Book Tour Virgin is Will Clarke.com

Travis Meet Ignatius. Ignatius Meet Travis.

The paperback version of LVLH is in stores. In Dallas, it sits happily
next to CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, my favorite book of all time.

All Hail The Pulpwood Queens

Okay, in Jefferson, Texas there's a beauty parlor/bookstore called Beauty and the Book. Since I don't own hair, I have never actually been there.  It's run by a book-lover/ hair stylist named Kathy Patrick. And Kathy, who signs all her emails with "Tiara-wearing Book Sharing," has started quite a cult of crazy beautiful book-lovers all over the country. Meet The Pulpwood Queens. These chicks are the real deal. And this weekend, January 20-22, they are descending upon quiet little Jefferson, Texas, to make some noise. Last year, there were over 300 Pine Wood Queens there frolicking in the woods. Lucky me, they have invited me to join them this year for their crazy-ass weekend.  If you are anywhere near (Dallas, Shreveport, Little Rock) pull up your Yahoo! maps and stop by. Let me put it in the terms that my fellow aging hipsters can understand: It's gonna be crunk! Click here for more details.

The Media Gods Smiled Broadly With Big, Bleached Teeth

Aside from getting the cover of The Dallas Observer this week, my story landed on the back page of ADWEEK, and on the sports page of The Dallas Morning News.

So I got exactly what I wanted this year for my birthday: Media ubiquity.

Next Door To Faulkner's Grave

Oddly enough, WORTHY is also the title of my next novel which comes out from S&S in 2006.
Eerie.

In The WWL-TV Studio Before I Go On Live. Belly Doing Flip-flops.

This was one of my segment promos this morning before the producers realized who I really was:
"Baseball great, Will Clarke and Author of Lord Vishnu's Lord Handle—A Spy Novel... Sort Of."

Baseball great, Will "The Thrill" Clark is from New Orleans. He's actually being interviewed this afternoon on this very TV station. WWL-TV. Which is a little weird. But right now they think I am him and that this baseball legend has written Lord Vishnu's Love Handles. Which is actually cool, because Will Clark has a lot of fans and it would be great if these fans accidentally bought my book because of this little snafu.

Interview Post Mortem: Eric, the host, was great. We talked about the book's connection to New Orleans (both the screenwriter and the director of the books adaptation live in New Orleans) and a little about it being a spy novel-sort of.

 

Big Green Parrot Thingies Spotted At White Rock Lake

Little known fact: There is a huge nest of monk parrakeet's that live in the TXU power stations at White Rock Lake. They have been there for almost 50 years. I passed this one on the way to get my mail today. First time it's ever happened actually.

This has nothing to do with my book tour, but I am so overwhelmed with deadlines that this was sort of magical. Sort of made me feel like I was at Disney Land or something. So I snapped a shot of it with my Sidekick. I see it as an omen that green things like lots of dollars bills will start flying into my life. That, or I'm going to get a big green sinus infection.

The green bird was so close to me that I could have scooped it up with my hands and made it my pet. It was hard to resist as the little guy was talking to me and squawking and very animated. But alas, my girlfriend would probably break up with me if I brought home a wild parrot. We already have an African Clawed Frog that grew from a tadpole experiment. This breed of frog, we later learned, can live 25 years. That's a lot of frog food and a lots of siphoning dirty frog water out of the tank with your mouth.

1 Down, 199,999 To Go

I was in Border's at Lover's and Greenville late this afternoon. Just wandering around, taking a break from my long day at the computer, when low and behold, I saw my book sitting upfront on the New Arrivals table. And then when I went to the help desk, they had my book in a special display rack. This was somewhat of a surprise because the official release date isn't until July 1st.

So I asked the dude at the help desk if I could sign the copies he had in store. He walked around the desk, checked to make sure the author photo was indeed me, and then grabbed me a Sharpie. This dude just so happend to be the inventory manager, Greg. I chatted with Greg and his co-worker, Laura, as I signed the books, and we joked about how weird it would be if I had just been some nutcase, walking in off the street, wanting to sign books.

Then out of the blue, someone called asking for a copy of Lord Vishnu's Love Handles. Laura took the call and was wlldly excited that I would be in the store at the exact moment someone would call. This is weird, no?

Anyway. I had some author's copies in my car and wanted to give them to Greg and Laura to say thanks for all their help, and to celebrate the auspicious call. But before I could get to my car, the dude who had just called about my book showed up.  He had been at another bookstore, and they didn't have any copies in yet. This dude's name was Lee and he had a bottom lip full of Skoal. Lee's weakness for dipping made me like him immediately. He was very earnest and said many kind things about the book.

Lee said his friends, Matt and Julie, had given him the MFP edition of Lord Vishnu's Love Handles to read, and he had left it on his porch, and it had gotten ruined when his sprinklers came on. He had the wet and wrinkled book in his hand. He told me that Julie knew me, but in the rush of all this, I couldn't place her. I felt bad about this because Lee assured me that I know Julie. And I am sure I do; I often have trouble placing names and people in my life when they appear out of context sometimes. After I signed the book to Lee, Matt and Julie, I saw Lee driving away from Borders as I left. He had an OU metallic decal on his black SUV. 

So it's official, Lee by proxy of Matt and Julie were the very first people to buy the hardcover edition of Lord Vishnu's Love Handles in Dallas because I called all the other bookstores and none of them had their orders in yet. Thanks, guys. It was all very exciting, and best of all, I got to be there when it happened.