The First Fiction Tour @ Los Angeles

Another dispatch from Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, on the road with three debut novelists...

We had a blast in Los Angeles. Marya Hornbacher and I were picked up by Ken Wilson, our media escort, who has been doing this for nigh on 24 years. He immediately took us to In-n-Out Burger for some cheap, fast food, before we headed to Van Nuys for a taping with a lady named Connie Martinson, who has a book show that's syndicated across the country. When we got there, her crew was way behind schedule (though we did get to glimpse John Sayles doing his interview), so we went to an Encino Barnes & Noble to sign stock. Ah, the glamorous life of the authoress.

The interviews with Connie went well; she's a real book lover who supports her local libraries with a passion, and reads about eight books a week. It was my first long interview for television, so I was a little nervous, but Marya went first and was such a pro that I just tried to emulate her.

Then it was back to the gorgeous Park Hyatt Hotel in Century City, which we were not expecting to be quite-so-glamorous as it was. I met an old family friend for dinner (who I hadn't seen since I was fourteen) and then rendezvous'd with everyone at Fais Do-Do. At first we were nervous because there wasn't such a huge crowd (our Midwestern experiences have made us all a bit skittish) but people started streaming in, which was fantastic. As usual, I started us off, and I read an excerpt I haven't read before, which is always a bit nervewracking. We've been trying to switch things up a bit for the benefit of our fellow tour-ists (with the exception of Ed Schwarzchild, but his excerpt is so funny every night that there's no need to fix what ain't broke). Marya and Ed got great responses, though to Marya's humiliation, she lost her balance on the stairs, and was sure everyone thought she was wasted, when she had not had one drop of alcohol. Ed read his usual riotous passage, and then Matthew and his ladylove (or as he called her, his "babymama") Helen Hunt read three short sections together.

I'm going to cut this short because we just got to Austin and it's a beautiful sunny day so staying in the Doubletree hotel logged on the internet seems a silly waste. Word to the wise, though: When staying in Austin, do. Not. Stay. In. The. Doubletree. Inn. Ed finally won: he's in the really cool Hotel San Jose and we're all jealous.