I'm gone. Tonight, it has to be the words first and then I can end with the pictures.

Today flew by.  It was far shorter 11 to 5 - the Sunday Waterstone's hours.  Although it was 6 by the time I had packed up and the manager Rob still hadn't left his office.  One of the many things I've learnt this week is just how hard Waterstone's staff work.  Sometimes when I arrived at 9 Rob had been there since 6 and he was always still there when I left.  It takes a lot of hard work and patience to run a bookshop.

This morning Kevin (the film-maker) arrived to do a few extra shots for the little five minute epic he's making; friends visited and I sold them books; strangers talked to me and bought books.  I answered more questions - my favourite from today, 'How can I get my brother in law to like me?'  And a question I've been asked several times this week, 'I'm writing a book should I go to a publishers or should I self-publish?' I look at my watch and wonder how long I have to answer this question.  Some people have read the note on the window that I put up, 'If I took your photo you may be able to see it here' and I've given this blog address - so they have started asking if they can have their photo taken.  I signed books, went on taking photos and gave away the last ten balloons.

Also I've started to receive emails about this blog :-) Some from local residents saying that all the smiling faces have made them feel better about the community after the riots and some from people that live in other countries but have somehow  (through the wonders of Twitter I suspect) started following and say that the warmth in the faces has warmed their hearts.  They have certainly warmed mine. 

Still I get the question about what I did all day and I’ve had requests for more pictures of what happened my side of the window… so let’s show you a bit of the author and then end this gig with more of the wonderful faces of Battersea.  

Here I'm asked to 'Look as if you're doing your meditation but with your eyes open' 

This is any example of why taking phone calls 'in window' doesn't work too well.  Especially if it's someone phoning with a problem.  Looking worried 'in window' is really not the way to go. One is a living mannequin after all.

In the second half of the week I gave up even the 10 minutes a day I had allocated to playing with my new ukulele but when I did play it I explained to passers by that I was on page 2 of book 1. 

Sometimes I was visited by a person who I greeted with a the 'Namaste' that salutes the God within... 

This is a reader who, having read my beloved book, 'For Tibet, With Love' - has returned to buy another copy as a gift for a friend. 

One day I sold a book to two inexplicably tall people.  This pleased me greatly.

Occasionally I attempted to do some work.  The attempt usually abandoned after about five minutes.

I became very relaxed in my public viewing room

Only leaving once or twice a day to answer the occasional call from nature.

But enough of all this looking into the window and enough of the author.  Undoubtedly - apart from the pleasure of being able to talk to people about the SW11 Literary Festival, about what they enjoy reading and why,  the delight of selling books and making people happy by signing them,

the greatest joy of the week has been looking out of the window.  I never imagined that I would do this when I started but, if you remember, it was the face of this man...

that made me reach for my camera and ask his permission to photograph him.  I now have about 120 photos of richly diverse Battersea faces,

and am trying to work out whether some kind of exhitbition could be created. Also ideas, suggestions and offers of sponsorship welcome.

For news of this and for the continued adventures of Losada :-) I can best be found, if you are on facebook, here Isabel's Official Facebook Page If you are on Twitter - here Isabel's Twitter Page or there is always the website http://www.isabellosada.com/ 

So put your feet up - enjoy these faces - these souls - and if you have read, 'The Battersea Park Road to Paradise' you may like to remember that according to Mooji and many of the great spiritual teachers, you I and all these people are 'One'.  We are all parts of the same ocean - you and these Battersea faces.  Look and see if you recognise yourself :-) 

 With very great love to you xxx isabel

That's all folks!  It's been, amazing, one of the most extraordinary and joyful weeks of my life.  Thank you so much for sharing it with me. 

Love to you xxx isabel

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Once again - faces first.  Please enjoy... xxx

That's the faces for today. :-)  So - in other news... I had to leave the window today to do my 'How to Get Published' workshop. I was double-booked and annoyingly couldn't run a worshop and sit in the window at the same time.  And I couldn't bear to leave for more than an hour, so my kind friend Daisy Jones and I ran there. I invited everyone there to my home for either Saturday or Sunday next week for an entire day just so that I could get back to my window sooner. They're getting a good deal because I gave them one hour of a two hour workshop anyway to tell them what they need to prepare and now they will get a full day in a small group and all for free.

