Whew!

Been doing the promotional dance for the last few weeks. Had a wonderful signing at M is for Mystery. That's such a wonderful store. If you're ever near San Mateo, California, stop on by and pick up a few books. They have EVERY possible mystery you could want.

Had a great evening at Janet Ruldoph's house. She is the editor of Mystery Readers Journal. She hosts author soirees (don't you love that word?) at her house for authors and readers to get together and discuss, what else, mysteries. The current issue is devoted to historical mysteries, and the next issue is set in San Francisco. I've been asked to write a snippet, so I might have to reread Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" and revisit the restaurants in that book. I know John's Grill features prominently, but what else? Hmmm.

I shared the evening with Jane Cleland, who is just out with her latest Josie Prescott Antiques mystery, "Deadly Appraisal." It was fun to connect again with Randal Brandt, who has compiled a bibliography that contains over 1,500 titles of mystery, detective, and crime fiction with the action, or significant parts of the action, set in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Check it out: Golden Gate Mysteries. Yours truly is included.

It's truly been a whirlwind couple of weeks. Had a WONDERFUL signing at Mrs. Dalloway's on College Avenue in Berkeley. Friends and family arrived en masse and bought lots of books. It's the sort of store that has been particularly vulnerable to the chain store onslaught, but Marion assures me they are doing well. There were several books on gardening that I was salivating over and a healthy fiction section. Drop in the next time you're on College Avenue in Berkeley and buy something!

It's stores like this and M is for Mystery that host relatively small authors like me. Please, support your independent bookseller!

When my husband and I were in college at U.C., we used to walk from our grungy college digs to Botts ice cream for gigantic ice cream cones. We'd walk through the Elmwood district, ogling all the wonderful craftsmen bungalows and wood-shingled two-stories, so endemic to that neighborhood. Without shame, we'd peep into lighted living rooms and dining rooms, hoping that one day we'd have a home in this fabulous neighborhood. Having been in exile in suburbia for a number of years, living in nothing more than a rectangle, we still haven't given up this dream, and are now plotting our final and last move back to Berkeley once the kidlets are done with high school.

My next event is on June 3rd at the San Bruno Library with the wonderful Cornelia Read, whose latest book "The Crazy School" is a great read. Then we've got high school graduations and middle school graduations and someone to get on a plane to Ireland, and like, whoa. Life is busy.

Oh yeah, that next book to write. Got to get cracking on that as well.