My glamorous life

It all goes so fast... it was a good Festival, though it passed in the usual blur. (That's Linda Brown in the photo, contemplating the wreckage yesterday afternoon.) Lots of people, lots of books. My face hurts from smiling so much, I'm a little sunburned, and I broke all but one fingernail on my right hand (this always happens). I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to talk to a couple of people I really wanted to talk to, but glad that I saw so many friends, and delighted that the store sold so many books.

Henry Winkler shopped our booth on Saturday afternoon and shook my hand -- "I'm Henry," he said, and all I could manage was a gasped, "I know who you are." He is a huge fan of Lee Child, who wasn't signing with us this weekend but will be at the store next month -- "Tell Lee Child, I said he writes like a river," Henry Winkler said.

Yeah, I bought a few books. I had to get Laura Lippman to sign a copy of What the Dead Know ; she also gave me a wonderful interview for a Mystery Bookstore podcast that should be live later this week. Daniel Woodrell signed a first edition of Winter's Bone for me, and now I'm afraid to read it for fear of getting fingerprints on it. James Ellroy signed a copy of My Dark Places for me, and was so charming I almost followed him home. Peter Spiegelman gave me a copy of Wall Street Noir signed by most of the contributors, and I bought a copy of D.C. Noir to go with it.

If you're not already subscribing to the Mystery Bookstore podcasts, this would be a good time to sign up -- click one of the buttons in the upper right hand corner of the store's home page. Over the next couple of weeks we'll be streaming the Laura Lippman interview, as well as interviews I conducted this weekend with Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben (there's a story behind that one that I'll report when the interview goes live), and two I'll be doing this afternoon with Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark.