I was up in Northern California last weekend, speaking/signing at Rossmoor, a retirement community outside of my hometown of Walnut Creek. That’s my daughter Maddie in the picture, who has promised to support me with her writing… and get us a condo at Rossmoor for our retirement (Hawaii, she’s decided, is just too far and inconvenient for a woman with her busy schedule).
From Rossmoor, we headed down to Monterey for the East of Eden writing conference, where I was the keynote speaker on Friday night (followed by Jeffrey Deaver on Saturday). We had a marvelous time… even though I dropped a piece of chocolate cake in my lap before I spoke…. a situation I made a lot worse by trying to wipe it off with water in the men’s room. I looked like a guy with a severe bladder control problem. Thankfully, I had a jacket that covered up my, um, stain… that said, it made for a funny intro into my talk. Most people thought I was joking about the accident. I wasn’t. But it went so well, I might just drop some food in my lap before my talk at Bouchercon in October…
Too late. We know better now. But if you’d like to get even ahead of time, my panel is 4PM on Thursday.