Getting Medieval

Scottsdale and the Poison Pen Bookstore

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting Poison Pen Bookstore, the brainchild of publisher Barbara Peters who is head honcho at Poison Pen Press. Barbara interviewed me and fellow author Pete Goodman about his book Smoking Frog Lives! and we tossed around answers to the small but interested crowd.

We hung around in Scottsdale for a while, taking in the artwalk and investigating the galleries. It's southern California weather here in Arizona, meaning it isn't any cooler here than it would be back home. I don't know why I expected cooler. It is the desert, after all, with saguaro cactus and everything. (Arizona is not packed with saguaro, the creepy iconic tall cactus with arms. It is in selected locations. And as far as I can tell, it doesn't show up at all in California except in the expensive landscaping in Palm Springs.)

  

Brabara Peters and me.

That's Pete Goodman in the hat to the left of me.

Old Town Scottsdale.

Entertaining the crowds at lunch.

Well Red Coyote in Sedona

Arizona is a land of contrasts. First we are traveling through desert, which changes to desert with Joshua Trees. And then it is prairie where cattle can be run. And suddenly, you turn a corner and big pines are sprouting out of the hillsides. We are approaching Flagstaff where we spend the night...with the trains which run all night. Nearby. Before that we hit a brewpub and wander down the creative center of Flagstaff, just in time for an art walk.

The next morning we hit the road again for the very colorful drive through Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona to Kris Neri's bookstore the Well Red Coyote. The leaves are turning along the creek, and above, the amazing cathedrals of stone or red rock, the kind of stuff that makes the desert "magical."

At Kris' store, I give a writing workshop on "Bringing History Alive." There about ten people in attendance, all with varied interests in what they were writing, from science fiction writers to a woman who writes musicals and one-woman shows! I only went for an hour but could have gone longer. A good bunch. A great big thank you to Kris for hosting this event!

The library was close by so I trotted in there, found Veil of Lies on the shelf and offered to sign it. I guess they never confronted that before, but in the end, said that would be okay. I left bookmarks. Hopefully, they'll order Serpent.

Then we were on the road again to Phoenix where I will be at Poison Pen in Scottsdale. 

Sedona Library. 

Arizona Book Touring

We continue the SERPENT IN THE THORNS book tour by picking it up in Arizona for the weekend. We started in Primm, NV, a few days early to relax and do a little gambling at the casinos before hitting the road to Flagstaff, AZ. We took Route 66 for a bit of scenic side-touring, which was all we had time for today.

Below are some highlights from our diversion. Tomorrow, I will be in Sedona at the Well Red Coyote giving a writing workshop on "How to Make History Come Alive." Hope to see some of you there.

 You just don't know what you're going to see out in the desert. This poor Easter Island Guy appears to be a bit lost. And yes, you can stick your hand up his nose. Er...just in case you wondered. Um...yeah.

This is a pretty famous spot in Hackberry. Of course, this is all there is in Hackberry. Another pic of the same location follows.

And then to our left, we could see the top edges of the end of the Grand Canyon. Or was it the beginning? Anyway, that was going to be considerably out of our way, so we had to miss it this time around, though we have been there before. We didn't want to miss, however, our stop at the Grand Canyon Caverns with commenserate concrete dinosaur. About twelve years ago we made this Route 66 trip and went on the caverns tour where you see the mummified remains of a bobcat, a recreation of a giant sloth, and feel the actual cool air from the Grand Canyon whooshing down through these dry caves. Weird! The tour and gift shop are as tacky as you think it is...but in a good way. 

Before...

...After.

All along the lonlier stretches of Route 66--which is most of it--there are the old-timey signs with the little rhyme ending with the Burma-Shave sign; the phenomonally successful advertising campaign was begun in 1925 to 1963. That's when the company was bought by Philip Morris. Then The American Safety Razor Company bought it, or the name since the company was pretty defunct by then, and issued a gift kit with the brushless shaving cream. The company may have faded, but the nostalgia for the signs lives on.

More interesting sights along the road.

 
 

 

Happy Halloween

Just a few of my friends:

  

"A horse, a horse!"

The 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicstershire England is renowned for some very important decisions. This was the battle in which the War of the Roses came to end, in which Richard III lost his crown and his life to Welsh upstart Henry Tudor who was to become Henry VII, father of Henry VIII. It was the last time a monarch of England was at the head of a battle in the fray...and died there.

For centuries, historians thought they knew where the actual battlefield was, but archaeologists in England have made not one, but several surprising discoveries about Bosworth Field. One, it was in the wrong place, and two, they found bullets and cannon balls! (The picture below is of a silver coin and one of several quite small cannon balls found at the site.) 

Now this is surprising, as it was not believed that movable artillery were often used this early. Yes, there were "handgonners" on occasion--unwieldly, lengthy "gonnes" with a long fuse and little accuracy--but this find puts a new spin on old news. When Richard lost his horse, making him vulnerable enough to lose his life, his horse might have been taken out by a cannon ball. This information creates a whole bevy of speculation about the nature of 15th century warfare and questions about a very famous and important battle that changed the face of England and its monarchy.

The story can be read here in The Guardian.  

The Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Series Book Trailer!

I am very pleased to present to you the Crispin Guest Series book trailer.

Indiana's Last LAST Hurrah

Okay, I couldn't resist taking some last pictures. Hubby, I was seriously contemplating skipping the airport and just staying here. Seriously. I am in love with Zionsville, with its quaint tree-lined streets, bright orange pumpkins on Victorian porches, small town feel but with that individual attitude and style (I was told that the fellow who invented voicemail lives in Zionsville).

Anyway, a few more pictures.

Here is the church and here is the steeple...

Even their McDonald's is classy.

 

Indiana's Last Hurrah

Tonight I hit my last bookstore in Indiana, the famous Mystery Company. We had a nice crowd to listen to me prattle on about the Middle Ages and play with my weapons. A big thank you to proprietor Jim Huang who is still coming down from his high of putting together and running this year's Bouchercon. With boxes of books from the con still sitting in his store, Jim graciously welcomed me and his guests. It's just another cool spot in the charming city of Carmel (like the candy, not the California beach town). Don't miss it if you are in Indiana.

Tomorrow I head for home, back to California. And not a moment too soon as the Future Farmers of America have descended upon Indianapolis, 50,000 of them or so I've heard, including my little hotel. God knows if it will be quiet enough for me to get some sleep. Aren't farmers supposed to go to bed early?