Greetings from San Luis Obispo....

[lagilman]

And lo, I left Redlands (but not before achieving signed copies of FLESH AND FIRE @ the #Barnes&Noble in town. Staff there really nice -- give 'em some love!) and headed North, bound for Saint Louis Obispo via Route 101, and a lovely picnic lunch on the beach. The drive cleared some tangles in my brain, and yay for the Android voice memo ap, which took some Very Important Story Notes for later.

The plan had been to check in to my room (small, cheap, and clean) and then stop by Taste, which bills itself as a tasting room for local wineries, open every day. Apparently, "every day" means "every day except Wednesday and Thursday." Fail, Taste. However Central Coast Wines was open and doing tastings, and was very informative (plus, I got to eavesdrop on a wine rep making a sales call, which is always fascinating). Bought two wines -- a grenache (Core winery) and a sauvignon blanc (Beckmen), that I suspect will not make it all the way home with me.

The B&N in SLO had three copies of FLESH AND FIRE, one BLOOD FROM STONE, and some other Retriever backlist. They also have really nice, well-trained staff. I signed (the books, not the staff) and left them for readers to discover. The Borders in SLO had... nothing. Their records indicated they had a single copy of F&F, but it sold, and they had no reorders. No Retriever titles at all, none on order. Oh Borders, once upon a time you were so lovely....

Work tonight. Tomorrow I leave 101 for rt 1 and the coastline, all the way up to San Francisco.

Comments

[moschus.livejournal.com]

My usual Borders haunt -- where I would go to write when I was still in that stage of my life when I could write in bookstores, or public places in general -- has become rather a barren, soul-flattening experience. I thought (hoped) it might just be an external projection of some interior state of being, or something...

Laughed at your FAIL Taste. Indeed. Like convenience stores that are open 24/7. Except, you know, when they're not.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Borders... Mmm, yeah. I noticed the variety in SF/F in our closest store disappearing as well. There are at least three novels that I know that got released over the past month that I can't find at the store, including yours. Considering that Borders/Waldenbooks has been really decreasing their footprint in the Cincinnati area (and B. Dalton is gone entirely) I guess that they're going to focus their dwindling resources on the big players.

The large independent bookstore in town, Joseph-Beth, has not only F&F in stock but quite a few of your Retrievers novels as well. (Go, independents!)

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

I misread "grenache" as "grenade."

[g33kboi.livejournal.com]

Evil Minion reporting for duty!

I used to live downstairs from the buyer for my local Borders. Ah, the good old days. Now they have gone completely corporate and the only way to reach them (as a consumer) is through a deeply buried web form. So sad. I did send a very polite request that Borders begin carrying all of your books in all of their stores, or at least the one nearest me (btw, Saratoga Borders has Flesh and Fire. Don't know about the rest). I also mentioned that a special order was not an option and that I was forced to go shop at Barnes and Noble due to time constraints and their regrettable lack of selection. Always hit them where it hurts. >:-)