Our tour began on April 11, 2023, when the book was published. (And if I met you anywhere along the way, be sure to use the form at the bottom to say “hi”!)
Day 1 – First stop of the tour, New York City and Books of Wonder, a fantastic children’s bookstore. Neal and I walked there from our hotel. Californian that I am, I waited on the curb when the sign said “Don’t Walk” as everyone around me crossed the street. “Oh yeah,” I remembered, “New York.”
On the way, we came to a Barnes & Noble, and since we had a few minutes, we thought we’d go in and see if they had I Am the Walrus. Indeed, they did — it was our first sighting of our book in the wild! On the “New & Notable” table, no less!
We happily signed our books for them, and then Neal signed some of his own books for older kids.
Finally, we arrived at Books of Wonder for the Launch.
Inside they had a nice display…
And we spoke before an enthusiastic group.
Then Neal and I had dinner at a local sushi place.
Day 2: The next day we got up early to take the train to Philadelphia — I’m so glad I was with Neal at the train station, he knew where to go, what to look for. We got to Philly and went to rent our reserved car for the town — but when we got to the rental place, no cars! So we took an Uber instead. We spoke at two middle schools in Philly.
One of them was the William Penn Charter School. Here we’re reading an excerpt from the book to the middle school kids.
The second school we spoke at was the Julia Masterman School. I don’t have any photos from our visit there, but they gave us each a gift bag that included a mug, which FLASH FORWARD I now proudly use for my morning coffee
After the schools, we went back to the car rental place, and they finally had a car for us. We drove to a Barnes & Noble in a nearby town and spoke to a good-sized group about our book, read some excerpts, and signed books.
After that we got a bite to eat at a locally recommended place — Philly cheese steak sandwiches, of course! Then back to our hotel.
One thing I have to acknowledge is that our publisher got us first-rate accommodations in every town we went to on the tour. They always put us in top-notch places.
Day 3: Got up early to fly to Miami. That night we had an event at Book & Books in Miami. They had a nice display set up for us and everything…
…but it was absolutely pouring rain that night in Miami, and hardly anybody showed at the bookstore!
The next day we took a local train to West Palm Beach for the BAM (Books! Arts! Music!) Festival.
We began the evening before with a cocktail party on the roof of our hotel. Here’s West Palm Beach from the hotel roof.
At BAM, Neal and I spoke on two or three panels each, and met with a lot of aspiring writers.
We also got some good news — I Am the Walrus received a mention in that week’s NY Times Book Review…
Next stop Austin, Texas, for the TLA (the Texas Library Association convention), a massive convention that took place at the Austin Hilton. Of all things, the pen that I brought for book signing was out of ink…
…so I took a walk to the nearest Office Max to get refills. Austin sure is an interesting place. I mean, where else would you find the Texas Selfie Museum?
No time for the museum though — we had a book signing at the Perma-Bound booth to get to! We arrived on the show floor just after the doors opened…
We had a steady line at the Perma-Bound booth for our signing.
Then back to our room at the Hilton Austin.
Like I said, first class lodging. Here’s the view from the window…
And the dizzying carpet in the room. Don’t look down! Neal and I said to each other.
At the TLA, we got some very good news: I Am the Walrus hit The NY Times Bestseller List!
We spent four days at the TLA, appearing on panels and doing more book signings on the show floor. We did the Texas Tea — that was a lot of fun! We also went to a great independent bookstore in Austin for a signing, Book People, I highly recommend it! We gave a short presentation, read an excerpt from the book, did a Q&A. And then we signed books.
Even before the tour had been planned, I had been wanting to go to Texas for BBQ, because I’ve long read about how Texas BBQ was the best, and I’d never tried it. And since I love BBQ, I wanted me some. So one night, when Neal had plans to meet some friends for dinner, I had a hankerin’ for BBQ. I Yelped “best BBQ near me”. And of course I had a panoply of choices — I chose the highest rated in Austin, Terry Black’s BBQ. I hopped in a Lyft, and told the driver where I wanted to go. He immediately extolled their beef ribs. I had been thinking of trying their brisket this visit (their menu being online), and he said their brisket is good, but there are better places in Austin for brisket. He said at Terry Black’s, you should get the beef rib.
