Travelin’ Man
Posted on February 27, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 46 Comments
Krissy and I sat down with a calendar today and blocked out the dates and places I will traveling on and to, and, well, damn. Between now and the end of the year, thanks to tours, conventions, appearances and speaking engagements, I am on the road for a non-trivial portion of every month of the year save December (this included January and February). On one hand, this is a good thing, since I will get to see folks and not default to my base state, which is “stay in my office and moulder.” On the other hand, it’s a lot of travel. On the third hand, I’m not going to have to pay for most of it, so at least that’s good. On the fourth hand, I should probably be planting trees to offset all the carbon I’ll be flagrantly spewing about. On the fifth hand, wow, I have a lot of hands all of a sudden.
Just for fun, here are the cities I know I’ll be visiting this year (also counting the ones I have already been to):
Austin
Chicago
Detroit
Frankfurt
Freiburg
Los Angeles
Louisville
Minneapolis
Munich
New Orleans
Portland
Reno
Saarbrücken
Salt Lake City
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Stuttgart
Toronto
Tübingen
Washington DC
I’ll also be visiting Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati, but those are all day trips for me. There are also a couple of cities that I’m not putting in there because my travel to them is not yet confirmed, but they’re likely.
As I said: It’s a lot. And it’ll be fun. But it’s a lot.
When will you be in Louisville and Cincy, and why? If they’re public appearances, that would be swell as I live in Lexington and would love to take a drive and ‘Meet the Scalzi’ as it were. Dates and times (if known), please!
Dates and times for all this coming later, as soon as every appearance is confirmed and locked.
Also, in advance, the answer to “Are you coming to [Insert Town Not Mentioned Above]?” is “probably not this year,” and the answer to “Why aren’t you coming to [Insert Town Not Mentioned Here]?” is “Because no one is springing for me to go there and I’d like to see my family occasionally in any event. Maybe next year.”
Would love know if you’re hitting the north Texas area (DFW) anytime soon!
Does Washington DC count as the actual city or the metroplex area?
That’s a lot of ‘city time’ for a country boy. They’d have to cover my bar tab…
When/ where/ why for Portland & Seattle? Didn’t see you listed for NorWesCon or OryCon, so I’m guessing not those.
xathras:
See comment #2.
In the unlikely event that you are going to be in New Orleans without firm plans on where to dine, please feel free to send me an email. I’m a food writer based in the Crescent City, and I will happily direct you to a restaurant based on your tastes and preferences.
Unless your preference is for human flesh, in which case I would defer to someone else.
I think you’re not actually wasting carbon. You are saving your thousands of fans in various cities from having to make pilgrimages to places where they might actually attend one of your events. Better for you to move around than the rest of us.
When you say Portland, you mean Oregon right? Not Maine? It’s verrry verrry nice here…(not right now though…and not during mud season, or black fly season, or when winter starts in September…). The week of July 18th should be good. Just kidding. Good luck with all the travel.
xathras: I’m betting for the Bite of Seattle, the Seattle Boat Show, Bumbershoot, or the Seattle International Film Festival myself. Although there’s always the Ballard SeafoodFest…
What? No Indianapolis? John, I’m hurt.
SF? Cool, is that going to be part of a tour or are you coming out for business of some sort?
sorry- started comment, then figured I’d see if I could find it via google & con sites and didn’t refresh before posting.
Well, now, when you’re in SF, you must allow me to take you about.
Yay! Seattle!
returning to austin? sweet! be seeing you soon then.
@Bruce E. Durocher II My bet would be Hempfest, don’t you think? :-)
Writers never come to Tulsa. I wonder why not? We have paved roads now… and I swear I saw a car the other day, though I’m not sure…
While I agree with #9 Andy, I also encourage you to consider Native Energy for your carbon offset needs. I use them for all my event clients and am very satisfied with the variety of projects they fund.
Also, I may just have to buy a membership to Minicon since I’ll already be in town to visit the family for Passover. If you thought I was a little excitable at Cap, wait utill you see me after I’ve had a couple kosher for Passover sodas (made with real sugar, not corn syrup)!
It’d be lovely to see you again, Isabel.
Can anyone come to the Nebula Awards?
Yes.
I would have though that instead of “on the third hand…” you would have wrote “on the gripping hand…”
(A tip of the hat to The Mote in God’s Eye and The Gripping Hand.)
In the middle of this post I started hearing: “Well, John’s been everywhere, man. John’s been everywhere.” Now I’ve got that song stuck in my head. On the other hand, I like that song, so you’re forgiven.
Guys/gals/gentlebeings… Remember, our movie mogul in training has a new book out this year. I’m betting at least some of those dates are that quaint and relaxing journey known as the book tour.
If you’re coming to Millenicon (in Cincinnati) in March, hope to see you there! Otherwise, I’ll see you at Worldcon in Reno.
I was hoping for Ft. Wayne, IN.
@#24 by FL Transplant: I thought he was going for a Tars Tarkas kinda thing, meself.
Standing by for the Seattle visit info… I assume it will appear in the Scheduled Visits or be lasered on the moon or something….
Looking forward to seeing you in Toronto. I caught your reading at the Merrill Collection and it was fantastic. It will be even better to actually see you at a convention, and hopefully have enough spare cash to pick up and book and get it signed.
Bruce E. Durocher II, I would have guessed the Nordic Heritage Festival.
So, when are you in Austin?
It seems a little OCD that you are going to do them in alphabetical order.
John, you will have to let me know when you will be in Salt Lake City so maybe we can get together. It has been a long time since we’ve seen each other.
Thou has become Shiva, destroyer of worlds….
No, wait. He only had four, last time I checked.
So, when and why will you be in Salt Lake City? I just want to make sure I don’t miss it.
You left out the City of Troy!
Don’t you remember arriving in a large wooden horse?
Just be careful when your travel plans sync up with Mary’s she has terrible travel karma… or you could just carry around a camera and capture moments like missing underwear and electrocuted flight attendants. The latter is to only be considered if you carry the bad luck emergency kit including parachute, duct tape, bailing twine and pantyhose. (hint: the pantyhose are for Mary not you.)
Lemme guess: Powell’s books for a signing in Portland, OR?? If yes, let us know when! Actually, let us know when anyway, so we can stalk you. :) It’s also rumored that Wil Wheaton has ties to Portland and visits here not infrequently. You know, in case you want to stalk him.
I see on your list of scheduled appearances that you’re going to go to SFContario in Toronto as ‘International Author Guest Of Honour’. I just went to their website, and I don’t see you listed as a guest there! Maybe you should nudge them a bit to update their website.
http://sfcontario.ca/
Oh my gosh, you’re coming to New Orleans?! When? This is just excellent news.
What brings you back to Minneapolis this year, Mr. Scalzi?
yay! Salt Lake City! I may actually get to enjoy some live Scalzi. I hope you are taller in person. Everyone is taller in person.
Looking forward to your Austin visit!
You’re teaching at Clarion West this year, ja? Didn’t you already announce that?