A Dodge Charger Bentley Burger in Beverly Hills

Sitting in a hotel room in Culver City right now watching Tremors. Can’t help but appreciate the synchronicity in knowing that I’ll be doing a book signing at the Poisoned Pen in Phoenix tomorrow alongside the guy who wrote the screenplay for it.

After leaving Maria Alexander’s I drove up Cold Water Canyon as an homage to one of my favorite authors, Clive Barker. Then rolled down into Beverly Hills where the hired help drive Acuras. While on Santa Monica Blvd, I saw a Bently Azul. About the time I said to myself, “Look, there’s a Bentley,” two cop cars came screaming across the intersection. We slammed on our brakes. I almost ate the rear end of the Bentley. Then I watched as yet another Bentley skidded to a stop to a stop behind me, coming within an inch of my bumper. I imagined the in evitable conversation with my insurance agent and how I was going to explain how I had an accident with not one, but two $400,000 cars—A Dodge Charger Bentley Burger.

The signing last night went well. Traffic was murder, as you can imagine. I first parked on a side street, about 7 blocks away, then I found out I had assigned parking in back. Much better. Although it did give me a moment to pause in front of the Viper Room and wonder WTF River Phoenix was thinking right before he overdosed.

Book Soup is an amazing place. It has more books than a store that size should have. It reminded me in some ways of City Lights in San Fran. What I like best is that there are store comments on what seem like a good half of the books, giving me insight into who liked it and why. I bought a copy of Robert Mitchum’s biography. He was a stud and reminds me a lot of my grandfather. Although I don’t think my grandfather smoked as much pot as Bob, but then I might never know.

Although they had chairs and a sound system, I never used it. The people came in onesies and twosies. Instead of speechifying, I talked to them and we had a great time. Special shout out to Pete Giglio, Hal Bodner and Eugene, Cody Goodfellow, and Maria Alexander. Thanks also to Ted the Events Guy, a very interesting young man who worships at the foot of antiquarian books. Thanks also to Paige Garver, store manager for making me feel at home and not stressed out that I didn’t sell all fifty books they had in stock; for recommending the Mitchum book to me; and for inviting me back.

In the end we sold about 30 copies of Empire of Salt. They kept the rest as store stock. I signed them, so as far as I know, Book Soup is now the only place in L.A. to get a signed copy of Empire of Salt. It’s also probably the only store in L.A. that’s carrying the book. After all, for those who have been following my blog, you know now that it is out of print in the U.S. So call Book Soup at 310.659.3110 and ask to reserve a copy today. In fact, with as many famous and (like me) infamous folks as they have signing at the store, the best idea is to look at their author events list and determine who you’d like to have a signed and inscribed book from, order that too, and get an awesome Christmas present  for someone. Truly, their list of authors is the who’s who of pop culture, politics and modern American history.

So now I get to decompress for half a day. I have a BBQ at an old friend’s house nearby. I haven’t seen them in 13 years and am really looking forward to seeing them. Then it’s back to the hotel, do some writing so my agent won’t kick my ass next time I see him, and then up early the next morning to make the 7 hour drive back to Phoenix for the big book signing at 2 PM at the Poisoned Pen. Like Book Soup, Poisoned Pen has a who’s who of authors. If you are in the Phoenix area and can’t drag your sorry ass can’t make it to the signing, call the store at (888) 560-9919 and reserve a signed and inscribed copy. That way you can come by and pick it up when you want.

That’s all for now, I guess. Thanks again to Mike McCarty and Maria Alexander for hosting my. Muchos Gracias.

Oh yeah, in a weird addendum because I never thought I’d be giving a shout out to Sears, they have embraced much zombie goodness. You have to see this to believe it.