Harper Voyager Books

THE GRIFF giveaway

Shoot us an email now for the chance to get a copy of the wonderful graphic novel by Christopher Moore and Ian Corson:

Outrageously funny New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore and award-winning screenwriter-director Ian Corson team up for a wacky and entertaining graphic tale of alien invasion and a motley crew of Earthlings trying to stay alive and, oh, yeah, save humankind.

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Notes from the Tour #3, Kim Harrison

              Alcatraz.  If you get the chance to go, I recommend making the time.  You'll need to set up a reservation a few days ahead of time, but wow, is it worth it.  I don't like doing the touristy thing, but I took the audio tour.  Turned out to be one of the most profound experiences I'd had in a while.  But oddly enough, it wasn't the cells or the bars that gave me the willies.  It was the original structure of the fort that struck me as the most . . . eerie.  I did not like it, not one little bit.  (Thank you, Dr. Seuss)

            Books, books, books!  I signed that night at Barnes and Noble at Jack London Square in Oakland, and I made sure they had lots of signed stock before I left.  They also have a loyal group of patrons who came out to see me!  Three of them had dressed for the occasion, which made my entire evening.  Love the shirts and skirt!

            Today I'll be at Borderlands.  I've signed there before, and I can't wait to get back and give Ripley, the store cat, a scritch hello.  That is, if she will let me.

             --Kim

NOTES FROM THE TOUR #2, Kim Harrison

              And on the third day, I found chocolate.  Mmmm, Ghirardelli has a factory in San Francisco, but after having spent three months trying to get back into my signing clothes, I really wasn't ready to indulge.  Until I found Truffles Inc.  I thank all that is holy that it's not in my comfortable walking distance from my hotel.  Thanks Mr. F for introducing me to their handmade truffles, and thank you Jessica for the samples!  Mmmmm.

              Ah, but I didn't come to San Francisco for chocolate.  Last night I read at M is for Mystery, and had the chance to not only talk to Ed, who is the man, but I saw some fantastic tattoos and talked to some enthusiastic readers.  But my thrill moment came much earlier in the day when I did a drive-by signing at one of the Borders just across the bay, and I found Vicki Pettersson's book, The Scent of Shadows, on the New Release table.  Whoo-hoo!  I hadn't seen it yet in the flesh, so to speak, and it looks fantastic.

             Friday is Alcatraz.  Should be interesting . . .

             -- Kim

Tiger, Tiger...

Wolfram, the hero of The Eunuch's Heir, has a serious problem with cats, as you might gather from the confrontational cover.  Nothing reverses the predator-prey relationship we as prime carnivores have come to expect like spending the night in a tent in the jungle.  In Nepal, my husband and I visited the Royal Chitwan National Park in the hopes of seeing tigers:  it never occurred to me that the tigers might also be looking for us.

          As we walked the trail to the tented camp, tiger tracks marked the pathway ahead, and great claws had gouged the earth to either side.  Once, the tiger had rolled in the grass.  We greeted these signs eagerly, curious to know what would happen next.  Breaking out of the trees, we came to a long, narrow bridge across a broad running stream.  The tiger tracks continued on the other side, and they were still wet. . .

         I woke that night to the sound of something whuffing in the darkness, very like the sounds of the leopard who had explored beneath the tree-house lodge on our first night in the park.  My mind filled with our guide's stories of the camp cook who lost an ear to a tiger, the woman dragged from her home by an aged predator looking for weak prey, the time that all they found was a sandal.  It took a very long time to get back to sleep.

           Wolfram became the unlucky recipient of my nightmare.  Have I mentioned that you do not want to be my hero?

-- Elaine Isaak