Fear and loathing in Florida

Also, I'm in France!

Hello, everyone! Hope this thing finds you well. I’m still on the road, so let’s get to it! 

I’ve been on the road more or less since the middle of September. I went to the Mississippi Book Festival (September 15-17) and had a blast hanging out with buddies Shaun Hamill and Eli Cranor. I also finally met and spent some time with Jimmy Cajoleas and Lee Mandelo. Good times. My shitty motel was behind a Waffle House and had some massive mold patches on the ceiling (photo below), but you know I love it all. Your dose of noir? I got into my Uber to go to my panel and signing on Saturday and the guy—an older Black dude with grey hair—looked rough. I said good morning and asked him if he was okay. He said no and then told me someone had “picked up” his nephew the previous night and then killed him with a bullet to the back of the head.  

On September 20 I jumped on another plane and flew to NYC. My driver picked me up and took me to Westport, CT for StoryFest, one of my favorite events every year. The worst thing about being super busy and not having time to do a recap of every event is that when I finally sit down to write something like this, I know I’m going to forget some names/cool things/whatever. Long story short, I had an absolute blast hanging out with Christopher Golden, Bracken McLeod, Rachel Harrison, May Cobb, Joe and Kasey Lansdale, Clay McLeod Chapman, Ellen Datlow, Julia Bartz, K’Wan, Caroline Wolff, Theresa DeLucci, and everyone else. I tried my comedy routine and it...went. Maybe I'll stick to horror and crime. We'll see. Anyway, a million thanks to Alex Giannini for another great year. 

I got up at 2:30am to get a ride back to LaGuardia and hop on a very early flight to Orlando. After so many years of not being invited to things and, when I was, not being able to go to things because I had two or three jobs that wouldn’t let take random days off, I still don’t mind not sleeping as long as I’m doing cool things. In any case, going from one event to the second leg of the tour was wild but totally worth it. I landed in Orlando and picked up my rental before heading up to Gainesville. I stopped for food and at one of those huge antique malls that are the size of a Walmart. It was wonderfully empty. Again, pics below. The Gainesville event was cool. Thanks to Brian Alan Ellis for his time and humor. It was my second reading in three nights. Also, my sister lives in Ocala and my mom flew from Puerto Rico to spend a few days with her and come to my event. First time ever! Now she knows I'm not lying when I say I make a living as writer and occasionally scream about violent shit to rooms full of people. In any case, it was great to see Twitter folks show up and show love. Many thanks to those who came out. Also, my previous times in Gainesville were very weird. The very last time I was there, I lived in a house with 11 other people. I slept on the floor two days in the a row and then on a sofa. One guy tried to kill himself and failed. I found his note and kept it. I told that story at the reading and my mom chimed in to say that bloody note is still at home "in a sandwich bag."

The day after the Gainesville event I had no events, but I needed to head to St. Pete. Before doing that, I went to Ocala to hug my mom again and then drove to Cassadaga. That was a lot of fun. I walked the Fairy Trail, visited the Haunted History Museum, and then went to the cemetery and sat in the Devil's chair with my eyes closed. He didn't say much that day, but he's been telling me stuff to put in the next novel since.

The drive to St. Pete was mellow. I could feel the ocean getting closer. The ocean is home. Always. I loved St. Pete. The event at Tombolo was amazing and seeing so many friends truly made me happy. The bookstore folks had sent an email via my publisher and one of their questions was something like "Is there anything else that would make the author feel more comfortable?" I'm always fucking around, so I wrote down "Peanut M&Ms." Yeah, they received me with some peanut M&Ms. They also gave me a hat. Next tour, I have to go back. Anyway, I had never been to St. Pete despite having spent a lot of time in Florida (mostly in Orlando, Gainesville, and Miami). Between reading, going to the beach, training at a new gym every day (yay for free day passes!), and hanging out with cool people, I felt like I could've easily stayed a couple more days in St. Pete, but I had to drive to down to Miami.

Four and half hours in a car with your thoughts and music is therapy to me. The drive to Miami was great. So was the event. Cristina at Books&Books gave me a tour and we talked books for a while. Then there was a little miscommunication and I ended up with no conversation partner, but author Raquel V. Reyes was there and she took over and we rocked that shit. Shoutout to Raquel for being a rockstar and stepping up like that. Raquel, si lees esto...espero que estés trabajando en esa novela!

The Florida tour ended with me speeding to the airport while it was still dark out. My plane was one of the last to leave the airport before they canceled everything due to the hurricane. The ride was bumpy and shaky was hell, but I made it out. Once home, I managed to do a few loads of laundry before packing my stuff again and heading to the airport. I was home for 19 hours. This time, I went to the Six Bridges Book Festival in Little Rock. The first night in Little Rock I went walking because that's what I always do when I get to a new place. The town was empty. Dead. Like, post-apocalyptic movie empty. As always, some photos below. The next day, I hung out with Eli Cranor again and we had lunch with John Portis (the brother of the late, great Charles Portis) and it was great. So was out event. The signing was amazing and I saw some old friends and made some new ones.

Three days. That's how long I was home before I jumped on another plane. This time, I went to Paris. I'm writing this from Pau, but this adventure is still going, so I'll you more about France in the next one. As always, thanks for reading and hope life is being good to you. Be decent and take care of yourself. More from me soon.