I can’t believe how lucky I am to have a fan like Jill. She took Shades of Gray on a worldwide cruise (New Zealand to her home in England) and had a few adventures. So we all get a few great pics to look at!
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I saw the request on your website in February for photos of your book in some of the places it was sent. That request came at an interesting time for me – I was about to leave New Zealand, where I’d been living for a year, to return home to England and I was taking the slow route back by sea to visit some places along the way. I thought it could be quite fun if I found somewhere good to get a shot in each of these. So your book lived in my bag for a couple of months and I took pictures of it everywhere.
By coincidence – or perhaps it was a cosmic joke – when I got on board in Auckland I found out that there had been drug trafficking on the cruise ship. Apparently a couple of people had been arrested in San Francisco for trying to import coke. The word in the launderette (the hotbed of shipboard rumour) was that it had been brought on in the Caribbean, possibly St Lucia – but that’s mere conjecture….
Gandhi’s Bedroom – Mumbai The Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
That wasn’t the end of the story though as there was another incident in Sydney a few days later. Another member of the gang tried to get off the ship carrying more drugs inside the wetsuit that he wore under his normal clothes. A bit of a feeble attempt really – the dogs weren’t fooled and he was arrested. We were then the subject of really close attention from the Aussie customs officials – I even had an unannounced visit in my cabin from a customs officer with a sniffer dog!
With the Sphinx at the Pyramids The Parthenon, Greece
Anyway, suffice to say I wasn’t shouting much about the plot of the book I was taking photos of for a bit…
Once we were further on in the cruise, and the furore had died down a bit, I had any number of discussions about your book with people who were intrigued to know what I was doing, so you’ve had quite a bit of promotion. You’ll even see a small part of some of the people (their fingers or thumbs) as all sorts of people held the book so I could catch it in the corner of the photo. I also became quite adept at holding the camera somewhere near my right ear and holding the book out at arm’s length so I could complete the shot myself.
As I went on, I took more and more photos because there were so many great places … please feel free to keep copies of those you like and ignore those that aren’t of interest!
So I owe you a big THANK YOU. I’ve got a lot of fun from your book, and not just from the photo challenge. I really enjoyed reading it. I became really involved with the characters and didn’t see the ending coming, so it was quite emotional at the end.
Many thanks then from the owner of a well travelled and now rather battered signed copy of your book. Looking forward to the next one.
Andy Holloman - Dad, Writer, Goofball 
Love the koala in the background photo 🙂 But, then again, I’ve often been mistaken for a marsupial. Very cool, Andy.
bro hug!
All this is really impressive, i like alot,with this kind of fans, you are really lucky Andy, and the picture of the Koala, that´s the most sweet thing that i´ve saw. I am touched.
Very cool!
u r very cool!