Resetting the internal thermometer

This weekend was my first “away game,” a signing in foreign territory. Venturing into terra incognita.

I flew into Portland, Maine on Saturday morning. I’ve probably been in the city before, but not that I could remember. I promptly set off in the wrong direction, but eventually made my way into the downtown area where my Sunday signing would be held. Getting the lay of the land, so I’d no where I was going when timing was of the essence. My signing was at 1:30 Sunday afternoon and my flight at 5:00 so timing was fairly important, especially to someone who is as compulsively addicted to time as I am.

After that, a leisurely afternoon drive through Western Maine. I took the 302 highway north through Naples, Bridgeton, across to Fryeburg and then caught 5 up to Lovell and Stoneham. The autumn colors were spectacular. Progress was slow. The average speed on one of these roads is about 35 mph. Threw my mental calculations all the heck and back again. I’m used to high speeds, where a mile a minute is a tad on the slow side. Taking an hour to go a little over thirty miles…well, it was an experience. I was glad to have had it, though, because it allowed temporally obsessed me to get to my signing on time the following afternoon! If some of those place names above seem familiar to you, they should.

I was supposed to meet up with a group attending Palavercon 0 for supper at the Maine Mall, but got a call that it was postponed until 7:45, so I killed time wandering around town and haunting Borders. Found a comfy chair and finished reading Poppy Z Brite’s Liquor, which I’d left at home since I had so little of it remaining to read. Saw four copies of Road, all appropriately positioned either with the King books or on an end-of-the-row Dark Tower display.

Supper was a bit of a random thing, with people coming and going at all hours. We had appetizers while we waited for a couple of people to arrive from the cabin rented for the event and then a few other people had to leave to pick up someone else at the airport. We closed the place down and drove the 30 miles to Naples. I followed Michaela from Donald M. Grant since I didn’t know where the turnoff to the cabin was–an adventure since we took several wrong turns and had to regroup a few times!

Seven or eight of us spent the night in the cabin, which was on the shore of Sebago Lake. Nice place…we stayed out on the patio drinking beer until the wee hours, then retired indoors. It was a little bit on the chilly side–which makes Houston seem all the more hot and humid–but refreshing.

Surprisingly, we were all up by nine o’clock or so. Josh and Michaela made pancakes. I left the cabin at noon while some of the others were still getting showered. It took me until 1:15 to reach Books, Etc. so I had a reasonably good idea that the others wouldn’t make it on time. I was right.

First I met up with a couple of friends who used to live near us here in The Woodlands. My wife remembered they had moved to Portland, so I sent them a postcard announcing the signing. Then, much to my delight, authors Rick Hautala and Holly Newstein sauntered in. Holly has a story in From the Borderlands and Rick is sometimes referred to as “the other horror author from Maine.” They’re lovely people and I was touched that they would make the trek to see me. Artist Glenn Chadbourne and his wife appeared shortly thereafter–Glenn is the illustrator behind The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book and a breath of fresh air. We were admiring some of his work from the page proofs of the trivia book when I said that I’d love to see him work some day to see how he does all that intricate detail. His wife said, “If you want to do that, you’re going to have to see him in his underwear!”

You can see some pictures from the event here. Rick took most of them.

While we’re talking about pictures, here’s a batch of great behind the scenes shots from Gotham Cafe.

A little bit of synchronicity. I have tons of bookmarks; I rarely pay attention to what’s on them. On the flight to Portland, I realized that the large purple thing sticking out of my copy of Scott Nicholson’s The Manor was for Books, Etc.–the same name as the place where my signing would be held, except this one is in the UK.

I received my contributor copy of Fedora III today. I look forward to reading my story “Kane’s Mutiny” again–it’s been long enough since I read it that I can almost look at it as if it were written by someone else. I also got a batch of bookplates to sign for Overlook Connection and my S/L of The Dark Tower from Donald M. Grant.

Sports — Astros: 2-2 series tie. Woohoo! Red Sox: Down 3-1. Yikes! Patriots: 20 games in a row. Wow! I was in the Portland Jetport Airport during the games’ final minutes. Those New Englanders are very emotional when it comes to their sports.

Boy, it’s hot and humid around here today!