It's a good thing I ran back to the window as I arrived just in time to find a new friend called Rakesh arriving with Champagne (anyone who brings Champagne is classed as 'friend' immediately. :-)  Some glasses were found and before long there was a party at one end of Waterstone's with book signing and Champagne drinking.  The copies of 'The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment' and 'For Tibet, With Love' have sold out completely.  I've had to bring in my own personal stash and lend books to Waterstone's as they have been selling so fast that they haven't been able to keep up.  Tomorrow I have a full day and I think we'll be sold out of all the titles by closing time.  I'm even running out of red balloons.

Which brings me to a tragic subject: the last day.  For all those that asked why I'm not staying longer... well, I did offer.  I am a great believer in the saying, 'ask for what you want.'  So I asked whether I could stay for another week.  It really feels as if they party is just starting.  People in St John's Road know that I'm there and more of them are starting to arrive with questions - 'How can It I help my mother get her book published?'  'How much does a ghost writer charge?'  'Can I have a balloon for my sister today?' - But alas - tomorrow really is to be the last day.  It seems that budgets and window space have been allocated and there are other priorites beside an author in a red dress and a plastic dog. I can't believe that I offered to do another week.  But as it is I will be returning to what is sometimes called, 'normal' life.  

So if you have been intending to come and visit - please come tomorrow.  Waterstone's 'Clapham Junction' (it's actually in Battersea but has that name as it's so close to Clapham Junction Station) opens at 11am and closes at 5pm.  I will not leave the window for more than 5 mins at any point unless I'm standing immediately inside the shop and signing books for presents for people.  If you are coming and have my number please call before you come as I may ask you to bring water, tea or something green. 

The rest of the events for the SW11 Literary Festival are filling up well.  I'll be attending the Mark Thomas event this Tuesday (just love him) and I will be speaking myself on Thursday.  If you would like to come to either of these evenings or see all the other events that are happening you can find the entire programme and details of how to book here: SW11 Literary Festival Or pick up a brochure and buy tickes in Waterstone's if you can visit.

Meanwhile I love sharing with you all that I am seeing.  It will be strange tomorrow.  I am so at happy on my rug and cushions looking out with my camera and making people smile. I would never have imagined that the window of a bookshop could feel so much like home.

xxx isabel

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OK - So it's 10pm on Friday night and I have SO much to tell you and so much I'd like to write. But now I have fallen in love with the faces of Battersea - I have to start with the photos.  Tonight  I have another abundance of lifetimes. Words, possibly put together into sentences, at the end. Are you sitting comfortably?  :-)  Here is the joy that my day has been... 

OK.  So now you've seen these perhaps you can begin to understand why I love it love it love it - in my Waterstone's window.  It's not just about the faces of course - it's about the conversations that I've had with many of these people.  The last couple for example - a new friend I'd made in the shop and I were wondering why they seemed to be so much in love.  I guessed that maybe it was a second marriage - my friend guessed that they must be Americans.  ha ha.  He was right, as it happened.  They had been living in the US for 30 years. I was wrong -  they have been together for 30 years are as tactile and affectionate as newly weds... such a joy to see.

The gentleman with a camera above is a freelance photographer - he came and asked if he could take photos of me.  I said he could but only if I could take photos of him back.  As I told you, I have been asking permission of each person before photographing them.  Sometimes people refuse.  Here he has captured my friendly protestation as a beautiful and elderly muslim woman refuses me.  I don't think she can be identified from this sideways on photo - but her kind natured refusal can be. 

So apart from all this fun with my little digital Canon camera, I have continued today as normal.  I've again been asked questions by children, 'Why aren't you wearing any shoes?' and adults, 'How can I make money as a writer?' The answers to both these questions is unknown to me. 

