My Dell laptop crashed on my first night in NY…this is the second time this has happened, and I had to spend 2 1/2 hours on the phone with Dell before they, too, were convinced that my computer had, indeed, crashed again (this brings my total time spent on the phone to customer support to seven hours since I bought this computer). So they are sending a guy out to my house next week to replace the motherboard and the hard disc, which means I can’t do any writing this weekend (I am posting this on the hotel computer).
I spent Friday walking all over Manhattan, first to The Strand to browse the used books, and then to lunch with my editor, publisher and agent. I am pleased to report that the MONK books are doing very, very well and that there will likely be more to come after my current contract ends this Spring. They are also very excited about the BURN NOTICE books from my brother Tod and the PSYCH novels from my writing partner Bill Rabkin. This time next year, Tod, Bill and I will be doing lots of signings together to promote our new books.
After the meeting, I went to a few more bookstores…and stumbled into a sale at Taschen, where I bought lots of big, heavy books that I had to lug around to Partners & Crime, which hosted a signing party for all the MWA Board members in town. I caught up with Joseph Finder, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Harry Hunsicker, Les Klinger, Louise Ure, Charles Todd and many more folks. Everyone was very excited about the list of Edgar nominees that was announced yesterday and there was lots of discussion about the WGA strike. I got the latest on Lee, Joseph and Harlan’s pre-strike Hollywood adventures.
The party soon moved to a Chinese restaurant, where we gorged ourselves for a few more hours before Les and I decided to walk the 40 blocks back to our hotel. All in all, a long, fun, and exhausting day.
Today I won’t be getting nearly as much exercise. I’ll be locked in a board meeting all day and then tonight it’s another big dinner with the Board….and then tomorrow I return to L.A.
I’m glad you didn’t let the computer crash totally derail your day! It sounds like a dream day for a writer (other than the laptop fiasco): book stores, lunch with agents and editors, signings, talking shop to other writers… Thanks for letting us enjoy it with you.
Grab a Macbook or pre-order a Macbook Pro and save yourself some future heartache.
Ah yes…the horror that is Dell Customer service. I’ve had two monitors and a power supply goes toes up on the Dell desktop, and spent hour after hour either listening to Muzak or desperately trying to convince some kid in Bangalore that yes, it’s really broken, I didn’t just forget to plug something in. Then come the days of waiting for their “on-site service” subcontractor to get out of jail or rehab or wherever he is while Dell can’t reach him and come over to fix the damn thing (after at least three blown appointments that necessitated someone being at the house all freakin’ day).
Sorry to get off on a rant here, but I promised the folks at Dell I’d never miss an opportunity to tell people about my experience with them, and I always keep those sort of promises.
Anyway, sounds like a great time, Lee. Glad you’re having fun. And since I’ve griped elsewhere about the omission of the Divine Miss Laura (Lippman)’s kick ass novel from the Edgars, I shall not belabor the point again here.
Look at it this way: Dell’s crappy hardware forced you to socialize with the cream of the crop this weekend. And since I’ve met you all, I could imagine the faces along with the names. Have a blast, Lee!
Sorry I couldn’t make it to your signing, glad it went well!
And yeah, you gotta go Mac, baby! They’re like tanks!
Psych novels! That’s great news! I’ve thought to myself a couple of times that I should ask whether you had any information on when/if there would be Psych novels. I am looking forward to both these and The Burn Notice novels. If they are anywhere near as fun to read as your Monk novels, they will be must reads. I’ve read the first three Monk novels and enjoyed them all. The fourth is sitting on my shelf and will jump to the top of my reading list as soon as this current batch of Monk episodes ends.