So I did! First there was a long line that snaked around the building, including the shed where they kept all the firewood for their BBQ. I thought this photo would either make an interesting near-abstract, or a good jigsaw puzzle!
I finally made it inside, but still in line.
You order at the counter. I ended up getting one beef rib, which was enormous, and even though I didn’t need it, one slice of brisket. I just had to try it. I also got a side of coleslaw. It was a lot of food. I grabbed some napkins and found a seat.
It was all delicious. (I found the brisket to be excellent. If there’s a better brisket in town, let me at it! And the beef rib was so good — there was a BBQ rub on it that I found a little salty, and I LOVE salt, so if I found it salty, that means there was _a lot_ of salt.)
The day after the TLA, Neal and I went to the airport to catch a flight to our next destination, Portland, Oregon. At the Austin airport, we came upon this boarding info for Imaginary Destinations. See if you recognize any of them! I see Tatooine, the Dreamlands (of H.P. Lovecraft), then the Island of Myst — I loved that game! — followed by The Matrix, along with many other locations from fiction and folklore.
We found our gate, and when we got to Portland, we got lunch, then spoke and signed at the Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing. Then they put us in this spiffy hotel in the city.
The next morning we had breakfast with some friends of Neal’s. We didn’t eat at this Vegan Deli, but when we passed it, Neal said, “Only in Portland.”
We spoke at four Portland middle schools the next day. When I realized the shirt I was going to wear had become hopelessly wrinkled in my suitcase, I had to take action and I thought, ah the glamorous life of a NY Times best selling writer on tour…
After the schools, we had a book signing at a Barnes & Noble in a nearby town.
The following day we flew back to the Bay Area for a bookstore appearance that night, along with two school visits and another bookstore appearance the next day. Because I had some time at SFO, I thought I’d check out the bookstore there to see if they had our book at the airport. They did! I was so excited! I offered to sign it for them, and they were happy to have me do it.
That evening we were speaking at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park. The next day we went to speak at a couple of schools. One of the schools was Spring Lake Middle School in Santa Rosa. We found this nice greeting as we approached.
That evening we spoke at Copperfield’s in Petaluma, to an appreciative group.
After dinner, they put us in another nice hotel — this one near SFO because we had an early flight.
The next morning nearly killed me — we had to catch a 6 a.m. flight in order to get to our school visits (meaning we had to be at the airport by 5 a.m., meaning we had to get up around 4!) We made it, but I was grumpy for the rest of the tour!
We flew into Salt Lake City for our final schools of the tour and one more bookstore.
We rented a car at the airport and drove to the first school we were set to speak at. As we drove toward the school, I couldn’t help but sing, “My Quiet Little Mountain Town” from the South Park movie.
We got to our first stop, Draper Park Middle School.
The kids made nice welcome signs for us.
We had one more school visit, Payson High School. The school’s claim to fame is that it was the filming location of the school in the 1984 Kevin Bacon movie “Footloose”. After our presentation, the principal showed us the Kevin Bacon locker.
On the way back, Neal and I discussed what it would be like to grow up in a town ringed by mountains. If it would feel safe or isolating, or if it would make one more or less likely to want to explore beyond its boundaries.
We passed this object, and Neal recognized it as the stage from a concert he’d seen in Southern California twenty-something years ago. He had no idea how or why it had been moved to Salt Lake City, but there it was.
We had one more stop in Salt Lake City — the King’s English bookstore. That was the end of the official book tour, then back home to Petaluma.
A few weeks later, Neal and I organized our own Southern California leg of the tour. On May 17, I drove down from Petaluma to Neal’s place in Orange County. Our mini-tour started the next day in San Diego at Mysterious Galaxy, a wonderful bookstore specializing in science fiction and fantasy.
They had a nice display set up inside the door.
Next day, the Barnes & Noble at the Irvine Spectrum, where Neal and I appeared with his son Jarrod and Jarrod’s girlfriend Sophie, co-authors of the book “Retro.” Jarrod had also co-written “Dry” and “Roxy” with his dad. They had a nice table set up for our presentation.
And finally, our last stop was at the Barnes & Noble at the Grove.
The end of the tour — a rousing success!
If I met you along the way, please use the form below to say “hi!”