Another Post from the Road

In my last post we’d made it as far as Los Angeles, mainly by plane. The next phase of the tour began with a road trip to San Francisco!

Thanks to the generosity of new friends, we had a fun home base in a camper-van near Golden Gate Park and this author & entourage used our time off to explore the city. Here’s the view from Moraga Steps:

We visited the Castro on our day off as it was Pride Weekend. It was an emotional visit due to the recent tragic crime in Orlando. We made friends with some lovely folks at a bar near Dolores Park, and I felt like the heart of the community was sore but still so proud, so kind, and so alive.

Curtis and I got to sign books at landmark bookstore Borderlands, and then we had a great event at Laurel Bookstore (photo courtesy of my aunt Mia Stageberg):

Next stop: Portland! On the road there, we began listening to the audiobook of Spells of Blood and Kin. What a cool experience to hear my characters voiced so well by Vikas Adam (especially Nick and Jonathan–he really nails the stoner-speak!)

Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing hosted another fantastic event. No rest for the wicked though–we departed the next morning for Seattle to the University Book Store, this time listening to Hamilton along the way. Both events had great after-parties too: a highlight was the Zero Gravity Football, a signature cocktail created by a friend of Curtis’s based on a cocktail that appears in Waypoint Kangaroo. (Before you ask… if Spells of Blood and Kin had a signature cocktail, it would probably not be a good one, since most of the drinking is done by immortal alcoholic Gus Hillyard, who doesn’t have much money and tends to go straight for the bottom shelf.)

All the bookstores on this tour have been so amazing. At every stop we’re meeting people who are super-organized, enthusiastic, and supportive. Some of them have already read our books and have their own copies waiting to be signed; some have given us fantastic recommendations of other things we’d like to read. Without exception, they’re proving to me, over and over again, the immense importance of booksellers to their local communities and to the wider community of readers and writers. I’m so proud to be part of this community!

Yesterday the tour had a fun social media moment–Indigo is currently running a campaign to promote Canadian authors under the hashtag #ReadtheNorth. As an employee I was fortunate to get my t-shirt a bit early so I could participate from abroad! Expect to see it again, and happy Canada Day Weekend wherever you are:

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