Book Tour, the Seattle Edition

This week, I’m off on a pre-publication book tour! That’s when you go meet and greet with booksellers and reviewer, before the book is out.

First stop, Seattle! I had just a few hours free, so I wandered down the five blocks from the hotel, passing (I am not kidding) three hiking outfitter shops, a cactus florist, a store that appeared to sell brightly painted modernist aluminum furniture and also bones, and a coffee shop that doubled as a bespoke messenger bag store. I nibbled my way through the iconic Pike Place market — nectarines, oysters, nori chips — and witnessed the fish choreography.

And then I went to cocktail party with Seattle independent booksellers. It’s a bit weird for me, frankly. My core skill is sitting quietly and talking to fictional people, which does not automatically translate into being good at cocktail parties. I feel a bit like Louis the Swan, that night they put him up at the Ritz.

But it was a great party. Washington, you are lucky in your indie booksellers -- what a great crowd! Our hosts at the Needle and Thread -- a former speakeasy, entered through a secret door and a very dark tight stair -- even made a cocktail, fulfilling a writer goal I didn’t even know I had.

The Princess Greta: gin, St. Germaine, lemon juice, rhubarb bitters. (Not, to Greta’s relief, the apple cider that features in the book.) Fittingly, it is subtle, bittersweet, and hella strong.