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Friday, August 31, 2007
A SOVEREIGN FOR SOUL-DELAY
posted
5:03 AM
Yesterday morning I walked around the corner to Neils Yard Dairy and bought myself 200g. of the Montgomery's unpasteurized cheddar.

Asked for it by name. The clerk, in a proper cheeseman's cap, wrapped my interestingly discoloured wedge in that special white paper they use, glossy on the inside, folding it that way I can never quite master.

Now it's 5:23AM PST, back in Vancouver, and the Montgomery's cheddar really *is* a sovereign medicine for jet lag. And that is the reason it costs almost as much as heroin, in America.

OUR JOURNEY DEPICTED
posted
5:00 AM
















Seattle





San Francisco





Los Angeles





Denver





Chicago





New York





Philadelphia





Boston





Undisclosed Location





Edinburgh





London





I love the way this makes a book tour look. There can be no more flattering depiction of the process, none. Though I must say that, as tours go, that was quite an enjoyable one.

September: Bag abroad in Canada.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007
IT'S A WRAP
posted
2:42 PM
Back from dinner with (*quite* a) few friends. :-)

Special thanks to the ever-resourceful Rev. Rat (and his deft hand with a "security" driver) for the extraordinarily kind and thoughtful gift of an achingly rare (printing of perhaps 200) London Transport "Watchful Eyes" poster!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007
BIG SMOKE
posted
5:59 PM



Monday was a travel-interviews-reading day, the full monte of touring, but my mini-vacation in an undisclosed location (Dublin) proved to have been an excellent idea, as, rested, I enjoyed the evening very much. A slo-mo global flashmob of Usual Suspects attended.

Thanks all, and see you at Forbidden Planet!

AULD REEKIE
posted
5:30 PM



I knew that Edinburgh was striking, but until my wife and I walked up and around the Mound, I hadn't known that it was as singular in its way as Venice. At one point, at least, they long ago build a street atop seven-story buildings. And the staired "closes" are out of Lankhmar.

THE STRESS...
posted
4:30 PM
of her regard.

Sunday, August 26, 2007
NOT QUITE YET BENEATH THE WATCHFUL EYES
posted
10:30 AM


In Edinburgh tonight. UK mini-tour starts up tomorrow.

Undisclosed location was extremely restful.

BTW, if anyone knows where to get these madly hip London Transport posters, please start a thread! I asked in the Transport Museum when I was last there, but without result.

Thursday, August 23, 2007
FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
posted
9:28 AM


Tuesday, August 21, 2007
WAY BALLARDIAN
posted
3:04 PM

ALPHAVILLE
posted
2:41 PM


Imaginary European country atop the ninth-floor roof of the new Ritz Carlton in Boston. Tokyo rooftop lawn-and-garden tech turns the ninth and tenth stories of older surrounding buildings into something sweet and vaguely Dutch.

Monday, August 20, 2007
CLEANER LINES, IN THE NICK OF TIME
posted
6:42 PM


I needed this to get over that orgone-sucking DC fauxtel.

The American leg of the 2007 Spook Country Tour is over.

Thanks all.

Tomorrow's a travel day with dateline action, into the 22nd.

WHAT BAGGERY IS THIS?
posted
10:14 AM



Boston. Brookline, tonight, is the final date of the North American leg of the tour. EUward ho, Tuesday, via Montreal (but alas only its airport). Undisclosed location.

Jonathan Ostrowsky-Lantz, whom I'd never before met, turned up at the Brattle, yesterday. One of the two editors of UnEarth magazine, he bought my first story, "Fragments of a Hologram Rose". And gave me back the original manuscript, last night, plus a couple of letters I'd written to him. What an exceptionally nice thing to do! Thanks, Jonathan!

Sunday, August 19, 2007
MEANWHILE, BACK IN SECOND LIFE
posted
7:21 PM


No, not really, but the combination of Corridor Metaphysics and low-rez texture-mapping, directly below the lobby of my DC hotel, triggered flashbacks. It was all I could do to keep from raising my arms Superman-style and trying to fly out. But I knew I'd just keep bumping the ceiling.

Glad I didn't notice the faux bloodstains until later!

Saturday, August 18, 2007
DATESTAMPING
posted
5:28 AM
Our photohosting is in a different timezone, so posts with photos are dated from when the photos went up, rather than from when I post.

BTW, lots of variation in quality of wifi, from hotel to hotel. Big new hotels don't necessarily have the best wifi. The best wifi is just that: free wifi throughout, no codes, no charges.