On Day Seven I have -

Invited every person I've spoken with to events at the SW11 Literary Festival and given out brochures. 
Blown up so many red balloons to give to children I began to wonder if puffing that much was good for me or killing me slowly. 
Gone on signing books for lovers, aunties and all those that like to buy gifts for themselves.
Explained numerous times why I hesitate when a married couple wants to buy the book, 'Men!' for a single friend. 
Told stories about the content of the books. 'Why isn't they Dalai Lama in Tibet?'  Well.... er.... the answer here depends on whose point of view you are answering from.  Can I interest you in this book?' 
'So are these books about Battersea?'  Er, no... not exactly.  Only that we have to be enlightened wherever we are don't we?  I live there you see - on Battersea Park Road. 
Will you really come to our reader's group?'  Yes, I go to all reader's groups that invite me.
'Can I buy you for my son?'  Well, maybe - tell me about him.

Old friends have arrived.  New friends have invited me to dinners and for drinks.  I have been touched by people's kindness and moved by people's humour time and again. 

Tomorrow I have been double booked by the SW11 Literary Festival.  In a mess up over dates I have to take a workshop on 'How to Get Published' tomorrow afternoon when I was expecting to be still in the window.  The workshop is sold out.  It's a 3 hour workshop.  I have already decided I am going to go to meet the participants and offer them all an entire day on a different day - for free - if they they will only let me go back to my window tomorrow.  If they agree - I'll be out of the workshop venue and back in the window before then can say 'Published.' 

If you are coming to see me 'in window' please come tomorrow morning.  Sunday - unbelievably - is 'Day 9' - the last day. But happily for me - tomorrow is still day 8.  Sweet dreams, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the photos.  xxx i 

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The days start to run into a blur.  I have given up any thought of teaching myself the ukulele this week.  There just isn't time.  I have given up my hope of meditating twice a day.  I have given up any thought of leaving the window for breakfast, lunch or tea.  I have given up any chance of editing my next book or even replying to an email.  Occasionally I will answer my phone.. but only to say, 'I can't talk now.' 

So what am I doing all day?  I am enjoying the people of Battersea.  On day one I was surprised by the people who walked past and didn't acknowledge my smiles - by those who looked caught out or disturbed to find themselves being watched.  Now I simply ignore such people as I'm too busy enjoying the faces that smile back.  Then there are those that come into the shop, buy books and ask questions; 

'For years I've wanted to ask you... what happened with the monk?' 

'What was it like to meet the Dalai Lama?' 

'What are you doing in the window?'

'Are you married?'

'How can I get my book published?' 

'Can I have a balloon?' 

'Which of your books would you recommend as a gift for my mother in law?'

'Can you sign this as a wedding gift please?'

'Can you tell me how to work a miracle?'

'Do you think blogging leads to having books published?'

'Should I leave my husband?'

'Do you sell wrapping up paper?'

'Are you enlightened?'

'How do you write a book?'

Then there are the interactions that tend to stand out.  At one point today a couple were engaging with me fully through the window. Then they came in and started a conversation.  Thinking that they may be interested in a book with a spiritual theme based on their ideas I started to talk to them about 'For Tibet, With Love.'  Then they gave me a copy of 'Awake' magazine.  I had invited in two Jehovah's Witnesses. I politely took their magazine and thanked them for caring about my eternal salvation... but of course they didn't want to buy a book. 

A second memorable meeting was with a man who was profoundly deaf.  He arrived in the middle of a busy time when I was chatting with 3 or 4 other visitors.  He didn't lip read at all and didn't speak himself using sound.  I don't know if he signed but if he did - my friends and I didn't. So we began to communicate with writing.  After a couple of exchanges he wrote, 'Can I have a free book?'  I had to smile.  I thought people who had a disability were demanding equality not using their disability in a rather direct way to ask for free things?  'Do you imagine I'm rich?' I wrote.  'I don't know' he wrote. I bought him one anyway.  I admire him asking.  'Ask for what you want' is always something I've advocated. 

Then there are the reactions of people that I speak to and say, 'Can I invite you to have a look at the books there that I've written? If any of them interest you I can sign them for either yourself or for friends?'  Replies include..

'Oh how amazing - I'll take all of them.'

