" They didn't even know that our Margaret Atwood had created it. "And we scoffed," I confessed, but proudly.

Week one

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It's Saturday, I'm in Philadelphia, and I'm one week into my tour. I have more energy now than when I started. In fact, I could get used to this. I've seen lots of Connecticut by car, flown from New York to Boston, and gone by train from Boston to Philadelphia.

I've signed a zillion books at bookstores — called "signing stock" — and my hand hasn't given out. I'm a Sharpie fan! All through Connecticut, store clerks would ask, "Do you have a Sharpie?" (Not, "Do you have a pen?") Kelly Bowen, my publicist would laugh: "She's got one."

One clerk didn't understand that we were there to sign books. He handed me a copy of Mistress of the Sun. "Have you been waiting long for the new Sandra Gulland?"

"I'm Sandra Gulland, and yes, I've been waiting long." It made my day.

Trish Todd, my publisher, warned me that book sales were down throughout the country, and that turn-outs might be sparce. There seem always to be enough, though, and invariably there are a few present who are huge fans, who make it all worthwhile.

On the Road (at 63): travel advice for ageing authors

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An unhappy thumb is a wonderful problem to have to deal with, since it's caused by swarms of fans wanting their book signed. The Calgary reading was one of my favorites — intimate, yet of a good size. They forgave my stumbling delivery. (Note to self: write my talk out, experiment with reading different sections, practice.) And then they bought books and lined up to have them signed.

I write out names before I sign because people often want me to sign more than one, and I fear misspelling a name. And so I have a record, neatly recorded in the lovely Moleskin I thought would be for recording thoughts about my next novel, but was rather quickly taken over by promotion notes. So: at my Toronto launch in February, I signed for 28. This was considered a smashing success: many had more than one book to be signed, and several, as well, only wanted a signature.

In Calgary, however, I signed for 46! Many, many of these were for more than one book. It seemed like I was signing for a very long time — an hour and a half? (Impossible, surely.)

The next morning, in Vancouver, my right thumb showed signs of stress. This worried me: if my thumb completely gives out, I'm incapable of shaking a hand, much less holding a pen — much less writing.

Add to survival gear list: an ergonomic pen.