Notes From The Road . . . (Go Vote!)

by Sean Chercover

Been on the road since I don't know when. Feels like forever. Meeting many great people, talking 'bout books, putting serious miles on the old Chevy Malibu.

Some random notes from the road. . .

• If you want to know how to host the best Bouchercon ever, ask Ruth Jordan and Judy Bobalik.
• You really should visit the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. At night.
• Pittsburgh continues to impress. Beautiful city, friendly people.
• The people of Ohio are totally sick of political commercials, and for good reason.
  
• Obama bumper stickers outnumber McCain bumper stickers in Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and California.
• McCain bumper stickers outnumber Obama bumper stickers in West Virginia.
• If you stop at the visitor's center in Wheeling, West Virginia, and ask where the nearest bookstore is, the answer will be, "Pennsylvania."
• I did not make that up.
• West Virginia is probably sick of being thought of as less than literate, but . . . damn.
• There are some really bright students at the University of Illinois, Champaign.
• Touring with Marcus is great fun. I recommend it.
• Breaking your toe while on tour is not so much fun. I do not recommend it.
• If you break your toe and then drive to the next town, do an interview for cable access TV, do a workshop at a library, walk to a pub, walk back from the pub, go to a cocktail party and stand for three hours, then drive for three hours, your toe will be ugly.
• If a guy in line at a gas station accidentally steps on your broken toe, you will immediately go out and buy steel-toe shoes that you really don't need.
• Doc Martens are not the quality shoes that they once were.
• Overheard in a bookstore. . . A wealthy suburban mom, speaking impatiently to her 12-year-old son: "Fine, you can have the Metallica CD, but then we're putting the books back. You can't have everything you want."
• It takes a great deal of restraint to keep your mouth shut and mind your own business when you hear a mother telling her son that he can't have books, in a country where very few young men still want to read.
• California hasn't changed.
• I love palm trees.
• If you live in California, please vote No on Proposition 8.
• The OC is very OC.
• You can get signed copies of Trigger City at the Barbara's Bookstore near gate H1 at O'Hare.
• Signed books make a thoughtful Christmas gift.
• And all them other religious holidays, too. Like Hanukkah. And Kwanzaa
  
• I can never remember how to spell Hanukkah, and I'm not sure why it sometimes has a C and sometimes doesn't.
• And I always forget the extra 'a' on the end of Kwanzaa.
• I am obviously rambling and in need of sleep.
• G'night...

Go Vote. Now.