Ever since I was first published nearly twenty years ago, I wanted to go on a book tour. Unfortunately, book tours aren't as common as they once were; publishers have decided they're expensive and don't offer a very good return on investment. So I was stunned when my publishers offered to send me on tour for the tenth Sebastian St. Cyr book. Then I saw the schedule and I thought maybe I'd fallen into one of those "be careful what you wish for" scenarios.
Yes, it was exhausting, but it was also unbelievably exhilarating. The nice thing about going on tour for your tenth mystery as opposed to, say, your first, is that the people you're meeting already know your books. I met so many readers who love Sebastian and Hero and Gibson and Tom and Hendon and Kat as much as I do, and I can't tell you how exciting that was. I could talk about these books forever and the book tour gave me the opportunity to do juch that.
The only frustrating aspect (apart from the whole lack of sleep and mealtimes thing) was that I spent so little time in each city. I'd fly in with barely enough time to dump my bags at the hotel and get to the bookstore; have the signing; eat dinner; go to bed; get up at the crack of dawn (or before) to make it to the airport and move on to the next city. It wasn't until Seattle, the last leg of the tour, that I finally had an afternoon to play tourist. And since I hadn't been to Seattle since 1978 (yes: ouch), I loved it. (Thank you, Sabena!)
My hosts ranged from New Orleans' own Garden District Bookstore and Houston's Murder by the Book, both old friends; to the amazingly huge Powell's in Portland (it really says something about the readers of Portland that they support not one, but multiple independent bookstores of that size); to the cozy and charming specialty bookstore, Seattle Mystery Bookshop; to Poisoned Pen, which is a truly awe-inspiring operation. A huge thank you to each and every one of my readers who came out to see me and helped make the tour not just a success, but
fun.
And I even managed to snap a photo of Idaho's snow covered mountains and wave as I flew home.
CAUTION: There are spoilers in the comments, so if you haven't finished WHO BURIES THE DEAD, don't read them!
