Writer's Grove

MOTORIN’

Since I have a wee bit of time, thought I’d update you on the tour so far!

Here’s what I have confirmed (I would say “learned” but I already knew this): My readers are awesome! Plus: Southern BBQ is tasty.

Flew into Dallas on Thursday to meet fellow Leaguer Jaye Wells and her delightful family. Over dinner we talked about writer stuff and beer. Then we went to a Real Bookstore where we ALSO talked about writer stuff and beer. We had a Flagon Contest where Jaye revealed her awesome Texas Drinking Horn and I revealed my wooden flagon carved from genuine Walnut Entwife driftwood. We decided that everybody wins when you drink beer out of epic containers. You know what’s cool about a Real Bookstore (apart from the awesome staff and, you know, books)? They serve beer there! So yeah, it’s perfect. If there is a house for sale within staggering distance I might have to consider moving there. Here’s a shot of us hard at work:

Something cool about Dallas: it’s home to two of the best book bloggers in the business, Chelsea with Vampire Book Club and Kristen with My Bookish Ways. They’re both professionals and I can tell you that authors can’t wait to work with them because A) they really know what they’re doing and B) they provide great content for their readers. I regularly read their blogs to keep up with what’s going on and find new authors myself. So it was a privilege for me to finally meet Kristen (I had met Chelsea in AZ earlier because she was visiting family a few months ago):

Another cool thing about Dallas: There’s a book club there of some wild n’ crazy ladies who wanted to make sure I remembered them. Their Fearless Leader, Brandee, said something like “Brandee don’t play! I bring belleh!” She meant the belly of a very pregnant book club member. She had me sign that belly, and I though I was embarrassed at first, I was quickly amazed to discover that baby bellies are fabulous writing surfaces. Here’s proof, which includes some directions for the baby, who will be named Oliver if a boy and Clarissa if a girl:

I also signed the arms of a whole brood of kids from Kansas City. Their mother is raising them to be proper geeks and I hope they know how lucky they are. One day they will rule the world. I also got to meet author Michelle Bardsley! Squee! And to top it off, a fan gave me some hand-made dice crafted of oak, ash, and thorn! HOLY CRAP I CAN’T WAIT TO PLAY HORDES AGAIN! These are Fae dice! They will totally roll fives and sixes all the time! My buddy Alan is going down. These dice, combined with the power of my fez, will make me unbeatable!

So after snagging four hours of sleep (which meant I was operating on a total of eight hours in two days, since I’d only gotten four the night before), I flew to Cincinnati on the 8th to hang out with some folks at the Joseph-Beth Bookstore there. Hailey gave me a picture of Granuaile and that was turbo sweet of her. Then this dude had me sign his arm, which wasn’t that unusual after signing a baby belly, but OH NO, I WAS WRONG. Later that night, I got the surprise picture below—the dude had gone straight to the tattoo parlor and gotten it tattooed! It’s the kind of thing you hear about but never expect to happen to you. Really flattered.

I was just a warm-up in Cincinnati for John Scalzi, who was going to be in that same store to sign REDSHIRTS that night. Though I wished I could have stayed to worship him and be a fanboy, I had to evacuate before the truckload of Coke Zero arrived, and besides, I had to do another signing at the Joseph-Beth in Lexington. It’s a really beautiful store, two stories, and this is what I saw hanging from the balcony when I got there:

Stuff like that is truly a trip for me. I was expecting maybe a flyer with Comic Sans on it, not a banner thingie with tasteful typography. Mike and Brian at JB were so kind and they’re really passionate about books there. Great group of people in Lexington! There were these two teachers from eastern Kentucky who had a different accent from everyone else and it was SO beautiful. I asked them to keep talking while I signed their books because the language sounded so lovely. I wish I could get a recording of a bedtime story read that way; wouldn’t it be more soothing and send you to sleep with hope in your heart when words can be spoken with such round softness and care? I also met a fabulous and talented reader named Ash who gave me a portrait of Atticus and Oberon, as well as many more spiffy people! Love you, Lexington!

