I'm back
Mario here:
I would thank Jeanne for covering for me while I was gone but she overdid the snarkiness...as if I deserved it. Jeanne is the queen of below-the-belt low blows (
my mouth was otherwise occupied)...and I'll leave it at that.
Last week she posted my pics of the world-famous Paranormal Bender Tour. Four writers. One Kia. 3200 miles in five days. Whew. Thank goodness we were all nuts about hygiene.
For a lot of great tour pics, check out
Cherie Priest's post (but make no comments about public breast feeding). For the record, the motel in San Diego wasn't that bad. Whiners!
And for wicked and perverse commentary on our trip (with absolutely no encouragement from me) see what
Mark Henry says.
I wasn't home for more than a day when off I went to Charlottesville for the
Virginia Festival of the Book. I was scheduled to appear with
Kim Harrison who sadly had to cancel because of a tragic health issue in her family. We all send our condolences.
At the festival I did meet
Alan Cheuse, the NPR book critic. Here he is with the unflappable
Nancy Damon, the maven of all things literary this last weekend. Virginians love to read as you can tell by all the bookstores downtown and the several alternative weeklies (I counted three to our one
Westword).
I also met
Denise Hamilton, author of gritty LA noir stories and one of my favorite mystery writers.
Downtown Charlottesville was full of trendy and funky shops like the
Mudhouse cafe
where I got with Justin Humphries (he of the big hands) where we discussed monster and sci-fi movies (and traded a lot of dirty jokes).
Humphries wrote an interview with me in their local weekly
The Hook which you can read
HERE.
After such a great weekend, I have to ask: where is the Colorado Festival of the Book?