This past Saturday was the hometown throwdown edition of my book tour at the Barnes & Noble in Pittsfield, Mass. It seems to be the only bookstore standing these days and even though it was raining and flooding out, there were a good 40 to 50 people who came out for it.

The crowd was a mix of family, friends and people crawling out of the woodwork of my past. I read from Chapter two because I wasn't gonna read the sexiness from chapter one in front of mah grammie... not that it's graphic or anything...

Three highlights of the evening:

Firts, as part of my opening presentation, I've been comparing Dead To Me against a book I wrote in fourth grade. Ms. Kwasny, my teacher from back then, came to the reading. It's her retirement year and I got a little choked up, but I think it was a great full circle thing for her to see one of her old students become, you know, a useless fantasy writer.

Second, I got a great question from a random true fantasy fan in the audience about trends in urban fantasy and their move to comics. Her name was Helen and she was on an oxygen tank, I believe. During the signing portion, she came up for a picture, we talked shop about Hamilton and Butcher a bit, and she said she was really enjoying mine so far. She even asked me a few questions from my website and I got this overwhelming sensation that my light fluffy entertainment had actually dug a little deeper than usual, which was awesome.

Third, I was signing the remaining stock of Dead To Me, but just as fast as I could sign it, people kept buying them. We sold out without running out if that makes sense, also awesome.

Came back from the Berkshires exhausted. More later, but for now, I should probably get some work done, huh?

Chicago's next!