37 Comments on “Announcing the Starter Villain Book Tour”

1. Minor typo alert: the two-letter abbreviation for Kansas is KS. (I’m a professional secretary; part of my job is knowing every state and province abbreviation for correspondence.)

   Have a lovely tour; maybe I’ll take a road trip to one of your stops!

2. You’re going to be at a JCC on the evening of Yom Kippur? Really?

3. Jon Marcus:

   I’m there in the afternoon. Check the times.

4. Sounds great. No change requests except could we possibly arrange to have Pittsburgh be more convenient to the Philadelphia area? Maybe a wormhole, or we could cram the ends together a bit.

   Saw you at the Barnes & Noble on Rittenhouse Square once. That was fun. Time to get another autograph soon.

5. Will you have any virtual or hybrid book tour events?

6. Please come to the Book Loft in Columbus!

7. I’ve been going to Wichita every week for the last month on consulting work, I might actually be able to make this one! :)

   It looks like your schedule’s pretty tight, but if you have any chance at all before/after, I highly recommend a half-hour drive down the road to the Kansas Cosmosphere. One of the best collections of space hardware outside of NASA/the Smithsonian; they restored Liberty Bell 7 after it was pulled up from the ocean floor, they have the Apollo 13 command module Odyssey (and did the sets for the movie), and they have a fair amount of Soviet hardware as well.

   If you don’t have time for that, the Kansas Aviation Museum (in the Art Deco terminal building for the original Wichita airport) is also worth a visit, though their exhibits focus more on early aviation (they have a Beech Staggerwing, for example).

8. Looks like you’ll be a busy fellow over the next month or two! That’s a lot of time zones to cover – my head is spinning just thinking about it. Glad you are making a stop by MRK’s favorite local bookstore on the way, too, those folks have been awesome when I’ve ordered books from them.

   You’re not going to be in my city, but that’s ok, I’ve ordered a signed copy for my sibling through Sub Press, and my spouse has our (unsigned) copy on order from a different source. If you ever come through our neck of the woods, I’ll collect your autograph on our copy then, but meantime I’ll enjoy the heck out of reading it – which, after all, is the most important part.

9. Argh, from the bookstore the Cosmosphere is closer to an hour; that makes it harder. ;_;

   The aviation museum is just 10 minutes down the road, at least.

10. Honest question, not a suggestion or complaint: how do you feel traveling and doing business in states like Texas where the governments have turned overtly fascist? Obviously, the more books we can get in peoples’ hands in such states, the better. At the same time, the idea of even indirectly putting tax money into those governments hands makes me personally squicky. It would be great to see your thoughts on this if you should choose to share them. Either way, safe travels and best wishes for a great trip!

11. DRWolfe:

    I mean, I live in Ohio, the government here just tried to convince the electorate that it should just shut up and let the gerrymandered authoritarian state government never listen to them about anything ever again, so

12. See you in Chapel Hill.

    By the way, I keep all my signed hardcovers, by all my favorite authors, on one shelf.

    With this novel I will have officially run out of room. Congratulations. ;)

13. That’s the extra spooky book signing in Kansas.

14. “Sounds great. No change requests except could we possibly arrange to have Pittsburgh be more convenient to the Philadelphia area? Maybe a wormhole, or we could cram the ends together a bit.”

    Sometimes I’ve thought that “EZPass” tollbooths should support quick, easy folded-dimension transit to any other selected EZPass tollbooth. That’d make Philly-Pittsburgh trips conveniently short drives to and from the outlying suburbs of both cities. I’d even be fine paying the inflated Pennsylvania Turnpike toll each way.

15. I am bummed I will be away from California when you sign in San Francisco.
    Any other signings while you’re in Europe before Budapest? I leave Vienna the day before you start in Hungary.

16. Any plans to visit Canada?

17. Can’t believe Chicago lost out to a place like (peers at least one more time, yup that’s what it says) Wichita.. 😤

    🙂

18. I will order from one of these fine book establishments.

    But I also want a “Be a Cat; Do crimes” shirt.

19. Actually, Jon Marcus, Yom Kippur does not start until the evening of September 24, so the event on there 23rd at the Pittsburgh JCC does not conflict with the holiday (though I am as bit surprised that they are hosting an event on Shabbat). On the other hand, since the Cincinnati event occurs prior to sundown on the 25th, it does conflict with the holiday.

20. I just checked the Audible page for Starter Villain and found that the narrator is now listed: Wil Wheaton. I am please and unsurprised to read this. As someone who has experienced your books exclusively through the audio media, it’s always a pleasure to see him listed as such. I look forward to listening to Starter Villain.

    Note: I suspect Mr. Wheaton’s name as narrator has been public knowledge for some time, but this is the first that I have arsed myself to look in some time. So, today is the day that I found it out, and it’s a nice part of my day.

21. Duh! I misread the date. My mistake, thanks for the correction, JoelZakem.

22. Why Budapest? Just curious…

23. Question: You’ve signed books for me a couple of times over the years. All of them are written to my pre-transition name, since I saw you before I figured myself out :). If I brought one or two extra books along, would you be willing to re-address them to my new name?

    It’s not a big deal, but it would be neat for me if it’s not a huge problem for you.

24. My wife and I are really looking forward to your stop in Wichita. I missed your stop in St. Louis on a previous book tour of yours a few years ago because we had just retired and were packing and moving to Kansas (grandkids). The Cosmosphere is excellent. They have the original Apollo 13 capsule, a lot of Mercury, Gemini, and old Soviet gear. It takes a while to get through all of exhibits. The R&B drive-in in Hutchinson has an excellent greasy burger done the same way for decades.

25. Um…you need to talk to your travel agent. Cincinnati to Nashville by way of…Budapest?!

26. J.B. Lawton III:

    His pilot is going to take a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

27. Looking forward to seeing in Chapel Hill :-)

28. Oops, seeing you in Chapel Hill!

29. I am disappointed but never surprised that you don’t come to signings in my town. We only have maybe 3K people, and I never hear any of them raving about authors of any kind, never mind fantasy or science fiction. Alas.

30. You will love Budapest. I have such fond memories of my one visit years ago. The food in that city is incredible and there are many beautiful places. Hope you get to take a sightseeing tour as part of the festivities.

    Can’t wait for the book! Have fun and safe travels!

31. Echoing Gerald above, you could do worse than emulating Taylor Swift. Announce a tour schedule that utterly ignores your friendly neighborhood parliamentary democracy to the north, then do an about face and add tour dates…. apropos of nothing in particular, and to be in no way self serving, the bustling metropolises of Ottawa/Gatineau, Halifax, Saskatoon, and Victoria would all likely welcome you with open arms, and your choice of maple syrup products, poutine, donairs, or shawarma…

32. …and perogies , beaver tails, and the ultimate culinary experience, Saskatoon berry pie…mmmmmm

33. There’s a great pizza place on the next street south of Poisoned Pen called Craft 64. Highly recommended. They also have a pretty stunning array of brews.

    (Former Phoenician and a friend of mine is one of the founders of the restaurant, which doesn’t make the pizza any less great)

34. Well then.

    That’s not all hope crushed for just maybe a signing in Amsterdam in the first week of october? I mean, we’ve got canals, and broodjes kroket, and a bookshop called The American Book Center, which is ond of the few brick places I know that actually stocks your books, and…

    Tiny mini hopes, lemme have them :)

35. the closest to me is Nashville (4-hour drive). should I book or wait and see if Memphis is in the stars?

36. See you in Dallas

37. Even though you are not coming to Seattle or Portland, we still love you and your books.

    Have an excellent tour!