Today in Ankara in Ankara 19 march 2012

(leer en español)
Hello friends,

Today, March 19th 2012, started with Yüksel & Mustafa’s arrival at noon, with 2 proofs of the published book with cover. The color is perfect and exactly the same as the Dutch book which had the color we wanted. So we accepted and Yüksel called the printing house immediately to give the OK. Tomorrow at 19h we will have the books ready to distribute in bookstores and 300 copies at home for us.
In the meantime, Altug called saying that he had almost finished the translation of the press kit and that he would send the text to Peter & Huseyin at 14h. Huseyin revised, fixing some of the grammar and we already sent the text to Eduardo and Alvaro so they can start the design in Turkish.
We invited Altug to come to the meeting to prepare the calendar of the tours and other. At that moment he didn’t know if he could come.
At 17h Aylin called to invite us to have tea in Kizilay, Huseyin & Peter left the house and met on the stairs Yüksel &... Altug. So we decided to go together to Kizily to meet Aylin. Asking Altug if his arrival together with Yüksel was a coincidence, he explained that Yüksel had called asking him to come sign the contract between the editor and author in order to make the translation in Turkish official.
At least this is what we understood. Altug, very available, agreed.
After a good conversation on the terrace of a new café we had never been to, Altug & Peter went home at 18:30 to receive the friends coming to the 19h meeting. On the way, they met Yüksel & Mustafa who said they had to fix some things and would come later. At home, Peter started preparing food for after, talking to Altug as time passed. At 20h nobody had arrived yet. So we started calling  Huseyin, Aylin &Yüksel confirmed they were about to come, Mehtap was with Bülent & Olcaytug in Kizilay to fix some bank issue with Bülent. We asked Mehtap if she could come and she proposed to come together with Bülent and Olcaytug. Mesut also called to know if he and Ali could go home and we explained about the meeting and that they were welcome. Everything started a bit chaotic with immediate proposals on what and where to do things for the presentation and it took a while before everyone understood that first of all we need to set the calendar of the tours and then fill it with events, presentations, etc.
Once it was understood everyone started discussing the sequence of the cities and the time of stay in each one. The result was that the tour begins on June 2 in Istanbul where we will stay for 4 days for multiple presentation. After, days 6 and 7 in Bursa, travelling on the 6th early in the morning (it’s a 3 hour trip). After Bursa we will go to Izmir where we will stay for 3 days, 9, 10 and 11 June. The 8th is for travelling. On June 12th we will travel to Antalya which is far away and stay there on June 13, 14 and 15. On the 16th another day of travel to arrive in Ankara where we will stay on June 17, 18 and 19. From Ankara we will go to Eskeshir (one hour and a half from Ankara), we will stay there on June 21 and 22 and that will be the end of the Western tour. After there will be a pause of 10 days.

The Eastern tour will begin on July 3 and 4 in Antep. On the 5th we will travel to Urfa where we will stay July 6 and 7. On July 8th we travel to Dyiarbakir where we will stay on July 9, 10 and 11. On July 12, 13 and 14 we will be in Mardin, an hour and a half away from Dyiarbakir and we will go back to Dyiarbakir to sleep. On July 15 and 16 we will be in Batman, also close to Dyiarbakir (2 hours trip) and we will again go back to sleep in Dyiarbakir. On July 17th we will travel to Mus (Warto province) which is further away and we will be in this city on July 18 and 19. We will stay in Van on July 24, 25 and 26. There will be 3 free days and we will see what to do there. On the 23rd we travel to Van and stay until 27th to Tunceli, where we will stay from July 28th to August 1st. There the Eastern tour will end. The Eastern tour coincides with the festivals of the different cities.
The cities which have important airports are Urfa, Antep, Dyiarbakir. This can facilitate arrivals of friends who will come to part of the tour. This is what came out of the meeting. After we talked about how to fill this calendar with Book presentation events giving examples. Our friends confirmed they will take care of us through their contacts and of course including presentations in bookstores which have the book in stock.
There was also the proposal of printing a bookmark. They want to put Silo’s image and a Principle of valid action and some reference, to distribute it in many libraries. This could give a signal to people which will make them curious about the book. Yüksel said we could print it for free.

Tomorrow Mehtap and Zehra and also Yüksel to continue with this issue.
Regarding the Ankara book fair, Yüksel announced he has organized with Mehtap, Zehra, Altug, Aylin & Bülent for support with their presence on the different days.
The press kit, the pamphlet about Silo and the poster will be printed and ready this Friday to be used in the fair’s stand.

At 22:30 everyone left except for Altug and Yüksel who stayed to eat together.
It was a busy day and full of things, finally accompanied by Spring temperatures.
We will prepare an Excel table of the calendars we will send soon.

Un fuerte abrazo,

Yüksel, Altug, Huseyin y Peter