'Can you tell me what they are all about?  Can I sit down?'

'I'm looking for my husband and he only reads history.'

'Can you sign one and can you write, 'with love for your journey' for my friend who is dying of cancer?'

'I really love your books.  I've read all of them. Bye.' 

'I'm not interested in that sort of book.' 'What sort of book?'  'Your sort of book. I don't read novels.' 'But my books are not novels' 'I'm not interested in books with covers like that.'  'I see.'

'Thank you for speaking to me - this looks wonderful.. I'll take two.'

'Please don't speak to me - I find it very disturbing.' 

Then I've had friends that have visited.  One friend drove from Oxford, one arrived and bought lunch, one bought tea, one bought a friend that she knew would buy a book - two readers and facebook friends travelled from Luton.  One reader brought flowers - another a book for me.  One bought chocolate. One bought home made ginger cake.

And people wonder why I LOVE it in the window. 

Also - I had not intended to do more photographs of people looking at me through the window... but I couldn't resist it... here's why. I'd just like to say again that I ask everyone permission before I take their photo of course.  A few have indicated, 'No' 90% have said, yes.  Some seeming surprised as to why I should want to.  'What me?' they ask... But I think you'll see why... Goodnight to you.  (I'm in the window all day tomorrow - Friday - from 9am to 7pm - Please come and visit.)  

Here are some faces to remember in  your dreams... 

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Isabel isn't here tonight.  She's gone to an event at the SW11 Literary Festival about how authors can promote their books. So this is Bob. I hope you've been paying attention and noticed me. 

Of course the author in the red dress with the dogs on thinks that it's her who attracts people to the window.  But, let's face it, she's deluded in many ways. 

She can't possibly imagine that any of the children or their parents come to the window to look at her. 

So, more about me. First of all, I would like to establish that I don't belong to Isabel.  I agreed to do this assignment as a favour to my owner, Beverly, who runs an excellent grooming venue at 216 Battersea Park Road called, 'Barking Betty.'   The author and her artist friend, Hilary Morgan have attempted to represent the splendour of this establishment in two pictures which can be seen at the back of the window for those who look carefully.  This one is at the top,

this is under it,

Even though these paintings do not do justice to our honourable parlour, I have to admit that the author's enthusiasm for us is quite absurd.  She forgets that she is supposed to be promoting her books and the SW11 Literary Festival and, every time she sees a dog, rushes out to tell the owner where her friend can get a good hair-cut, get his or her toe nails clipped and be looked after in a civilised and entertaining environment.  What does this have to do with her books you may wonder? Well, I can tell you - absolutely nothing. 

But tonight she's gone out and has told me that Bob the Bobbing Dog can Blog the Blogging Blog. So more about Barking Betty. We are the best dog grooming venue in London. We are here Barking Betty and here are some friends of ours a little futher down what the author calls The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment Friends in a place which the author describes at 'The 8th Wonder of the World.' Here  

I'd also like you to know who is staying to do the double shift, children's entertainer by day - guard dog by night.  See - absent author?

All this you had to know so that when you see the article in today's London Evening Standard - you will recognise who is the real hard-working tail wagger of this show and who is just yapping on the phone. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23989253-writer-goes-to-work-in-bookshop-window.do

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This morning, first thing, I saw this...

I reached for my camera and asked if I could photograph him.  He indicated through the window that he was happy to be photographed.  So then I asked more people if I could snap them.  All these people said, 'Yes.'  So I offer you, with great delight... these images of what I've seen today.  First of all looking out through my front window - here is a tiny selection...

This person I had given a balloon to :-)

This person wanted to photograph me

This person was very amused to find a person in the window and said to her friend. 'Is she real?' 

Then there were those faces that came into the shop and peeped their head into the window to say 'Hello.' 

And the 'Photo of the Day' award - goes to a lady who I remember is named, 'Salome' and is a member of the Battersea Park Library readers' group.

 Also today I had my very first 'In Window' visitor.  Miss Daisy - Aged 3. 

