Launch night at Inkwood Books, in my recently adopted town of Tampa, Florida.
Evidently another author's book sat behind me on the table as I read. Unconscionable. (Actually, I didn't mind: and it's Gunpowder Moon by David Padreira, another Tampa-area author. And I hear it's very good!)
Just unwinding a little after the event.
Bedtime routine.
May it never leave my side.
Then I sent my students out to do goofy things with the poster, because what am I supposed to do with it now—keep it in my office? (It's now housed in my office.)
Note the homage to my earlier book, about Mormon missionaries.
Recreating a scene from The Lion King, I'm told.
At the Florida State Fair.
And up on the Ferris Wheel.
A welcome dinner guest.
Warm soup on a hot night.
Cleaning off all the filthy language in the book, presumably.
Weighing in at a svelte three hundred pages.
A book reading a book. Meta!
Then a trip down to Key West for a reading, with plenty of car-stopping vistas like this one.
And this one.
And this?
Offspring shot. This is James, our youngest, with my wife Sharon behind the camera. I should mention that pretty much any photo on here, or any one worth looking at, is courtesy of Sharon's photographic eye.
Is this a Castro urinal puck?
Turtle Hospital, Marathon, FL.
Turtles in the convalescent ward.
And finally in Key West, where continental U.S. civilization ends. The jury's still out on whether said civilization ends before Key West or at Key West's southernmost edge. (I had a lovely time there myself.)
Books & Books at the Studios of Key West.
Honored to be among such a great lineup!
Pictured with James.
Solacing me before the surefire failure of the reading . . .
Then it turns out all right! A great crowd in a great space.
Holding forth during Q&A.
Accidental photo of Judy Blume, who owns the store and basically runs all of literary Key West. I actually had a really delightful conversation with Judy—not sure why it didn't occur to me to get a picture with her then.
At the Hemingway House, a little farther down on the island.
One of the many descendants of Hemingway's six-toed cats currently lazing off the February heat.
Sunset from a boat tour we managed to squeeze in.
Reading from Elders at the Harvard Coop (and they're very particular about pronouncing it coop, not co-op).
A pretty august space. Pretty and august.
So happy with Ben Wiseman's design. Such a handsome book!
Who are you, young man in eye-catching flannel? And why did you attend a reading by a novelist in his green yardwork pullover?
In conversation with the wonderful essayist Patrick Madden.
Old Massachusetts friends.
Reading at Rutgers-Newark, in the stylish Paul Robeson Gallery. (Young man in foreground taking careful on his phone, apparently.)
Gawky man, holding forth—a performance art piece.
I believe that's poet Rachel Hadas I'm talking to.
Going into the launch party for Elders, at the amazing Skylight Books in L.A.
Indoor and outdoor culture all in one place!
Happy to have my book in company with Jim Gavin's funny-sad-terrific Middle Men. I think he was reading there the next night.
Reading, looking a little unreconciled to his baldness.
Signing, looking unreconciled to his baldness.
Selfie circa 2013 (i.e., my wife Sharon took this photo).
Just a really happy night.
