DUNE BLOG

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

On the Road (To Dune)

Brian and I have been on the road for PAUL OF DUNE for the past week. Last Tuesday in Seattle we signed many copies for The Signed Page mail-order bookstore, then that evening we did our first official signing at University Bookstore, where we have launched eight of our ten DUNE books. Brian's family came to help us sign the many cases of books that arrived at the hotel (shipped from a Canadian bookstore that wanted signed copies). The following day we traveled around Seattle, dropping by other stores, signing their stock, and then at night we had a big crowd at Third Place Books. At each main signing, we're giving away packs of the "gummi sandworms" as well as six PAUL OF DUNE 2008 Tour t-shirts.

Thursday we got on the train to Portland, arrived in time to stop at a Borders store on the way from the train station to the hotel, then went to a nice dinner before our signing at the Cedar Hills Crossing Powell's Bookstore, where the crowd was almost twice the size as last years. Our media escort in Portland, Kevin, was very knowledgeable about the great food and out-of-the-way places to eat in his town. After the signing he led us to a funky hole-in-the-wall microbrewery and distillery (one of the few places in the US licensed to distill absinthe). The following day, our escort drove us around the area for another bunch of dropby signings (and more of his favorite food haunts). We actually had the evening off, and both Brian and I did some editing in the rooms, and I finally got a chance to watch the film HANCOCK -- directed by Peter Berg, who will be directing Paramount's new Dune movie.

Saturday, Brian and I got on the Amtrak train from Portland to Sacramento, an overnight right and a good chance to unwind. I finished most of my major edits on TERRA INCOGNITA, and Brian worked on his first read of the JESSICA OF DUNE chapters. At 5 AM the steward was pounding on the door of my room, waking me up for the arrival in Sacramento. We got to our hotel rooms at about 6:30, took a nap (on a bed that wasn't rattling), and had a few hours to work before the new media escort arrived to take us to our afternoon signing. Another big crowd, and we signed about 350 books at that store, then stopped at another bookstore on our way out to dinner at the Firehouse, a nice seafood and steakhouse in old Sacramento.

Yesterday, we drove to San Francisco. We were guest speakers at Google Headquarters in Mountain View -- a fantastic place, like Santa's Workshop with programmers. We gave a talk in the auditorium, which was streamed to Google employees; it'll be available up on YouTube shortly, and I'll post a link. Rebecca and Jan joined up with us here in the Bay Area (we hadn't seen our wives since leaving home), and they will be with us on the tour until San Diego. At night we talked and signed at Borderlands Books in downtown San Francisco, one of our favorite independent bookstores...several years ago, they let us hole up in the back room for a few hours before a signing so that Brian and I could work on edits to THE BATTLE OF CORRIN.

Today we're off to do more dropby signings in the Bay Area, with an appearance in Mountain View tonight.

Also, Library Journal has just given PAUL OF DUNE a starred review. So far, *every single* professional review of the novel has been a rave review. "The latest joint effort by Herbert¹s son Brian and noted sf author Anderson fills in the missing years of empire building and looks into the formative years of Paul's childhood as well as the histories of those closest to him. Drawing on Frank Herbert¹s massive body of notes, the coauthors of the new Dune series (Dune: The Battle of Corrin; The Road to Dune; Hunters of Dune) continue their expansion and illumination of the unexplored pieces of one of the genre¹s most significant and powerful stories. A priority purchase for libraries of all sizes. Highly recommended."

I'll post the next tour update when I get a spare minute. We hope to see some of you at the signings.

-- KJA