BookPeople
Austin, TX

July 26, 2023

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
Scottsdale, AZ

July 248 2023

AUSTIN / HOUSTON

After wrapping things up in the Phoenix area, I caught a flight to Austin, TX, as part of this whirlwind week of events!

Things in Austin started rough. I made the mistake of taking an airport Taxi (versus an Uber) and was immediately hoodwinked - taken the LOOOOONG way to my hotel and ended up spending a stupid amount of money which was tough as I'm counting nickels here.

To make things worse, the hotel we had booked me at was... not going to work out. There's bad hotels, there's dumps, there's potentially unsafe...and then there's the La Quinta Inn in downtown Austin. Yikes. So, after a panicked, frustrated call to my awesome wife, I was immediately booked in a nearby Marriott near 6th Street (and luckily we got a full refund on the La Quinta disaster). After a mile-long walk through 110 degree heat (w/ luggage) I finally got settled and began to cool down (psychologically and physically). A few hours later, I found out that my guest author was not going to make it to the event. I mean... it was getting dark, folks.

But things went nothing but up from there. I saw a great band at Friends bar that night and the next day scootered my way to the phenomenal BOOKPEOPLE, where I was greeted by friendly, excited employees and a cart right upfront absolutely STACKED with my books.

I met up with Ry and the other great folks who work the events there, and Tori, one of the booksellers, filled in INCREDIBLY for the Q&A portion of the event. I could not have asked for a better conversation partner.

The event itself was just amazing. Lots of people showed up (including some Freaks) and everyone was engaged, asking questions and enjoying themselves. After the Q&A we did the signing and I got to meet so many fantastic readers! Special shoutout to Kurt who gave me his novel, to Lynnde who tattooed one of my rudimentary doodles on her leg (mine's the ghost!) and could not have been sweeter, and to Alex who brought a massive bag of books for me to sign. Could not have asked for a better event.

After scooting back to 6th Street for a much-needed scotch and some more live music, I got to bed early, ready to pick up my rental car the next day and make the 3+ hour drive to Houston.

* * *

I arrived in Houston with in good time in my tiny little rental car, stopping once to visit a little store called THE BOOK NOOK before braving the many, many toll roads and finding my airport hotel (complete with windows that rattled every time a plane landed or took off).

Having some time to kill, I stopped by a cool little place called THE MARK ROTHKO CHAPEL, which is quite literally a small, non-denominational chapel where you can go sit on a bench in complete air-conditioned silence and meditate to massive Rothko paintings. The image below is pulled from Google - no photos were allowed:

After that I went to the MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS and had a wonderful time exploring the exhibits. A very cool museum I highly recommend.

Luckily for me, MURDER BY THE BOOK was only a mile or so from the museum, so I got there in plenty of time to meet up with John, the events coordinator, and author C.S. HUMBLE, who was gracious enough to moderate my event that evening.

By the time we got going, this was easily the best crowd I'd had so far, with over twenty people in attendance. The Q&A was a lot of fun and I loved spending some time with all the folks who came out, signing books and chatting.