Getting Medieval

I arrived late last night and awoke to rain. Rain. That weird wet stuff that comes out of the sky in other states. It's very green here, with fall colors interspersed among the many forests and groves along the highways and byways. I hope to get a chance to get a picture at some point.

I had some time and so I headed to a local historical park, the Mordacai Historic Park, to be exact. But when I got there, there was a school group and they closed it to other tourists! The little monkeys. I couldn't come back at the time they specified, and anyway it started raining. Oh well. I got some pics of the outside.

My first stop this trip was the Eva Perry Library. What a lovely place.

They had this really great room in the kid's section called the Treehouse which was this great space with a stage, where the roof flew upward at least two storeys tall. Wonderful murals in the kid's section, too.

There was a great turn out--excellent group; some teens, mostly adults, but the teens were polite, attentive, and they bought books!

And friend Molly Weston (left) showed up and we took a shot with Lynn, one of the librarians who set up the room for me. Historical author Suzanne Adair dropped by, too (didn't I get a picture? Must not have). 

Dinner later that night was at a local chain (usually I don't like chains but as a second best, I go for local) at the Carolina Ale House (a version of your typical sportsbar restaurant) because I wanted to try the local beer. They had something called Carolina Pale Ale, which I suspect can also be called South Carolina Pale Ale and every other state they have this chain's Pale Ale.

Looking forward to tomorrow where I will be at McIntyre’s Books at 11 am (2000 Fearrington Village Center Pittsboro, NC 27312). And then at 3 pm I'll be at the Cary Library (310 S. Academy St., Cary, NC 27511). See you there!

One of the things I really enjoy about going to different places (and having a car) is being able to drive through the countryside and see something of the state I'm traveling through. I left Houston today to drive to Austin, some 160 miles away. I knew I would get to see some of rural Texas and I was excited about it. 

Actually, it looks a lot like California, except its green (our hills and fields would be golden brown and crispy at this time of year). And there is not a mountain to be had. Lots of flat pasture. But much use is made of it with grazing cattle, and many of those grazing cattle do their grazing peacefully alongside an oil well or two.

I seemed to have crossed the Colorado River several times as well. I think the river snaked, not the road. Smooth sailing, really, and I spotted the perfect place for lunch in Columbus. It wasn't a chain--one of my rules when I travel, no chains if I can avoid them--and it was bar-be-que.

I pulled in and I knew as soon as I walked into the door and saw that every square inch of wall space was taken up by an animal head, that this was perfect! I mean, this was a sort of roundhouse kind of place and all around you are glass eyes staring back. I loved it! 

These guys were standing behind me, staring. (I'm eating you, and you, and you...)

They had a cheap all you can eat buffet so I went for it. All kinds of smoked bar-be-cued meat; I had beef, poek, ham, chicken, turkey, sausage, a sort of spicy potato salad, and what I thought was cornbread with cheese but turned out to be a peach cobbler/upside down cake sort of thing. It was quite a meal.

I hit the road again and encountered many miles of burnt forest. This could have been recent, just this summer, perhaps? Miles and miles of it. Quite sad.

Not too long after that I had to stop for the giant squirrel statue (you know how I feel about giant things!) and I wandered in to look at the touristy stuff and buy a bag of pecans.

And then I could see the skyscrapers of Austin in the distance, yet the landscape around me was still rural. Alas, I was here too late to really go see anything. But on my way to the bookstore, I did get to drive down their historic 6th Street with all the old buildings turned to chi chi shops and bars.

BookPeople, the store, was a surprise to me. It's a HUGE place! Not unlike my book launch site at Vroman's in Pasadena. Three stories tall, each floor is stuffed with books of all kinds and gifts. An absolute must for those visiting Austin.

Only a very small section of this amazing store.

Scott Montgomery, the fellow in charge of "Mystery People," their store within a store, greeted me and led me to the room they had set up for me. Fun! With shields on the walls and "candles" for the tables. We had a mini party with a cake and all.

The tables were decorated with black tablecloths and "candles."

Even fellow author Kaye George stopped by.   

A very nice group was generous to me and listened to my spiel, laughing at all the right spots (without prior coaching!). We sold, we signed, and then Scott took me to a local hangout for some excellent tamales. It was a great trip to Texas. Can't stay longer as I am heading out early tomorrow. Must get back before Halloween night before I turn into a pumpkin. But next weekend, look for me in North Carolina in the Raleigh, Cary, and Charlotte areas.

The weather is cool here in Texas. I arrived a day early and settled in. And got lost (my GPS system was acting up so I circled for a bit in my rental but I managed to find my way).

My spacious room...

...and the view from my window. But don't get excited. I had to pass the Budweiser and Miller plants to get there and its a bit...um...industrial around here.

But I did get to check out the giant Armadillo at Goode's Armadillo Palace and it was quite the spectacle to see up close, as you yourself can see.

Stopped in at a restaurant at the Galleria--all the shops were too rich for my little ole budget. I mean, they had valet parking!--and saw this sign. Notice it says "unlicensed."

