City of Dragons Tour - The Great Northwest!

So for the first leg of the tour, we flew to Seattle the morning after the M is for Mystery launch party, and relished being in my home state at Seattle's finest bookstore, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, with the wonderful and awesome Fran and JB! I met some folks, signed books, hung out with the gang, blogged, listened to the soundtrack for City of Dragons and had lunch with a friend in Seattle's oldest bar. Stayed at the Sleep Inn in SeaTac (and wished I actually could), but it was another early morning and a drive to Portland the next day.

Along the beautiful I-5, we stopped in Olympia to thank Linda Dewberry of Whodunit Books for nominating City of Dragons for the IndieNext list! We also enjoyed a great lunch next door at Olympia's finest sandwich shop.

And I've gotta say ... as a native Washingtonian, I'm very proud of my state's hospitality. All along I-5, you come upon rest stops with highway signs advertising "free coffee." Charities get donations of coffees, cookies (sometimes cupcakes and donuts) and offer them to travelers, who then donate cash. It's a wonderful system. :)

In Portland, we stayed at an Arts and Crafts guest house in the Hawthorne District, close to Murder by the Book. I love this store! Informative, friendly, wonderful, they--like Seattle Mystery Bookshop--are a must on any northwest tour.

Before the signing, we caught dinner at a cool restaurant called Belly Timber that also had the advantage of being directly across the street (and it was raining--hard!). Tried some lovely fried chickpeas as an appetizer, and now I'm addicted. Seriously, if you're ever there, try 'em--they're even better than popcorn!

Dear, dear friend and brilliant writer Bill Cameron joined us at dinner and showed us how to cross a rainy and dark Portland street like a native. We had a good turnout for the Murder by the Book event, including the wonderful Theresa Bergen, ITW member and writer, who wrote a great recap for Reading Local. I got the chance to pass around ephemera and answer a lot of interesting questions and do a little reading. And of course--had a lot of fun!!

The next morning, we left for Seattle, eating lunch at a seafood cafe along the way (halibut tacos--yum!). We made good time--stopping for our prerequisite I-5 coffee--and squeezed in fifteen minutes of childhood thrills before heading to the rent car center and airport. :)

I was born in Tacoma and lived there until I was seven, and have very fond memories of Brown and Haley--makers of the famous Almond Roca. And my mom used to take me to the factory outlet store ... which is still there!

The building is adorable, and we found out that it was originally built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, then transported to the factory when the fair ended. So my love of World's Fairs really did start early ... in person at Expo '67 and home in Tacoma with Brown and Haley!

The next leg of the tour takes me down to Los Angeles and points south ... to Mysteries to Die For, Book 'Em Mysteries, The Mystery Bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy and Poisoned Pen! I'll be blogging from the road. As always --- thanks for reading!

At Long Last ... Blog!

Bless me, bloggers, for I have sinned ... it has been mmmpfh (hand over mouth) days since my last blog.

Much has happened, and I'm going to spend a couple of days catching up. I finished my third novel, which is the main reason I haven't been hanging around Writing in the Dark. My third is a big dark book set in 1940 San Francisco, and I needed to complete it before Bouchercon. I managed to do so, but literally had no time left over for blogging, reading, email, eating a proper meal, and sleep. I left bread crumbs of my activities on Twitter, and plan to stick to my regularly scheduled blogging programming from now on, though life may somtimes pre-empt me.

I traveled to LA and San Diego and back on a book tour ... via US 101 ... a wonderful trip along El Camino Real, the old historic route of the King's Highway, mission to mission, bell to bell. Salinas lettuce fields (Salad Capital of the World!), the Santa Ynez mountains ... the drive makes you appreciate the the real gold of California, and it's not the yellow stuff in vaults.

Mysteries to Die For in Thousand Oaks and The Mystery Bookstore in Los Angeles are fantastic places to shop and spend time and meet people. Alan and Bobby are absolutely wonderful ... and two reasons why I love to support independent bookstores as both a reader and a writer. I was privileged to appear at both stores, and very happy to be The Mystery Bookstore's Discovery Club pick of the month.

I met friends from Crimespace and Sisters in Crime, including my author friend Mari Sloan, who has written a terrific mystery (Beaufort Falls), and Mari's wonderful husband, and Travis Richardson, former NorCal MWA member who just moved south. Spent a delightful evening with producer/director/screenwriter pal Victoria Larimore in West Hollywood. Stopped along the way in Salinas, ate a fantastic breakfast at Sang's Cafe (where Steinbeck used to throw one back occasionally), and lunch in Solvang at the Little Mermaid.

We eventually managed to thread our way through Malibu Canyon, Malibu and Santa Monica before taking rest in our favorite SoCal home away from home, The Culver Hotel.

After a signing at the Gaslamp Borders in San Diego, we headed home the next morning, and breakfasted at Andersen's Pea Soup in Buellton (a few miles from Solvang) ... you haven't lived until you've tried pea soup for breakfast! You get eggs and Danish sausage and pancakes, too, but that soup ... mmm. :) Late lunch was again in Salinas, at a terrific newly-opened restaurant (family-owned) called Habanero. Literally the best beans and rice I've had since undergraduate years in Texas.

Oh, and Solvang? You haven't eaten Danish until you eat Danish there. Really. We're talking melt-in-your mouth, light-as-air crust, real fruit filling ... let's just say this was a memorable trip on every level, and I can't wait to get back. :)

So then I wrote. And wrote and wrote. And finished what I call "my Bouchercon baby," a novel begun after Alaska and finished before Baltimore.

And speaking of Baltimore, host city for this year's Bouchercon ... well, that deserves its own post. Be back tomorrow with more on Charm City and 1,400 reasons why the crime/mystery/thriller writer life is the one for me!