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I arrived at 9am.  I left at 7pm. I didn't leave the window for more than 5 minutes all day.'What do you do?' Someone asked.  'Aren't you bored?'  Bored?  I didn't even find thirty minutes today to meditate.  I've been too busy.  So what exactly am I up to?  Well, please bear in mind that I'm in a window that is very large and as people walk by it's impossible for me not to wave at them.  I need to indicate in some way that I'm an author and that I have written the books I'm sitting with so they understand that what I'm doing there.  This looks something like this...

Then they either laugh at me (which pleases me greatly as I'm quite happy to be laughed at) or they become curious and wander into Waterstone's and want to talk with me about what I do.  They ask questions and as the various books are on subjects about which I am passionate - happiness, living life to the full, etc I'm always happy to talk about my work.  Often they want buy a book which pleases me hugely.  I mean HUGELY as I adore my books and I'm always overjoyed when someone wants to read one.  This may seem odd and I don't mean to boast in any way - but I am passionate about my books.  Why would I want to be a writer and ask anyone to read my books if I didn't think they are great and will make people laugh?  So I point at them at hold them up.  All authors have to do this in one way or another.  This is just perhaps a little more direct? :-) One can't be backward in being forward sometimes. 

Then of course as well as this there is all the normal business of the day to be dealt with.  Emails, phone calls, the essential matters - like Tweeting and facebook.  I have long ago given up any hope of doing any editing of my next book.  When people phone I chat to them and explain that, as I do so, there are lots of people looking at me through a window.  There is a small crowd pointing and laughing or looking very surprised... it's rather hard to concentrate on phone calls.  One friend asked, 'Where are you now?  Is this a good moment to chat?'  'Well, I'm in a window.. a shop window... there are a lot of peope watching me... why?  well... er... actually can I call you back? It is a little difficult to give you my undivided attention....' 

Then there is the matter of the children that pass.  As a window exhibit I can't resist entertaining the children.  I am a strange object after all - like a monkey at the zoo. I can dance and leap about - I can lift weights - I can pat my plastic dog and, most wonderful of all, I can blow bubbles.  Bubbles produce squeals of delight from anyone under the age of 3.  I mean, squeals.

Of course - it's a bit of a ploy.  Having got delighted grins from child I then persuade mother or father to take a leaflet for the SW11 Festival. I point frantically at the leaflets as they look around wondering whether, in paying attention to me, they are likely to miss their bus.  Huge comedy potential here.

Every now and again I have to stand up and touch my toes so that my knees don't give up on me.  I have to blow up a balloon for a slightly older little person.... I have to tie ribbon on said balloon. Then there is welcoming visitors.  Today a friend came and brought - get this... 1. Flowers.  2. Coffee.  3.  Croissant.  4.  Extra Balloons.  5. Vase for flowers.  6.  Drinking water both for flowers and for me. [Take a bow CJ Brown] Another friend arrived and wanted Twitter advice, a third asked casually said 'How do I get my book published by the way? I thought I'd ask you while you're here... I mean you're not busy are you?' 

Two men who live above the shop brought me Pizza - which would have been fabulous except they brought Pizza with chopped dead pig in.  Can you imagine?  'Thats very sweet of you.' I said, 'but I'm afraid I don't eat pigs.'  I haven't had time for lunch yet.  22:15pm.  Maybe tomorrow.

And then, at 4pm - the Lady Mayor of Wandsworth came. :-)  With her chain of office on.  Oh joy and fun of all kinds.  Emma, the Waterstone's assistant manager was dragged from behind the till and I was made to come out of my window while we amused the residents of Battersea with our posing and photo taking.  'Can I have a book for my friend?' said Jane, the Mayor. 'I'll give it to her and then borrow it off her to read.' ha ha.  'Yes, Yes - of course.'  Just wonderful of her to come down and to take time out of her crazy schedule.  I could have kissed her.  Well, I did kiss her - obviously.  Being the Mayor must be the best job in the world.  Wherever she goes becomes the centre of wherever you are.  And everyone is delighted.

Aside from Mayor Jane's generosity of time and spirit and the eternal patience of the busy Waterstone's staff - the ever even more magical and most mystical seconds and fractions of seconds of the day are just those faces that pass.  They may not even stop.  They many not even slow their pace.  But they catch me, out of the corner of an eye, grinning at them.  And they grin back at me and smile...

