"Enjoy the Season," says the sign--- which I hadn't noticed until, thanks to my amiga C.R., I saw this photo of Yours Truly giving the spiel (note carte-de-visite of the then-prince Agustin de Iturbide y Green circa 1865 to the left) at the Bethesda Barnes & Noble Bookstore back in June. A book tour is a sort of season, after all. This was one of the last events in the cram-packed book tour arranged by my publisher, Unbridled Books, that started at Washington DC's Mexican Cultural Institute and then to California (Palo Alto, Berkeley, Corte Madera, Pasadena, LA, La Jolla, Del Mar), and on to Albuquerque and (whew) four events in a blazing zig-zag across the great state of Texas--- so I was pretty well wiped out by the time I got back up north to Bethesda, Maryland's Barnes & Noble. But in fact, this was one of the most fun of all the events. Several of my writing friends attended this one (among them, Leslie Pietrzyk, Carolyn Parkhurst, Ann L. McLaughlin, and Paula Whyman), as well as many Mexican friends and a leading expert on Mexico's First and Second Empires, Clark Crook-Castan, author of Los movimientos monárquicos mexicanos (Collección UDEM, 2000). I'll be posting something about this work very soon. The thing is: a book tour is about so much more than selling a book. It's about understanding the book in deeper ways as people make comments and ask questions; it's about seeing old friends and family; meeting new friends; and learning about other people's work. A book tour is a season of surprises. More anon.
