May 22, 2006

This is going to be a blog only. I’ve read some good books in the past three weeks, but I read them while traveling. I’ll need a while to think about them.

I’d like to thank all of you for making my tour such a success. I met wonderful readers at every stop along the way, and I enjoyed talking to so many of you. Thanks for the kind words, the excellent questions, and all the small gifts. Above all, thanks for telling me you’re enjoying Sookie’s adventures.

DEFINITELY DEAD was/is a bestseller on the lists of: the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Barnes and Noble, Waldenbooks, and Entertainment Weekly. I am so delighted (not to say stunned) at this great reception, I hardly know what to say.

I went on the road alone, but up until the end, I never felt lonely. I felt I was meeting new friends in every city.

Nonetheless, traveling is a real grind. Airport, hotel, bookstore. Bookstore, hotel, airport. Security line, boarding, exiting, baggage claim. Trying to get my laptop case into the luggage compartment above me. My publisher made it painless as possible by supplying escorts and drivers along the way, to say nothing of putting me up in some wonderful hotels. But no matter how much easier that makes the journey, traveling from point A to point B these days is no picnic. I know, I know! I really do count my blessings, and I know this is what a writer dreams of, since I dreamed of it for twenty-plus years.

I ended up my trip at Romantic Times, this year held in Daytona Beach. Romantic Times is unlike any other convention, and it’s a barrel of fun in its very own way. Daytona, between the raceway and its proximity to Talladaga, a town with a very high population of psychics (no, I’m not kidding), is a strange sort of place altogether. Obviously a haven for tourists, Daytona natives seem to have a love-hate relationship with the assorted geeks from out of town.

I’ll have some family travels in the upcoming weeks, but nothing as extensive as my tour. I hope to buckle down and work on Sookie Seven. I can only hope it gets as enthusiastic a welcome as DEFINITELY DEAD has.

Thanks—

Charlaine Harris