A world event, no less…

Two blogs in as many days, I know, but today is a special day in the Holland household…

Today is the world premiere of Spider-Man, Far From Home in Los Angeles starring some kid called Tom Holland who also happens to be central to one of the best non-fiction books ever written, Eclipsed (although has yet to enjoy anything like the recognition (and sales) that it warrants).

Anyway, back to today…

Nikki has just called from LA.

‘How’s Tom?’ I ask.

‘Not sure. Haven’t seen him yet.’

‘Really? How come? Do you need an appointment now to see him, these days?’ (Apparently this is a thing with certain stars of a certain size and stature)

‘He flew in from NY late last night having done the Seth Meyer TV show. He didn’t get to the hotel until 2am. He’s doing the premiere tonight. I’ll see him then.’

‘Okay, great. And tomorrow, what? Chill out by the pool. Catch up. Tell him about my news?’ (there isn’t any)

‘No, tomorrow, Tom and Harry head straight to Korea for Asian press and then a premiere I think…’

Poor kid – he works his guts out and commits so completely to his studio – albeit he loves his job, the role and he does know how very blessed and lucky he is.

But in this, Tom is demonstrating an admirable work ethic and a show-biz professionalism that he has inherited directly from his dad, which sadly has been wasted since I have never needed it, ever – not even in my heyday – (and I use this word – heyday – in the singular sense of the word).

In the last few weeks, Tom has appeared on The Graham Norton in London, The Seth Meyer Show and Stephen Colbert Shows in NY, Jimmy Fallon Show in LA… a raft of similar shows in Beijing. Plus the same in Bali. He has done literally hundreds of radio and online interviews, plus press interviews – the most important one being with Myra Ali on behalf of Debra and the Brothers Trust… (see my previous blog)

Harry has been recording this PR machine and making videos the world over – which to date have been viewed over 130 million times across Tom’s and Sony’s platforms…

All for a film about a boy in lycra that took just 10 weeks to make.

Really?

I,Gabriel on the other hand (my latest novel) which has taken well over 18 months to make (write) – is available now to pre-order and will be published worldwide (this sounds glamorous but it just means, online) (which is worldwide) on 29th July 2019… (and is the world event that I allude in the title of this post)

To date, my publicity coups for this momentous event in the arts is a single blog post (by me), a short story called The Surgeon) published on-line (by me) and a post of the jacket of I,Gabriel on Instagram (mine, @dommoholland)

I have emailed a PR agent (prforbooks.co.uk) with a view to appointing them (for money) – and they have not even replied.

Pre-sales remain reluctant (even paltry) and yet I still think that this book is going to confound all the odds and take off. (Classic delusion, bordering on insanity)

So enjoy the premiere tonight, Tom, Sam, Harry and Nikki – and if Spider-Man Far From Home does not enjoy the success that we all hope for, then fear not, because I, Gabriel is locked and loaded and believe me, game changer does not even begin to do it justice…