6/13/2005
Book Tour Day One:
We started The Hummingbird Book Tour with a 5.6 earthquake in San Diego. Now, any earthquake is loads of fun, BUT when you're on the 11th floor of the Hyatt it's even more fun! The bed started bouncing, then the room started bouncing, then the hotel began an elegant swaying motion. It was almost like a Disneyland ride.
Cindy and I made our way to the San Diego Open Air Book Festival in Hillcrest. I wasn't sure what I was gonna find. In fact, I expected about 25 people to show up. The bookstore hosting my reading had ordered 60 copies. I'm happy to report, however, that when the crowd showed up, Cindy quit counting at 300. I couldn't even get to the microphone because 30 people immediately lined up, asking for autographs. I felt bad because I only had an hour and there was a group waiting to go on after me. My signing line was about 200 people long. Needless to say, the host sold all of their books. Warwick's Bookstore brought theirs as backup and sold all of them and all the other bookstores sold all of theirs, too. I honestly couldn't believe it was happening.
There was family there and a lot of my high school pals. But mostly it was people who simply liked the book. That is at once intoxicating and sobering. At one point, a gentleman battling AIDS simply wanted to be embraced. So I did. That will probably be the high point of the tour.
Tonight will be the reading in Del Mar. I plan to surprise the audience with a raffle of Sue Myle's beautiful Teresita ornament. The postcards are turning out to be as popular as I'd hoped they'd be.
Thanks for staying in touch. I'll write more as we go along.
Luis
On the road again ...
We started The Hummingbird Book Tour with a 5.6 earthquake in San Diego. Now, any earthquake is loads of fun, BUT when you're on the 11th floor of the Hyatt it's even more fun! The bed started bouncing, then the room started bouncing, then the hotel began an elegant swaying motion. It was almost like a Disneyland ride.
Cindy and I made our way to the San Diego Open Air Book Festival in Hillcrest. I wasn't sure what I was gonna find. In fact, I expected about 25 people to show up. The bookstore hosting my reading had ordered 60 copies. I'm happy to report, however, that when the crowd showed up, Cindy quit counting at 300. I couldn't even get to the microphone because 30 people immediately lined up, asking for autographs. I felt bad because I only had an hour and there was a group waiting to go on after me. My signing line was about 200 people long. Needless to say, the host sold all of their books. Warwick's Bookstore brought theirs as backup and sold all of them and all the other bookstores sold all of theirs, too. I honestly couldn't believe it was happening.
There was family there and a lot of my high school pals. But mostly it was people who simply liked the book. That is at once intoxicating and sobering. At one point, a gentleman battling AIDS simply wanted to be embraced. So I did. That will probably be the high point of the tour.
Tonight will be the reading in Del Mar. I plan to surprise the audience with a raffle of Sue Myle's beautiful Teresita ornament. The postcards are turning out to be as popular as I'd hoped they'd be.
Thanks for staying in touch. I'll write more as we go along.
Luis
6/11/2005
This morning before 6 o'clock, I was sitting on a Colorado back porch drinking coffee with an Irish wolfhound, staring at the snow on Pikes Peak. Tonight, Cinderella and I are on the 11th floor of the Hyatt La Jolla. It's hard to wrap your head around a day like that, but that's book tour!
When we got to the airport this morning, we found out that my tickets had vanished in cyberspace. Cindy had hers, but I didn't have any and it's my book tour! That kind of thing tends to happen when you're on the road.
Frankly, after 10 years on the road, I feel like a tired bar band. However, I look forward to meeting you and talking to you and hearing what you have to say about the book. The "postcard ministry" has been amazing for us. So many of you have written and said so many nice things that it's a joy to open my email every day. We are certainly doing our part to support the US Postal Service, so don't be shy. As long as you want pictures of Teresita, we will mail them to you.
It's Saturday night. Tomorrow I'll be doing the San Diego Open Air Book Festival (I think that's what it's called) and Monday, I will be reading at the Book Works in Del Mar. Come see me. Bring a friend. See ya on the road.
Luis
When we got to the airport this morning, we found out that my tickets had vanished in cyberspace. Cindy had hers, but I didn't have any and it's my book tour! That kind of thing tends to happen when you're on the road.
Frankly, after 10 years on the road, I feel like a tired bar band. However, I look forward to meeting you and talking to you and hearing what you have to say about the book. The "postcard ministry" has been amazing for us. So many of you have written and said so many nice things that it's a joy to open my email every day. We are certainly doing our part to support the US Postal Service, so don't be shy. As long as you want pictures of Teresita, we will mail them to you.
It's Saturday night. Tomorrow I'll be doing the San Diego Open Air Book Festival (I think that's what it's called) and Monday, I will be reading at the Book Works in Del Mar. Come see me. Bring a friend. See ya on the road.
Luis
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