Edgars week, 2007

And a big Hey There from La Manzana Grande. My daughter and I are here for the Edgars, the week where the mystery world tells itself that things are cool, and we’re all on the top of the pile, literarily speaking.

So we flew in on Monday, in a United flight out of San Francisco that was configured so the entire flight had enough leg room for a woman of normal height, ie, five foot ten. Very nice.

Tuesday I had breakfast with my editor and publicists at Bantam, three cool and incredibly hard-working ladies. Then the day at leisure, which meant wandering and having a nap and then extricating ourselves from 42nd street (the Pres and various prime ministers seem to have been in town, which meant ten thousand police moving all the taxis on.) to go up to 81st street and the Black Orchid’s annual street party. This is a small bookstore in square footage, which means you get there and see two or three dozen people standing on the street outside a house on 81st, all of them with glasses in their hands. You sidle inside, which takes a while because you have to say hi to everyone, but once there you say hi to Bonnie and Joe, and sign whatever copies of your books they have on hand, and shake hands with the workers who are more like family, and then you sidle back out (which takes a while, as above) and when you come out Lee Child is holding up a corner of the building, so you stand and talk with him a while and then Annette Meyers catches your arm and pulls you down the steps and you talk with her and her husband Marty, and then SJ Rozan in her cool Malcolm X shades needs greeting, and Twist Phelan and and and.

Then you realize that your agent, who is freshly off a plane and whom you promised to feed instantly, has been given nothing more substantial than several glasses of wine, so you pull yourself away from six other fascinating people and take your agent and your daughter next door to the Italian restaurant and feed them, by which time the night is finished and you go to bed, and so to sleep.

And on Wednesday there’s breakfast with SJ and a day of seminars, which means that this seminarian must run and will see you tomorrow.

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2 Comments

  1. Roxanne on April 25, 2007 at 6:44 pm

    5:26 AM! I bet you are one of those people who pops up wide awake in the morning without the aid of an alarm clock, all energetic and ready to go.

    It sounds like you are having a nice time in NY. I am envious. Too bad my daughter and I could not be there, too. Hope you and your daughter really enjoy yourselves.

  2. Carlina on April 26, 2007 at 10:20 pm

    Glad to hear you and your daughter are having a great time! Thanks for the updates! Oh and for used books. Strands is awesome…books on everything..miles and miles!

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