This week I'm doing appearances in the UK to launch The Nightmare Stacks—and can I take this opportunity to plug my local Edinburgh SF specialist bookstore, Transreal Fiction, who can supply signed copies of my work all year round?—but on June 27th I'm off to the USA for a few weeks in Portland and the Bay Area.
Here's what I'm getting up to:
I'm arriving in Portland on Tuesday the 28th, and will be hanging out in Green Dragon from about 7pm, a real ale pub. (Note that I'll be leaving no later than 10:30, possibly a bit earlier.) This is in order to get onto local time because bright lights and conversation are really helpful for dealing with jet lag. All welcome! (Location to come.)
On Thursday the 30th, at 7:30pm I'll be reading and signing "The Nightmare Stacks" at Powell's City of Books (and you can order signed copies for mailing after the event if you're not able to be there). Note that I'm doing this at the big downtown mothership, not one of the outlying branches.
From Friday 1st to Monday 4th I'm appearing as a special guest at Westercon 69, a big-ass SF convention, at the Portland Doubletree hotel, along with John Scalzi, Theresa Mather, David Levine, and various others. If you're attending the convention, check the program book for my up-to-the-minute itinerary.
(From the 5th to the 8th my wife and I will be driving from Portland to the Bay Area. Yes, we've done it before. This time we're not going to try and do the coastal highway in a Lincoln Town Car. Nor do we plan on hitting any bears.)
On Saturday the 9th I'll be appearing at Writers with Drinks in San Francisco at The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd St., from 7:30pm.
On Sunday the 10th I'll be reading and signing at Borderlands Books, at 866 Valencia Street, from 3:00pm.
On Friday the 15th I'm doing a reading and signing at Copperfield's Books (140 Kentucky St, Petaluma, CA 94952) from 7pm.
On Monday the 18th I'm doing a (sorry, Google employees only—not open to the public) reading and signing at Google HQ in Mountain View from 1-2pm.
Sorry, but I won't be making any appearances in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, or anywhere else on this trip. It was actually meant to be just WesterCon and my summer vacation, only things got a bit out of hand: it's not an official signing tour as such, and once I get home I have a stack of deadlines to deal with, so keeping a few days back for R&R is important.
Just curious. In somewhat vague terms can you tell us where you plan to spend your R&R time?
Nope! If I did, it wouldn't be R&R!
My wife and I get to visit various cities at times and try and find things to do not on the chamber of commerce flyer.
Tell us after it's over?
Well, have fun whatever you do. Incidentally, the Sacramento Valley (I-5) an get really hot during the day (35-40oC), which is why driving down 1 or 101 can be more pleasurable, if a much longer trip. If you're doing I-5, things like water and sunscreen are kind of useful.
Charlie was referring to a free upgrade that he should have turned down a few years ago. Plus getting some advice on the "scenic route" and not understanding the idiomatic meaning of the term.
Until he gets near SF I suspect the Interstate system will be best for him.
We've done the drive before. Will probably take 101 the last bit of the journey because we're staying in SF proper, and Sacramento is way out of our way.
I've been of fan of yours for over a decade now and I'm definitely excited that you're going to be speaking at my favorite book store - Borderlands!
Still hot, but not quite so bad. In any case, if you want to see something a bit different, stop at the Real Goods store outside Hopland. It's just off the 101, and a nice, if funky, break.
Sounds like an unspeakably good time to be out of the country, the way things are going. Enjoy!
Alas, I'm condemned to be in London on referendum day.
You convinced me to sign up to go to WesterCon. Hope to make some of your panels.
Ha, my wife works late on the 28th, so I'll be one of the people able to bug you, err keep you company.
Also I strong opinions about optimum routing between Portland and the Bay Area as well as interesting and fun things to do. Like its peak season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland (which also has lots of compensatory plays including Tony winners). Or Crater Lake, or Mount Lassen, or taking one route to the Oregon Caves and Redwoods including a tree house hotel. Or Tahoe, Or OR OROR....
So if I were a USA-sian who did the Kindle Shuffle to have their address set at 10 Downing Street, would the book drop at midnight UK/7 pm NYC, or a few hours after?
