Monday, September 24, 2007

PAGES TREATS SEVEN TO ROMANTIC TOUR WITH BESTSELLING AUTHOR ERIC JEROME DICKEY

SEVEN lucky Barbadian women learnt that dreams do come true recently when they went on the date of a lifetime with international bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey to some of Barbados' most romantic spots, thanks to Pages Bookstores.

Beginning at picturesque Farley Hill and then into the tree-line ambience of Cherry Tree Hill, Astrid M. Bovell, Cecilia Walcott, Terry Belgrave, Stacia Browne, Carmen Grecia, Sasha Greenidge and Kathlyn Murray were alight with pleasure, as they personally described the wonders of their respective locations to the renown author.

Some of the delighted winners of the "Sight-Seeing Date With Eric" competition are hoping they will see some part of Barbados featured in an upcoming novel.

"He took notes of street names, the places we went, descriptions and everything. I think he may use it in his writing," said Bovell, who admits to being a huge Dickey fan, particularly his book Cheaters.

She said the concept of a trip for the author was great one. "I really liked that he knew us all by name. He is so down to earth."

Browne, a 25-year-old aspiring writer, not only got the chance to meet Dickey, but also had him review one of her unfinished manuscripts. "This is something I am still working on and since I was meeting him for the tour I said I would take it so he could give me some constructive criticism."

She was surprised when he wrote her back to say he was reading it. "He actually emailed me to say he was reading chapter ten. I thought that was so awesome."

Five winners were selected from online entries they submitted to the competition, describing their most romantic locations, while two more, Greenidge and Murray, were chosen from receipt stubs dropped into entry boxes at signings of Dickey's latest book, Waking With Enemies.

Tracey Lloyd, regional director of marketing at Duty Free Caribbean, the holding company for Pages Bookstores, said the sight-seeing trip was the perfect reward for Dickey's fans.

"We thought of this event to end Eric's tour here because we wanted to provide him with material about Barbados that could be used in the future and secondly, because his fans are such faithful customers, we wanted to do something special for them as well.

"The women were so excited about his visit. We even had a couple of males in the crowd at the signings who had read some of his crime novels. His tour here was a really successful one. It's always a terrific occasion when Eric comes to Barbados," Lloyd added.

Dickey came to Barbados recently, as part of a tour of North America and the Caribbean, to promote the new book, a sequel to Sleeping With Enemies, which he released in August to rave reviews.

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