We motored down to Nashville the next morning, looking at horses, horses, horses, and then—CASTLE! WTF!!!

Sorry about the electric wires there. This was taken very hurriedly through the window as we drove because I didn’t think anybody outside the local area would believe that someone had built a castle in the middle of horse country. My daughter has decided we now need to have our own castle in Kentucky. I’m working on it. Mine will have waffle cannons.

In Nashville I got the pleasure of hanging out with readers Helene, Ellen, and Tripp. We all met at 5th and Church at Puckett’s for BBQ. They had a tasty local brew on tap there called Lynchburg Lager and they served it in wee jars. The pulled pork and sweet potato fries were pretty awesome. Proof:

Helene had originally planned to attend the release party for TRICKED but due to a series of unfortunate events could not make it. Glad I could hang out with her to balance the scales; she and her friend Ellen are five kinds of spiffy. Tripp is a member of Fully Integrated Geeks, a bunch of (you guessed it) geeks who do a weekly podcast about comics, movies, video games, sci-fi TV shows, and the like. I’ll be a guest of theirs after the tour because who doesn’t love a good geekout?

We discovered a cool retro candy & soda shop on 2nd and Church called Rocket Fizz. They have some very unusual potions in there—among them, Bacon Soda (for Oberon!) and cans of Whoopass. Proof:

After a walk down to Broadway with Helene and Ellen, where we stopped in a few bars to listen to music—lots of places had live music in the afternoon because of the CMT Festival—we sallied forth to Nashville’s indie bookstore, Parnassus Books. They were wonderful hosts and the readers were so swell! Some folks had driven from Memphis, Knoxville, and even Alabama to see me and that made me feel all melty inside. Cool husband and wife story: this one couple reads a lot but generally they don’t read the same things and they don’t recommend books to each other because of their differing tastes. But one night, the dude is reading HOUNDED in bed and his wife walks in wearing a THIRD EYE BOOKS & HERBS T-shirt and then they realize—HEY! That store! It’s in this book! And yeah! Holy crap, we like the same series!

Well, I thought it was funny. :)

Today (Sunday) we really had to make like a bread truck and haul buns. We woke up late and then lost an hour driving from Nashville to Atlanta, so I rolled into A Cappella Books almost precisely at 2pm when I’d originally planned to have a much bigger cushion than that. The truly sad bit: because of the time crunch, I didn’t get a chance to stop and say hi to one of my favorite people, author Cherie Priest. She’s in Chattanooga now and we drove through it but couldn’t stop. So I had to just sort of hug the whole city and hope she felt the love.

I felt the love in Atlanta! A Cappella is a wee but very cool store on DeKalb and Haralson and it was crammed. A nice fella gave me a DVD of Viking sword fighting techniques and I can’t wait to check it out when I get back to AZ. Also: I signed a onesie for a future Druid named Lilah. She hasn’t quite joined the world yet, but she will soon!

After that we went down the street to Fox Bros. BBQ, which I was told was pretty dang amazing. I began to buy into the hype once I saw how popular it was. No parking spaces and a 45-minute wait at 4 pm. Whoa. It WAS good, y’all. And my education in BBQ continued with a new side I’d never seen before: A frito pie. They open a bag of Fritos, pour some brisket chili in there and top it with cheese. Daaaaaang.

Many thanks to all of you who have come to see me; you’re so kind and I enjoyed meeting you! If you’re on the road ahead, I’ll see you soon! Charlotte on Monday at Park Road Books at 7pm, Durham-Raleigh-Chapel Hill on Tuesday at Flyleaf Books at 7pm, and on Wednesday I’ll be at the Library of Congress at noon in Washington DC! Bring your own books to the LoC because they won’t be selling any copies there. ALSO: A ninja signing at the downtown Barnes and Noble at 3:30—that’s 555 12th Street NW. I’ll just be there, you know, signing whatever they have in stock, which might  be two books or ten, I don’t know. If you can’t make the LoC, which is entirely understandable, you can pick up a signed copy of my stuff at the B&N until they run out. :)

May harmony find you but NOT THOR,
Kevin