Vanishing worlds

This Sunday I went to fetch first thing, as always, the Book World section from the Washington Post, but it was not there. I knew the newspaper had ended the section as a stand-alone, and I even had a review in the final edition, but old habits die hard. In the Outlook section, a spate of non-fiction books were reviewed, as promised, and in the weekday issues, novels fall under scrutiny. But it just isn't the same.

I had heard earlier in the week of the loss of another cherished institution: the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh. Since 1966, it has been bringing world renowned poets to my old home town -- from Seamus Heaney to Richard Wilbur to every one, and for an aspiring writer, it was a heady experience to sit in the dark and listen to these great poets say their poems and have the words settle on the audience like warm snow. The Forum, like Book World, is a victim of the damn recession and the vanishing reader.

We miss you.

Correct Book Tour Dates & Times

Tuesday March 3
SEATTLE
Queen Anne Books
1811 Queen Anne Ave North
6:30 pm

Wednesday March 4
PORTLAND, OR
Powell's Books
1005 W. Burnside
7:30 pm

Thursday March 5
SAN FRANCISCO
Book Passage
1 Ferry Building #2
6:00 pm

Friday March 6
IOWA CITY, IA
Prairie Lights
15 S. Dubuque
7:00 pm

Saturday March 7
BROOKFIELD, WI
Harry Schwartz
17145-D W. Bluemound Road
2:00 pm

Sunday March 8
MILWAUKEE, WI
Spring Writers Festival
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
12:30 pm

Tuesday March 10
PITTSBURGH
Joseph Beth
2705 E. Carson Street
7:00 pm

Thursday March 12
BETHESDA, MD
Barnes & Noble
4801 Bethesda Avenue
7:00 pm

Friday March 13
RALEIGH, NC
Quail Ridge Books
3522 Wade Avenue
7:30 pm

Saturday March 14
PITTSBORO, NC
McIntyre's Fine Books
2000 Fearrington Village
11:00 am

Sunday March 15
WASHINGTON, DC
Politics & Prose
5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW
5:00 pm

In the Mail

A couple of weeks before the actual publication date, the finished book arrives in the mail. Angels were waiting when I came home. It is a beautiful thing.

The audiobook (a link below, right)arrived earlier this week. Cassandra Campbell, the reader, does a wonderful job, and is already garnering listeners.

Publication Date - March 3 2009

Angels of Destruction is to be published on March 3, 2009, and the publisher is sending me on tour right away.  Here are the dates:

March 3 Queen Anne Books Seattle

March 4 Powell's Portland

March 5 Book Passage San Francisco

March 6 Prairie Lights Iowa City

March 7 Harry Schwartz Brookfield, WI

March 8 U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee

March 10 Joseph Beth Pittsburgh

March 12 Barnes & Noble Bethesda, MD

March 13 Quail Ridge Books Raleigh, NC

March 14 McIntyre's Pittsboro, NC

March 15 Politics & Prose Washington, DC

More details to come, but save the dates.  I'd be thrilled to meet you or see you again.