Friday, August 17, 2007
D.C., DAY #2
posted
11:23 AM



Hotel overlooking the Marina looks like a page from a very large pop-up book. Letraset orientalia. Faux-Singaporean. (Definitely the tour's anti-Marmont, this one.)

Nice crowd at the reading last night.

Thursday, August 16, 2007
PHILADELPHIA
posted
7:07 PM



To DC, today. (Bedbaggery, for the geospatial obsessive, is always of the prior city. Above, New York.)

Nice library turnout.

Wishing optimal bionicization recovery mojo to Gardner Dozois, who bears more responibility for certain memes than is generally known, and is one good man, as is very widely known.

A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME...
posted
4:04 AM
Spook Country will be going on the New York Times list at #6.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007
OVER THE RAINBOW
posted
5:27 AM
Starring Twilight Minotaur and the lovely Misty . Oh my. (I have always depended, as every novelist must, on the kindness of strangers.)

Tuesday, August 14, 2007
BEDBAGGING NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE
posted
8:56 PM



And this morning there's a red construction crane outside my tenth-floor window in SoHo.

BIG CROWD AT THE UNION SQUARE BARNES & NOBLE
posted
8:49 PM
I'm having trouble sending webmail, though.

THE CONCOURSE
posted
6:12 AM
Title for a story in New Worlds, circe 1967.

Currently sitting in the American concourse at O'Hare, waioting for a delayed flight to LaGuardia to board.

Monday, August 13, 2007
MY STUFF
posted
8:26 PM
ReUnited with my stuff. NYward ho.

Sunday, August 12, 2007
GET OUT OF DENVER
posted
11:59 AM



I did, but United ate my checked bag. Here's hoping it turns up, else you'll be seeing one increasing grizzled and grumpy book-signer.

Saturday, August 11, 2007
THE BEDROOM IN #79
posted
10:40 AM



Sometimes when I'm at the Marmont I'll get one room or another that I had twenty years ago.

Seventh floor balcony, looking down into the garden bar...

Denver, tonight. Chicago tomorrow.

I'M IN RYDELL TERRITORY
posted
6:04 AM



Literally.

Bag shot day before yesterday in San Francisco.

Tonight I rest in the mystery of the Chateau Marmont.

Tomorrow, Denver.

Thursday, August 09, 2007
"DO YOU HAVE THAT IN TITANIUM?"
posted
6:12 AM
Spork Country

Wednesday, August 08, 2007
SAW COLIN AND HURTSTOTOUCHFIRE
posted
9:59 PM
In *church*.

Currently awaiting steak fritte en suite.

7:45AM call.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007
SEATTLE'S A WRAP
posted
5:58 PM



Touring with the ACR 3A-1 Einsatztasche.

Nice meeting Boogerhead at the Barnes & Noble signing, this evening.

ONE-DAY LAYDOWN
posted
6:39 AM
That's a publisher's attempt to prevent retailers from selling a book before its publication day. Today is Spook Country's. If you've already seen it for sale, someone's jumped the gun.

I'm still in Seattle, day two of touring. Tomorrow a 4:30AM pickup for the flight to San Francisco, the tour's earliest.

Monday, August 06, 2007
CYBERSPACE:
posted
2:43 PM
It's everting.

THE BEST-LOOKING PART OF A BOOK TOUR
posted
11:56 AM
Virgin hotel beds. These are from my last tour, in suppport of the paperback of Pattern Recognition. More a mini-tour.
















Seattle





San Francisco





Los Angeles





Phoenix





Milwaukee





Madison





Chicago





Atlanta





Washington





Philadelphia





New York




Thursday, August 02, 2007
"'MR. BURNS HAIR'?", ASKS FULDOG (WHOM I LIKE)
posted
9:46 PM
Hair generally, I was told by Allison RiversRunRed, who very kindly was acting as my emergency Second Life hair consultant this morning, is a difficult business. In Second Life as in this one, I'd say. It's better done (I think she said) "in blocks". My problem then was that my avatar had been given a do similar to that of the Simpsons character.

The next iteration, I thought, was rather Tarantinoid (his haircut, not his films). But was still, relatively speaking, a considerable improvement.

My thanks to Allison, and to everyone else involved.

It was...peculiar. *Deeply* peculiar.

And now, a brief interlude of rural peace, between a virtual hair day and the more familiar peculiarities of a book tour.

WON'T HAVE TIME TO REPORT, LATER, ON MY READING IN SECOND LIFE
posted
9:14 AM
That's noon, PST, today, so if you've got an avatar, amble on over.

I've got an avatar. (Hope they can fix the Mr. Burns hair-do in time for the gig.)

I checked out the venue, last night, and my friend Joanna taught me how to...sit down.