Dispatches from the Road: Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

April 30, 2006 @ 7:13 pm

Worked the bar Thursday night and hopped a plane for L.A. on Friday morning, which meant little sleep before grabbing my “small black, muddy bag beaten shapeless by a few hundred thousand miles” and hopping the BART to the Oakland airport, to then sit on board a cramped and noisy cropduster for an hour and fifteen minutes. Have I mentioned I hate flying? On the upside, an old and dear friend greeted me at LAX, to shuttle me back to a cozy Malibu studio where she demonstrated her ever growing skills in the art of sushi making and deep tissue bodywork. My life of poverty does not exclude some stylish decadence. As usual, I spent little time at the book fair, but was miraculously only a couple of minutes late for my signing slot at the Mystery Bookstore. I suppose it’s a good sign that with each festival I go to, I sit next to ever more prestigious authors. Case in point: I shared a table and book tour pleasantries with Christopher Rice, whom I’d seen at a BookExpo in Chicago years back, signing galleys of his first novel. The hour flew by with plenty of Velvet faithful shaking my hand, with the down time spent signing the bookstore’s stock which, thanks to the persistent word of mouth from their crew, doesn’t stay on the shelves long.

I’d planned on meeting up with Rob Roberge once more but that, along with a half dozen other rendevous, fell through. I crashed early last night, hit a couple of bookstores this morning en route to the airport, in search of more endagered Moleskine specimens, and ended up stranded at LAX from 10:00 a.m. until around 4:00, after getting bumped twice. I’ve got a couple of hours to eat and hose the airplane stink off before I head to work tonight.

I’m a couple of days late with updates to the graphic novel of the Handbook, I realize. They’ll be up within a day or two, so thanks in advance for your patience.

Otherwise… life returns to abnormal for a while, so I guess it’s time to open the locks on the Pit and return to work.

Stay warm and bound,

~Craig