It was time to stop fooling around and head over to Murder By The Book and meet all the wonderful folks who work there. A great bookstore (see below). A superb mystery resource for the Houston area. All the biggies go there...and now me! They've got the store laid out by country, by genre--the way it should be so you can find just the kind of mystery you want. Also, there is a used section. I have found that many indies supplement by reselling used books. I can't begrudge them that. They work hard selling the new books, too, and sometimes you come to a new author through the used section.

There she is. Weapons laid out before her.

Good juxtaposition of The Maltese Falcon poster and my book. Part of the inspiration for Crispin is Sam Spade, after all.

A nice little group (a shout out to Facebook. It's bringing them in.) And good support from the bookstore owners. Well, it's that face time with fans, fans to be, and the bookstore owners that makes these trips worthwhile.

This little store pup was decked out for Halloween (his name is Jack Reacher, by the way.)

All in all, a good day and we'll set out, not too early tomorrow, for Austin and BookPeople.  

Wouldn't you like a morgue named after you? Well, if you were a mystery author that might be cool. Seems that Dundee University in Scotland is offering the name to the highest bidder--of votes--to be named after their favorite crime writers. Crime fiction fans can vote for their favourite author online - with each vote contributing £1 to the appeal. Dundee Uni has committed £1m of their own to the project, but another £1m needs to be raised.

The list of writers taking part in the "Million for a Morgue" campaign? Tess Gerritsen, Kathy Reichs, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Mark Billingham, Jeffrey Deaver, Jeff Lindsay, Stuart MacBride, Peter James and Val McDermid.

I don't see my name in there. Oh well. Overlooked again.

According to the BBC story: "The new morgue will adopt a "revolutionary" way of embalming - called the Thiel method - which keeps bodies flexible for longer. This gives medics and researchers a more realistic way of testing techniques and practising procedures, as well as developing new equipment and approaches."

The Jeri Westerson Morgue at Dundee. I like the sound of that.

We are wrapping up the Arizona tour with our last stop at the Velma Teague Library in Glendale.

I was very happy to be included as one of the Authors @ the Teague. I talked again about TROUBLED BONES and Canterbury. And then I whipped out the weapons! Middle Ages discussed by the middle-aged. It doesn't get much better than that. Thank you Lesa Holstine and the Velma Teague staff! It was a nice wrap up to an eventful weekend.

The audience was into it. Especially when I did this...

A woman and her sword.

After that, we scooted off to the oldest soda fountain in Arizona, Macalpine's. As part of their whole retro thing, they also have a cool retro clothing and chotchkie store attached. The old-fashioned banana split hit the spot.

We'll see you next week in Houston and Austin. (See my schedule.)

It was warming up. Phoenix was going to get up to about 95 or so today, continuing the same sort of endless summer we were sweating through in southern California. But we got an early start (for us) leaving Cottonwood for Scottsdale and Poison Pen Bookstore, the best little indie in the entire Phoenix area.

See my lovely stand-up banner to the left?

When I gave my presentation, I explained how The Canterbury Tales are integral to my book, TROUBLED BONES, and how it was also integral to me personally while growing up, and then I followed through with my Canterbury talk, complete with visuals.

Listening carefully to the question.

And signing.

We sold books, I signed them, and as we were leaving for our hotel in Phoenix, we discovered the A/C in our car had died. Not the news I was hoping for, since the heat won't be letting up anytime soon. But we soldiered on to the hotel, unloaded, and the Long Suffering Husband took a look. He's a MacGyver sort of fellow, so I usually don't worry too much, but we are far from home and the tools he needs. But he managed to give it a temp fix with--I kid you not--my sword, an ether net cable, and a Swiss Army knife. If that ain't MacGyver...

We settled in, barbequed a couple of steaks, sipped some cheap Happy Hour wine, and are relaxing for the next day when I do another presentation at the Velma Teague Library in Glendale, AZ, at 2 pm. There will be books for sale! Come on down. The sword will be swung!

A leisurely day where we sat by the pool before heading out to Sedona and Sedona's best bookstore, the Well Red Coyote, now in it's new location--just around to the front of the building it was in before. A truly stunning little independent bookstore, hosting author even after author event.

It was my turn today, and I offered a workshop on Researching for Authors, with a slight slant toward writing the historical. We had a good crowd who responded quite well to the workshop. We sold out of all the available copies of all the Crispin books, in fact, except for one copy of Troubled Bones. It's signed so go get it! A good day, I must say.

The Well Red Coyote in its new location fronting the highway.

Jeri speaks.

Particpants examine my samples of unusual objects. As an exercise, they were to write down five things about each object that they knew, and five things they didn't. It's about getting the writer to thinking about all the little details that are important to know concerning an era.

Eating out of my hand. :)

And now, some scenery from Sedona. You can see all of this from town.

We were going to wander Sedona but it was hot! The same weather I left behind in California. And really crowded. This is the season here for snowbirds to start migrating west so we decided to head out of town a bit to Cornville and catch a winery for some tasting.

Javalina Leap Winery.

In their mesquite garden.

A stop at the grocery store for some local brew to go with our Mexican food leftovers with some chips and salsa.We were happy campers. Tomorrow we head on over to Scottsdale to Poison Pen at 2 pm. Hope to see some of you there.