Jan 6

Written by: host
1/6/2007 12:00 AM

Of course, it was Seattle.
:-)

I've been to Seattle... four times now? I think. And with one exception, it's lived up to its reputation of being wet and cold.

Now, that bothers some people. Me, I rather like it. I also like the town and the bookstores, if for no other reason than people seem to be addicted to two things in Seattle: coffee and John Ringo books. Stocking is always phemonenal compared to any other region I visit. Given the local politics I find that odd but...

Flew in yesterday, rather exhausted. I hadn't slept in... a while except for a bit of time on the (looooong) flight out. Gotten up the day before rather early for me, around noon, been up all night as per normal, passed out for maybe an hour on the flight and then the whole "eastern/pacific" thing kicked in so I don't know if at that point I was up to thirty hours or forty or what. But sleep deprivation was an issue.

However, I had a new bookstore to find. This time the powers that be (hereafter TP) were sending me to Everett. Other than the fact that it was a pansy guy name, I had no clue about Everett. I still have no real clue about Everett. I was, apparently, in some place called "south Everett" as opposed to "Everett" and that's about all I know.

I met up with Fiacha Donnelly, we had dinner at McGrath's, some awesome fresh Dungeness, hung out and talked then headed up to the bookstore very early. It was colder than I'd previously dealt with in Seattle and had sort of cleared up when we got there. Cigar trips were abbreviated since I was underdressed for 30s and high winds.

Hooked up with the "handler" at Borders, checked out the signing area. They hadn't quite finished setting up, we'd gotten there a couple of hours early to avoid some traffic issues, but they eventually got all the books out. Very nice people, very helpful. Nice all around.

I hung out in the signing area as people trickled in and as soon as someone other than Fiacha said "Are you John Ringo" the "signing" more or less started. Well, the "raconteuring" part of the signing. At one point I think I said "Is it seven yet?" and I think we'd been talking for an hour at least.

Finished up as the store was closing, signed everyone's books, signed their stock. Some of Fiacha's "crew" had showed up by then. We repaired to an Applebees and chewed the fat and nachos for a while more then I rang the bell and headed to the hotel.

I'd been scheduled to stay at a hotel in Everett. However, I was about as close to my Seattle hotel as the one in Everett. So I called them, determined they had a room, and went there instead. This caused a bit of an unintentional snafu regarding some shipping but that got cleared up.

Next day I got cleaned up then had a day to kill in Seattle. I killed it in my normal way, visiting bookstores to sign stock, driving around the University district and eating good food. Met up with Jeff Wilkes for lunch at Lowell's and had a great chat. After that I headed back up to the University district and parked at my hotel.

What I really needed at that point were three things hard to find in combination in Seattle. A place to sit, a place to WiFi and a place to SMOKE. I was informed there was a "hookah bar" a couple of blocks away. The previous "clearing" had given way to "not clearing one damned bit" so it was an interesting walk. Perfect Seattle weather. About 40 degrees, raining like piss and high winds. My upper body was fine but I had neglected to bring a hat and my jeans got a bit soppy. No problem, I'd dry out at the hookah bar which was... damn, how many blocks away IS this thing? (And, I might add, in the opposite direction from my signing which was also walking distance.)

Finally got there and... they didn't open until 8PM.

Sigh.

Walked back to the hotel. Informed desk clerk who had given me directions of same. Was humorous about it, it had been as far as he knew a good steer. Not his fault.

However, at that point I was soaked enough I figured I'd just walk to the bookstore.

Checked in with Duane at University. Stuff that had been sent to Everett hotel Fiacha (THANKS AGAIN!) had driven all the way down. (Interstate was a parking lot.) Got a mocha, wandered outside, found some overhead and watched the people.

Seattle is a great city for people watching. Not so much for "girl" watching in the winter, ("Wow! Look at the fleece on that one!") but great for people watching. Lots of East Asians with enough density that they keep a fair bit of cultural memes. Asians, all of them, don't have the same concept of body space as Americans and even Europeans. Big treatise on that one sometime, but it's interesting to watch.

Where else but Seattle do you see a street person wearing a Columbia jacket and sipping a Starbucks?

I came to the conclusion that some "outfitter" company should take pity on poor Goths and come out with some cool Goth cold/wet weather gear. The serious Gothers were totally screwed. I mean, PVC LOOKS nice and it's even fairly water-proof but it sucks in a cold, nasty rain.

Wandered in early, again. Damn, this is starting to be a habit and one I really need to break. People will start thinking that my gigs start on time and then it's nothing but work, work, work.

Now here's the funny thing. Standing outside I'd gotten "pumped." When I do a signing, when I do a panel, I'm there at least in part to entertain. If I can't get people laughing, nodding and thinking then what's the point of even talking.

When I'd been outside, I'd been building a pretty good "bit" to do, talking about seattle, segueing into books, etc.

I walked in and just lost it. Not "lost my temper" just lost "it." Oh, people thought I was pretty interesting but I pointed out that I was missing. I asked Duane about it, during the "meet the author" portion and he agreed. (I mean he'd seen me three times before.) Don't know what happened but it was like my "public" muse just bunked off for a smoke.

Anyway, tried my best to be entertaining but wasn't quite there. Signed books. Hung out with some readers afterwards at IHOP for a while then headed back to the hotel which brings me to now.

Conclusions:

Everett Borders had nice people. They're just getting their feet under them and their stocking levels. We'll see how they're doing next trip.

University bookstore was, as ever, great to do a signing at. Even "off" it was a great signing.

Seattle in winter is not a great place to watch girls but it's great for people watching otherwise.

Dungeness crab rocks!
:-)

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