They Have Authors Guest Blogging? Why, I Oughta...

The Huffington Post scores a major literary coup as A.L. Kennedy blogs her road trip. And as much as I love her prose, I don't think I'm ever going to want to sit next to her on an airplane, but then she could've guessed that:

"And so I find myself--in my aisle seat for easy egress and circulation--checking for my lifebelt, wishing I had a smoke hood and grimacing through the pre-flight checks and take off. Beyond that I simply become the person you would least like to sit beside for any time at all. I shudder convulsively, I smear myself with moisturiser, I spray water, drink water, dribble water, wring my hands, get up and walk about, badger my neck collar and occasionally moan like an injured dog."

After that, it pretty much turns into your standard issue "book tours are hell on writers" story, only because it's A.L. Kennedy it's a bit more engrossing, plus the HuffPo audience probably hasn't seen a hundred of these already, the way bookfolk have. Still, the first reader comment seems to sum up the entire archetypal book tour experience: "i've never heard of you but maybe i'll read something thanks."

(Speaking of the author tour horrorshow, Patricia (Booklust) Storms has whipped up some amusing antidotes.)