For the Dogs

This week marks the end of my two week break from book traveling. The insanity starts up this Friday with a trip to the first ever Victoria Steam Exposition in Victoria British Columbia. Not only is this my first time in Canada but it's my first time to get out of the country for the novel. I have a panel which is listed as a Q&A on Saturday at 4PM so anyone that's coming, please drop by and ask some questions. I'll be sharing the expo with the amazing author of Boneshaker, Cherie Priest and the ethereal musical stylings of Unwoman. (I'm positively giddy about this.)So off I go, look for updates on Twitter, facebook etc. By the way, how awesome is this poster?



For the dogs
I felt like I needed to volunteer more around town so on Friday Brad and I went to the Humane Society and Volunteered in the dog and cat food donation bank. We walked in and there was a mountain of bags of food. Literally, thousands of bags piled almost to the ceiling filled the bank. One lady ran it, taking donations and dispensing whatever needy people required. Almost quite literally, Brad and I jumped in head first, cleaning and organizing the cliff of pet food for a good four hours. Lifting hundreds of bags of food in a muggy food bank is tough work but was also one of the most rewarding things I've done in a long time. There's nothing like standing up for our four legged friends that don't have a voice.
Here's me rocking my flood beard. (A symbol of community unification because of the water shortage that still is going on...)

Flood Busters

I really wanted to get down and dirty on Monday, the day after the flood but things I can't control got in the way of me helping during the week. Very frustrating. Anyway, some friends and I met up on Saturday to help some good citizens of Nashville clean their houses up.

Keep in mind, a lot of people lost everything. I mean that literally. Like they have nothing. No clothes, tv, furniture, bed... everything is gone and while it looked ok as we carted it out to the street, you have to keep in mind that everything is contaminated. Flood waters rip through sewers, gas lines, garages, chemical plants and every other nasty thing you don't want to be sleeping on or eating out of.

We spent the morning canvasing areas which meant we were assigned streets and sent out to knock on people's doors to see if there was any immediate needs. We did our few hours and we thought it kind of silly that you have a bunch of able bodied and willing to get dirty people canvassing the streets. Surely someone that didn't want to clean could do that right? So next up we joined with a team of people going to do some heavy lifting and cleaning on a badly hit street. Upon arrival, the street looked like a bomb exploded. After 4 hours in a poor gentleman's house we actually made a dent in the destruction. The smell is horrendous. Think of an open sewer mixed with mold and mud. Yeah that's what it smelled like. It's a nice feeling to get something done for someone that has nothing. I mean, I had to think of it this way, what if it was me?

So off I go this Friday to help someone else. Not sure who or where but I know I'm going. Here are the few photos taken from the excursion:

Me with buckets of cleaning kits.


Friends pitching in.


Brad in the back of the canvasing truck.


Even in the ugliest times it's best to try to make someone laugh.

Finally it's not all book stuff

So maybe you enjoy hearing about my travels and adventures. I enjoy writing about them but I know that's pretty much all you've gotten in the past few months. So, we're going to mix it up with a state of the union update.

Being out of town for the last 3 months straight has been amazing. If you know me, you know I don't like to over use the word amazing because so rarely are we truly amazed. But this leg of the adventure from Myrtle Beach, SC to San Diego, CA and many places in between has been nothing short of that... Amazing. While I'll give you a brief book update below here is what's up:


Nashville
Wow. If you watch TV at all you know that Nashville had biblical sized flooding last weekend. Things are pretty messed up around here. While some people weren't effected at all, many lost well, everything. The surge of volunteerism in The Volunteer State is overwhelming and... I'll say it again. Amazing. People are coming out of the woodwork to help others, in most cases complete strangers mind you. Inspired by my city's work ethic and care for others, the Thomas Riley Crew will be hitting the hot streets tomorrow,(Saturday)to go help people we've never met. I'm quite excited about it really. Here is a picture that should give you an idea of what happened:

Also I was just sent this picture of Ke$ha (yes the pop star who sings the sickly addictive hit song TiK ToK) bringing massive amounts of dog food to animal shelters around town. I don't care what you sing, the respect points just went through the roof.


Two Weeks
I have two wonderful weeks to get my life back in order. You'd be shocked how little things get neglected when away so often. My yard looked like Cambodia just a few days ago and surely something exploded in the house as well... and that's not talking about the minor flooding in my house. So things have been a mad scramble to get everything done that I can before I leave again. Maybe just maybe I can find some time for some R&R with friends too. It feels like my pub outings happened two years ago. Think we're going to remedy that tonight with a visit to the wonderful microbrew makers Yazoo.

Ok the book stuff
My next trip is on May 21 to the Victoria Steam Expo where I'll be signing all weekend as well as doing an entire panel on Thomas Riley.


After that here's what my schedule looks like. Keep in mind there are wayyyy too many open dates for my comfort level so I'll be filling those in shortly.

-5/21-5/23 The Victoria Steam Expo (Victoria British Columbia, Canada)
-5/24 Barnes & Noble signing (Seattle, WA)
-5/28-5/31 The World Steam Expo (Dearborn, MI)
-6/12-6/13 Printer's Row (Chicago, IL)
-6/25-6/27 ApolloCon (Houston,TX)
-7/1-7/4 CONvergence (Bloomington, WI)
-7/21-7/25 San Diego Comic Con (San Diego, CA)
-8/27-8/29 ArmadilloCon (Austin, TX)
-9/2-9/5 DragonCon (Atlanta, GA)
-9/11 Bookmarks Book Fest (Winston-Salem, NC)
9/24-9/26 Baltimore Book Fest (Baltimore, MD)
10/2 Books By the Banks (Cincinnati, OH)
10/8-10-10 Southern Festival of Books (Nashville, TN)
10/22-10/23 Georgia Lit Fest (Statesboro, GA)
10/30 Louisiana Book Fest (Baton Rouge, LA)
11/7 New Orleans Book Fair (New Orleans, LA)
11/13 The Kentucky Book Fair (Frankfort, KY)
11/19-11/20 SteamCon (Seattle, WA)