Okay, Jen, but how was Houston?

Houston, which was a school visit trip, turned into a media blitz -- all on one day. I spent four days at Annunciation Orthodox School doing a really cool writer-in-residence project (more on that in another post) and Monday started with an interview with a Houston Chronicle reporter; then my trusty publicist at Random House called to say that a radio station in Beaumont, Texas, wanted to do a live interview with me that afternoon, before my booksigning; and when my hostess and I got to the bookstore at 3 the C-SPAN crew was already there, filling the little store (Blue Willow) with their gear. We did a bunch of lighting tests, sound checks -- to my chagrin they told me what I was wearing wouldn't look right so could I just wear my green cardigan and not the fancy tapestry coat (and I chose it special for t.v.); I went off to a quiet spot to the the radio interview, and when I returned to the store for the 5 o'clock taping we had a full house. I actually gave my full American Story speech, even the part about the -- you know -- atheist anti-war pro-choice vegetarian blue state liberal bit and I wasn't sure if I was imagining the look of horror intensifying with each label. Potentially, it was "vegetarian" that cut the deepest with some of those Houston folks; actually, afterward a bunch of them came up during the signing and joked about it "that's not not not not not us" but book folk are book folk, after all. Lots of people bought books, and even several members of the t.v. crew, who say that in spite of doing bookstore events all the time they NEVER actually buy the book. So I guess I won them over. In spite of the -- you know -- vegetarianism...

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