On the road again: World Fantasy Con, San Jose, day 2

My dating of this trip is a bit odd, because the con doesn't start until Thursday, but I arrived Tuesday. Two reasons: I am doing some business meetings while in the Bay area and thus need extra time, and Alan Beatts, of the wonderful Borderlands Books, orchestrated a lovely area tour and group signing for this afternoon. For obvious reasons, I won't discuss the former, but the latter deserves some coverage.

Alan really treated all of the writers wonderfully. A bus picked us up at the con hotel and drove us to San Francisco. Borderlands staff folks met us and led us to our tour guides. My group went with the redoubtable Don Herron, who led us on his Dashiell Hammett walking tour. I'm a big Hammett fan, so I enjoyed myself greatly. I highly recommend this tour to anyone who appreciates Hammett.

The bus then picked us up and took us to the bookstore, where we hung out for a while (some got dinner, but we decided to eat later), and then we did a mass signing at the newly renovated (by Alan) cafe next door. (If you live here, you need to see the cafe, if only for the floors, which Alan restored beautifully.) The signing was a lot of fun, and I even had a fair number of folks come by and ask me to sign books.

Afterward, a group of us, led by new friend and cop, Griffin, walked a few blocks up the street and enjoyed a very nice French meal at Garcon.

All in all, a lovely event that Alan, Jude, and all the good folks at Borderlands should be proud to have held.

Though I'm intentionally dating the posts on the day I'm discussing, it's actually two in the morning and I still have work to do, so to it I go.