Next appearance on TV: PC and Martha will be discussing The Verb 'To Bird'
on "Martha Stewart Living" this Thursday, June 12th.Check your local listings for times.

Next appearance on radio: "The State of Things" on WUNC, Chapel Hill, NC, 91.5 FM, this Monday, June 9th, Noon-1:00

Next appearances in person:

*Market Street Books & Maps, Chapel Hill, NC, Wednesday, June 11th, 7:00 p.m.

*Barnes & Noble Booksellers, New Hope Common, Durham, NC, Thursday, June 12th, 7:00 p.m.

*Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, NC, Friday, June 13th, 7:00 p.m.

*Park Road Books, Charlotte, NC, Sunday, June 15th, 4:00 p.m.


Whew.

This week will be busy. So was last week. I'm realizing that since April 19th, I've spent more than fifty percent of my nights in a bed other than my own. Tiring.

Not that I'm complaining. The Italy trip was, as you can see from past entries, an absolute wonder, and last week's California experience was full of delights in its own right. At the same time, there's no denying that the pace is getting to me. I landed at Dulles on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., and less than forty-eight hours later, I'll be heading to North Carolina for ten days.

California offered an incredible variety of experiences. I spent the first three days in Los Angeles at the BookExpo America, the publishing world's annual convention and Festival of Schmoozing. There I got to sign books for dozens of people and chat with booksellers, authors, publishers and critics. I watched Paul Dry engage perfect strangers and persuade them to pick up books--a remarkable performance. I went to the Emerging Voices panel and got to hear readings by terrific writers, such as Russell Rowland (In Open Spaces), Danyel Smith (More Like Wrestling), Gayle Brandeis (The Book of Dead Birds), Laura Ruby (Lily's Ghosts), Rosemary Graham (My Not-So-Terrible Time at the Hippie Hotel), and Amanda Ward (Sleep Toward Heaven). I picked up scads of freebies, including a couple of graphic novels for Kelly and the kids. I also got to dine with some chums from Readerville.com, including Russell, Laura, Katharine Weber, Keith Chaffee, and the irrepressible CKDexterHaven, whose saga of attempting to buy a kosher Coke in Birmingham, Alabama, had us all cackling through most of the dessert course.

I stayed with my cousin Michael, whose spam-blocking software for Earthlink has been making the national news of late. He treated me to stops at Fatburger and In-N-Out Burger, plus a terrific sushi place around the corner from his apartment. He also put up with my desire to get some western species on my life list, driving me to Griffith Park on Saturday morning so we could poke around the L.A. River. I got eight new birds: Spotted Towhee, Bullock's Oriole, Black Phoebe, Cinnamon Teal, Wrentit, Scrub Jay, Bushtit, and Nuttall's Woodpecker.

From BEA I got the ride of my life: Randall Stickrod, publisher of The Readerville Journal, drove me to the Bay Area in his black Porsche Targa, sun roof down, engine purring, Randy Newman on the CD player. I got a nasty sunburn on the left side of my face, but it was worth it to see the scenery along Highway 101: Santa Monica Beach, Malibu, Santa Monica, the Salinas Valley... stunning. And I got a Western Gull and a Western Bluebird from the passenger seat to boot.

Randall passed me off to another Readerville friend, Karla, who had pretty much demanded that I stay at her place, since that was the only way I'd get to see redwoods. Luckily for me, I listened to her. Karla and her fiance Howard, a prodigiously talented cabinetmaker and fine tortellini chef, live in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Jose, and their property is a mix of forest and chapparal--a huge attraction for birds. She'd designed a hiking itinerary for me, but when I woke up, staggered into the front room, and saw three life species on her feeder in the first five minutes of the day, I soon realized there was little reason to do much hiking. I put on coffee and went back to the front room. After a while I walked to the end of the driveway. Then I went to sit on the porch for a bit. After a day of such frantic activity, I'd logged the Chestnut-backed Chickadee (very active, more than our eastern species), Acorn Woodpecker (stunning), California Towhee, Steller's Jay, Black-Headed Grosbeak, "Oregon" Junco, Lesser Goldfinch, Pacific-Slope Flycatcher, Orange-Crowned Warbler, California Quail (which appeared as I was chasing a squirrel off the feeder), and just as Karla got home, a Wilson's Warbler that flitted out of the redwoods and into her ornamentals.

From there we headed to Menlo Park, where Kepler's hosted a trio of Readerville authors: Amanda Ward again, plus Roxana Robinson (Sweetwater) and the inimitable M.J. Rose (Sheet Music). Better still, there was a Readerville party afterwards, so I finally got to meet many of my imaginary friends: hosts Kat Warren & Mr. Fuchsia, Ellen Sussman, McLinda, Joel, Jesse Wiedinmyer, Bob B, and Anne Ursu (Spilling Clarence and The Disapparation of James), who is incredibly funny and lively for someone who claims to spend most of her time under the bed. Karla, Randall, Russell, Rosemary, Danyel, and Laura were along, too. Best of all, I finally got to meet Karen Templer, proprietor of Readerville and one of the all-time most wonderful people ever placed on the planet. She has done me more favors than I'm ever going to be able to repay, so it was great to finally see her in person, however briefly.

The rest of my stay was mostly an exercise in nostalgia. I spent two nights with my old buddy Ken Buck, whom I've known since 7th grade, and also got to visit his sister Nan, another old friend, and her family. We threw darts, ate Cuban food, watched The Big Lebowski, drank cider, told stories about our friends from Culbreth Junior High, and made a good showing in the Rose & Crown's trivia contest. I even picked up two new birds (Anna's Hummingbird and the Plain Titmouse) in Nan's backyard.

All in all, a wonderful trip.

But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep...
7:48 AM

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