I know when the time hits in the US it usually doesn't roll out until midnight Pacific so you don't have issues.
Just wondering if I should stay up tonight or just get it in the morning. :)
Did you know you can buy MacBooks at 10 Downing Street? Sadly though, there are no eBooks in their product catalogue.
(The above link may currently be rather overloaded I'm afraid due to Summer Sales)
A few hours later, I think. (Am not sure how Amazon decides when on the launch date to drop a book.)
Looking forward to seeing you and your lovely in Portland again. Will try to get us all a table a little earlier this time. Time was, you had to cross the San Joaquin valley at night, but y'all should be fine with your fancy modern A/C. (And that reminds me, I should make sure John Scalzi knows that there's a cafe that specializes in Churros.)
For a real not-your-normal stop, if you folks wanted a several hour detour, from Crescent City, CA, you could go up US199. An hour? Two? up there, when we were there in '11, we stopped at this, ahhhh, woodworkers. An old hippy, and OMIGHOD! His house, built by him, is, if I remember correctly, sort of the outline of a kidney bean, there are tree platforms with wooden creatures in there, inside the shop in the house... well, he had a life-sized carved mermaid... Just found him - he's about 65mi or so up from Crescent City http ://itsaburl.com/
Crater Lake's a amazing, but a good bit further into Oregon.
markLike I said, take the route to the Oregon Caves and Redwoods to the tree houses. It really depends on the time and distance he wants to go, since he's starting up north. Roseburg to Crater Lake to Cave Junction via Medford is pretty good. But then he has to drive down 1 in Cali.
Hey, Charlie,
Totally off the subject, I'd like to thank you and some of your fellow Scots: I read headlines saying that some of you folks have set up Mexican flags in sight of Trump's golf course.....
markI'm going to describe a few pubs near Powell's in NW Portland; hopefully this will help you choose your pint.
Deschutes: You've been here. It's big, and super popular, so really crowded and has long waits. Great food and beer (beer tends toward super hoppy, but they do it very well). 2 blocks from Powell's.
Fat Head's: big, open, copious amounts of food, good beer. Not usually super crowded. 3 blocks from Powell's.
Rogue Distillery & Pub: Mid-sized, good food, great beer (a tendency toward malty, many novel beers). 7 blocks from Powell's.
10 Barrel Brewing: Very large, with roof deck. Great food and beer. Beer is stylistically similar to Deschutes. Also very popular. 8 blocks from Powell's.
McMenamins Crystal/Ringlers/Lola's: Part of a huge Portland pub chain. Good beer, ok food. 2 blocks from Powell's.
BridgePort: Huge, old, good to great food, great beer (tends toward balanced-hoppy). 14 blocks from Powell's.
Lucky Labrador NW: Big, spacious, open. Ok food, great beer (tends toward balanced-malty). Rarely crowded. British-pub-style order-at-counter service. About 25 blocks from Powell's.
Hope that helps; safe travels.
To say Trump is hated is Scotland would be a slight overstatement.
Regarded with near-universal contempt, however ...
If you've not been to the Green Dragon before, I highly recommend it. A very good selection of local beers & ales, & the food is good. I'll try to be there Tuesday night.
Ugh East Side. My wife works late so I was planning on coming out. But getting there is gonna be a pain.
We have been there before.
Will need to leave by 10:30 because the trams stop running by 11pm and it's a long walk back to our hotel ... and also because of jet lag which will be hitting hard by then (it's +8 hours from Edinburgh, so 10:30pm in Portland feels like 6:30am back home).
Need to eat first because of the pet vegan.
Ugh still debating coming...
Bummed that you'll be in Mt. View but not hitting Kepler's. Next time?
Ok actually here in the back on a kindle
Oh, hey, maybe I'll see you there.
I think it's worth dropping by, Raven, but I'm biased by being on the concom. grin If you see a guy hunched over a laptop at the table behind the registration table, that's probably me. Charlie's easier to find; his schedule's printed up.
This does mean I'm going to be silent on the innerwebs for the next few days!
Enjoy the long drive down Charlie. Just got back from going from Portland to the bay and back over the weekend. Watch out for construction near Lake Shasta. Otherwise fine.