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Today we made a movie. :-) It will be probably a 5 minute movie.  And what delights me so much is that some of you will be in it. 

I had an email from a wonderful kind stranger, a Mr Kevin Jon Davis who I'd met once when Kevin came to hear me give a 'How to Get Published' talk and was amused, it seems, by the particular quality of my absurdity.  On hearing about this 'Author in Residence in Window' activity he decided it was too fun an activity to go unfilmed.  So along he came today with cameras, lights and his son Liam and together they filmed me all day and also, much to my delight, managed to persuade many passers by and book buyers to appear too. 

So today people were first startled and then filmed.  Often they were filmed being startled.  Cameras, a bit like windows with people in, are things that attract some people and drive others away.  Some rush up, wanting to be filmed.  Others cross, like frightened chickens, to the other side. Kevin captured come great reactions and Liam, very conscientiously, got signatures on general release forms even for the most tiny reaction.  My favourite was two boys aged about 8 and 10 who had lists of questions for the author. 

 'Do you write all the books yourself or do you write one and then photocopy it?' 

'No - I write one, put it in a big manchine and that does all the rest.' 

'If you see a sword in real life do you write about it in your books?'  

'Yes, if I did see a sword in real life, (floating in mid air for example?) I would deifnitely write about it in one of my books, yes.' 

'Are you rich?' 

'No. But I have a window and a plastic dog.'

They seemed satisfied with all my answers.   

Adults are a more wary of being filmed - sometimes assuming the worst.  Many are generous and were happy to be part of what will become our 5 minute epic.  The difference between people always astounds me.  Some are SO warm. They don't know me but they come up, chat, buy books, then are happy to be interviewed on camera giving footage that will end up on You Tube and could be seen anywhere by anyone. Some positively light up at a camera and are ready to entertain.  One customer today was from New York.  She didn't know me, has never read my books, but was so delighted at the sight of an author in a window she left us all refreshed and revitalised by her enthusiasm.  'An author in a window?? That is SO the coolest thing I've EVER seen!  Yes, I'll buy a book.  Yes, I'll be interviewed. Yes, Yes, Yes!'  I'm sure if we'd said, 'Can you stand on your head while you are here?' She'd have said, 'Yes of course.'  I just love Americans.

I was also reminded today about what I love about Battersea.  This is such a diverse area. It's a good thing I've never been asked who I think a typical Battersea resident is as it would be impossible question to answer.  We managed to film all backgrounds today and also to represent that bizarre but all too present element of Battersea, 'Class.'  You can't avoid it.  Families sounding so posh that I find myself inclined to chuckle and others who speak a street jargon that is bewildering for members of our current government but quiite easy to understand when you're a local.  This branch of Waterstones is right in the middle of this Battersea - this melting pot of extremes that made the very street where we were filming today one of the worst hit in London in the recent riots.  It seems a lifetime and another world away.  Today the sun shone and Battersea was a great place to be. The best.

I just love it in my long wide space.  I suppose two of the ways in which sitting in this window is like the content of my books is that I love making people smile - I love making them laugh.  I love it when some lad, trying perhaps to shock me, comes up and makes as if to snog through the glass - I just snog right back on my side.  I love the tentative waves of the elderly. The delighted laughs when I blow bubbles with my bubble blower for the tiny children. I love signing books for presents and making people happy.  I love giving away baloons to little people. I love the smiles of those who have read my books when they find me in the window. I even love the suspicious looks of those who glance and rush away.  Humanity is such a delight - a motley delight.

I am looking forward to showing you the video.  As soon as it is edited - you'll be the first to see it.  But Kevin can't edit it yet.  He and Liam are coming back tomorrow.  Because tomorrow the Lady Mayor of Wandsworth is coming. And wearing her Mayor's chain.  :-)  

'

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You would have thought, would you not, that living in a window all day and being peered at would be enough to make anyone self conscious?  But not a bit of it.  The most surprising thing about my 1st Day being 'Author in Residence in Window' was the opportunity it gave me to look out at the great British public.  And what a motley crew we are.

