Heading out
Yesterday, day four of the LOCKED ROOMS tour, was for my home town store. Capitola BookCafe is owned and run by four women who by this time I count as friends, although when they hosted my very first event back in 1993, I had only met one of them, our husbands being colleagues at the university.
By now, BookCafe is family. I’ve done events for every book but CALIFIA’S DAUGHTERS (and they’d have done one for that if I’d asked them) and almost always it’s my launch event. My daughter has worked there, my mother and I lunch there, I’ve hunted down all kinds of books, tapes, and odds-and-ends there. The women of BookCafe are what make independent booksellers so great.
Unfortunately, for this event I was tired, and couldn’t summon the bounce I like to give an audience. It was a perfectly adequate event, people laughed and listened and asked good questions, but those who tell me I ought to go into stand-up comedy wouldn’t have said that after yesterday’s talk.
However, I’ve had a solid seven and a half hours sleep since then, so today’s in San Mateo ought to go well. And I can sleep on the plane.
See you in Houston!
Sounds like a gruelling schedule — just be safe on the roads, please . . .
I reluctantly finished Locked Rooms last night (it’s been a long time since my tendency to gulp has been so tempered by my desire to savor every word). The scenes at the Lodge made me wonder — did I detect ghosts of the home for which you designed and built the addition?
Lovely, lovely, lovely book; thank you so much for writing it!
Greatly enjoyed “Locked Rooms”–coming just after I spent a week in San Francisco, so I felt like I had been there! Your comment on the Fairmont Hotel did raise a question–did it burn after the 1906 earthquake to be rebuilt a year later? Seems like I saw that on a sign in the hotel. I know I took the same drive down the coast highway!!
I had the pleasure of attending the Launch party, the ringleader of 3 middle-aged ladies eccentrically garbed in 20s evening clothes. I can urge anyone who can see LRK in person to take pains to do so. As well as the excellent website, Laurie, you are even better in person; energetic (at least most of the time, apparently!), witty (honest!) and great fun to listen to. Nice threads, to boot.
Finished the book, what a tremendous last scene. very satisfying, all around. thank you so much –Meredith T.
Glad to hear you’e2’80’99re tour is going well. It does sound exhausting!
I was wondering if you’e2’80’99d ever read ‘e2’80’9cThousand Pieces of Gold’e2’80’9d by Ruthann Lum McCunn’e2’80’a6it’e2’80’99s one of my favorite books, a biography about a Chinese girl sold into slavery in 1871 and auctioned off in San Francisco and ending up in Idaho. Your description of how ‘e2’80’9cMa’e2’80’9d came to the US brought it to mind – she seems lucky by comparison. Us East-Coasters, especially in the north, were brought up under the delusion that slavery ended with the Civil War. There’e2’80’99s this great photo of this woman late in life, about the time your story takes place’e2’80’a6sitting on her front porch in the mountains of Idaho’e2’80’a6every time I see it, I only hope I look so happy near the end of my life.
Here’e2’80’99s a short story to entertain you on the road’e2’80’a6 you might enjoy this since you created a character with an amazing throwing arm and into home building. Three days later I’e2’80’99m still shaking my head in disbelief’e2’80’a6my daughter and a boy friend’e2’80’a6boyfriend’e2’80’a6I’e2’80’99m not sure they’e2’80’99ve figure it out yet’e2’80’a6I digress, were playing darts in the unfinished basement. Along the ceiling run a variety of copper pipes for our water and our hot water baseboard heating. I had no idea it was possible to throw a dart and puncture a copper pipe’e2’80’a6my daughters friend was horrified, I started laughing, and my husband was completely disgusted until the lunacy of the situation actually settled in. The pipe now has a temporary electrical tape tourniquet and we are calling a plumber for the first time in years because the heating line that was hit has antifreeze in it (ah, the little extras of life in a cold country) and the draining and recharging of the system is a little more than we want to tackle.