Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Wild Weekend and Traffic

When I attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April, I had a great conversation with one of the fun people from Mysterious Galaxy, a bookstore in San Diego that features--what else?--mysteries and sci-fi.  They also have a facility in Redondo Beach from which they put together book events.

I learned that the Mysterious Galaxy Birthday Bash was on the same weekend my second Barkery & Biscuits Mystery, TO CATCH A TREAT, was officially to become available as a release from Midnight Ink.  I was invited to do a launch event at the Birthday Bash, that Saturday, and of course I accepted!

Only problem is that I live in L.A., and a drive to San Diego can be horrible, thanks to traffic.  I was scheduled to be featured at the earliest time of the bash, 10-11 AM, along with other mystery writers.  Other genres were to be featured mostly in hour increments for the rest of the day.

On a weekend, 10 AM arrival shouldn't be too bad, shouldn't being the operative word.   My husband and I left home at 6:30 AM for what should be a little more than a two hour drive--this time should being the operative word.

And in fact, when we started out on the freeway route down there traffic was great!  We stopped for a quick fast-food breakfast and resumed our drive.  That was when a friend who knew what we were up to texted that there was a Sigalert ahead of us.

For those who don't know, a Sigalert means a major traffic jam, often resulting from an accident.  That was what happened here.  And there's no good way to reach San Diego by car from L.A. except the 5 Freeway.

As a result, we were delayed.  I reached Mysterious Galaxy twenty minutes into my scheduled panel time.  I called first to warn them, at least.  Everyone was sweet and gracious, and I did get forty minutes or so to talk to the audience with my fellow panelists about our stories.  Later, I got to sign books. 

In all, I loved it!  I thank Mysterious Galaxy for inviting me and for showing me such a good time.  Oh, and by the way, since my Barkery & Biscuits series is partly about a barkery, I brought some dog treats to pass out to other dog lovers for their pups.

We then met a friend for lunch and headed home.  Traffic?  Of course.  But this time it was expected.  And I did get back in time to pop in at another launch party, this time given in L.A. by Nadine Nettmann for her new book DECANTING A MURDER in her brand new Sommelier Mystery series, also published by Midnight Ink.


In all, it was an enjoyable weekend, and TO CATCH A TREAT is now officially available.  Did I enjoy the traffic?  Absolutely not!

3 comments:

Donamae Kutska said...

Glad you had a good time even with killer traffic!

Barbara Nimmo said...

Keep up the fantastic work on your blog, and I look forward to reading more of your adventures!
https://www.promocodehq.com/blog/how-to-add-money-to-cash-app-card-at-7-eleven/

Ashlee Rolfson said...

Thank you for providing such enjoyable content on your blog. I look forward to reading more of your exciting escapades in the future!
https://www.frugalishness.com/check-cashing-apps-that-dont-use-ingo/