The window itself is delightfully comfortable.  I have managed to furnish it with a carpet - a Kurdish rug (on loan) a selection of cushions, a small nursing chair which fits the space perfectly and a little table on which the lap top sits.  In the morning the sun shines in and, all in all it is SO comfortable - I am sure I'll not feel in the least inclined to leave when the nine days is up.  I admit I wasn't expecting this.  I thought I would be cramped but no - the Waterstones window would be roomy enough for two.  As it is Bob, the plastic dog and I, have plenty of room to move around.  And be looked at.

The strange thing is though, after a full day looking at humanity, I have to report that we are in a parlous state.  I'd say that most of the faces that wander past look utterly vacuous.  It's curious.  Many people look but they don't see.  It's fascinating.  They walk past a window and because they don't expect the person to be alive - they simply don't see an alive person.  Some people are so shocked if they do register something different from their expectations that they cry out with shock.  Teenage girls even scream. They look at me as if to say 'but you can't be real because people don't sit in windows.'  One man was heard to say to his son... 'It's an author - a real live one.' (I was reassured by his description.) Some of them look at me almost fearfully.  As they stoll along thinking about yesterday or tomorrow or someone else (very few appear to be aware of where they actually are) they look almost caught out if they see me looking at them.  They were just walking along you see - and then suddenly someone is looking at them.  Someone who, strictly speaking, shouldn't be there.  So they look shifty.  Because it's not as if I'm sitting on a park bench and watching them go by.  This is different.  In this window the observed is also the observer.  Observing is what I am doing.  And it surprises them.  Shifts reality all around.  Many walk by quickly - it's just too much to compute. It doesn't fit. 

But some are shaken awake.  They stop.  They not only look but they see. I smile and blow them a kiss and they walk up to the glass curiously.  They read what is written on the window to explain what I'm doing.  Look at the painting behind me and laugh.  Following the game they turn and come into the shop,  buy a book and  get it signed for thier Mum. They ask me about the Literary Festival, take a brochure and go and buy a ticket for an event. Somehow a little magic has occured.  A series of events they had not anticipated has broken into the day like a dream.  Like a new story. 

What is so fascinating for me though - is the number that walk on by and although they look they don't see me.  Even though I see them.  With all the clarity of a goldfish looking out of a bowl.  

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So hello everyone.  I have been asked to write a blog of my nine days in the window of Waterstones Clapham Junction.  This pleases me greatly because - as those of you that read my books know.  I enjoy writing very much.  Whether anyone will find this blog or read it - I have no idea.  I have 100,000 readers out there somewhere who I know enjoy the idiocy of my writing.  But this will be just for you.  Any of you who are crazy enough to find this.  A bit of Losada that will never be in a book.  It makes a change.  I can say whatever I like here and no-one will have the power to edit.  Ha ha. Anyway, it's the night before and here I am. 

Why am I spending nine days in a shop window? I thought you'd ask that.  We have the local SW11 Literary Festival and so I thought it would be a good time to reveal that all the cliches about how stuffy authors are - well, they are all true.  We don't get out much. We just sit with our computers tapping away, filling ourselved with all kind of evil currents that seep from the lap-top and going slowly white through lack of sunshine. 

We have very poor social skills and any that we once had are slowly lost as the years go by. No-one every wants to actually speak to authors you see.  Even publishers and agents only ever communicate with you by email.  It's one further on from children.  Children should be seen and not heard. Authors should be not seen and not heard either.  Really - I'm not lying to you.  No-one ever phones.  Once every two years - if you're lucky, your agent may buy you lunch if you've finished a book.  That's about it really. 

That's why we all get madder and madder and turn into solitary creatures that wear strange clothes and can only relate to animals.  But not me.  This week I may not be heard - but I will at least be seen.  I will be seen from when Waterstones opens at 9am to when it closes at 7pm.  The window through which I will be peered at will act as a third wall made of glass as I go about doing all the things that I normally do all day.  And how will this work out?  I have no idea.  I'll let you know. 

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