Silent Saturday in Belgium!

On Friday I flew back to Belgium for the launch of my upcoming thriller Silent Saturday. The book is actually being published in the UK on Thursday 4th April, but since it is set in Belgium I particularly wanted to be there on Silent Saturday itself, which was 30th March this year. Waterstone's Brussels and Treasure Trove Books in Tervuren were kind enough to indulge this wish, and the Logistics Fairies were also kind enough to make sure that stock of the book was available a few days early especially for the events.

I hadn't actually been back to Belgium for over a year, although I spend nearly every working day in "virtual Flanders", and specifically in Ghent at the moment, as my current work-in-progress, The Demons of Ghent, is set there. I am pretty well settled in my new home in Scotland, but I do miss Belgium a lot, and when we touched down I had to resist the urge to kiss the tarmac like the Pope, which might have raised a few eyebrows!

I must say it was wonderful to be back. I loved living abroad, and the thrill of having my feet on foreign soil just never palls as far as I am concerned. Belgium was the first foreign country I ever visited, when I was just 13 years old, and I still haven't had enough of it. There wasn't time to do much sightseeing because I had a fairly tight schedule, but I did manage to slip away for a bit and pay a visit to this little fellow:

I've seen him probably dozens of times before, but I love to drop by and hear people saying, "Ooh, he's much smaller than I expected" in all sorts of different languages! Someone always does it. I took a German friend to see the Manneken Pis a few years ago and I told her that the tourists always say that. Sure enough, a British couple standing next to us obliged with those very words!

Anyway, to return to the launch events, many thanks to everyone who came to listen to me talking about Silent Saturday and bought signed copies at Waterstone's on Saturday and Treasure Trove on Sunday. If you wanted to come but were unable to, there is a limited number of signed copies available at Waterstone's (Adolphe Maxlaan, near City 2) and Treasure Trove will shortly have more stock of the book with signed bookplates. 

Below are some pics from the event at Waterstone's! 

 

I've got one final pic I just had to include. When I got back to Zaventem airport on Sunday evening for my flight home (sniff!) I saw this brilliant poster!

As you'll know if you've read my previous blog posts, Silent Saturday (Stille Zaterdag in Flemish) is so called because on that day the church bells do not ring; instead they supposedly fly to Rome to collect Easter eggs from the Pope. This advertisement for Brussels Airport has used the idea to suggest an Easter break by air!