Day #5

Has it only been five days? Seems longer.

Got into San Diego around noon, picked up the rental car, checked into the slum that is the Westgate Hotel, and started the drive-bys.

Baja Books, signed 3 paperbacks.

B. Dalton on Horton, signed 2 hardcovers, 3 paperbacks.

Barnes & Noble on Hazard, signed 4 hardcovers, 6 paperbacks.

Barnes & Noble on Grossmont, signed 4 hardcovers, 8 paperbacks, sold 1.

Bookstar on Rosecrans, signed 2 hardcovers, 2 paperbacks.

Borders on Camino del Rio, signed 2 hardcovers, 6 paperbacks, sold 1.

Borders on 6th, signed 2 hardcvoers, 6 paperbacks.

Waldenbooks on Friars, signed 6 hardcovers, 6 paperbacks.

Then I got stuck in some serious rush hour traffic, and it took 90 minutes to get to my signing that night, at Mysterious Galaxy.

Huge crowd. The store was packed.

Unfortunately, they were all there to see Jeff Shelby. Jeff's novel KILLER SWELL (great debut, go buy it right now) just came out, and he'd apparently invited everyone he'd ever known since Kindergardem to the event.

Jeff's a great guy, and funny (much like his books), so we talked to the crowd for an hour and got some big laughs.

Then came an exercise in humility---sitting next to the guy who has a line of fifty people waiting for autographs, when you only have a line of three.

If you're a writer, get used to it. It will happen many times in your career.

The staff at Mysterious Galaxy was great, I signed over 50 books, and afterward went out to dinner with writer Douglas Gibbs and his wife, and writer Mario Avecedo.

Got home at 11PM, so tired I couldn't even blog. Had a fitful seven hours of sleep, and right after I finish typing this I'm off to LA for drive-bys (do they have drive-bys in LA?) and an event at The Mysterious Bookshop tonight at 7pm.

Hope to see some of you there!

FUN FACT ABOUT SAN DIEGO--It's in California.

TOUR RESULTS SO FAR: 54 bookstores visited. I'm on track to break 100. Place your bets...