Back From NOLA

I walked into the house about two and a half hours ago, so this will be a short entry. Like most of my trips, I start on the last day....

Overall - as usual - Saints and Sinners Literary Conference was fantastic. My reading from Haunted Hearths went really well. (It helps that its a funny piece and lends itself well to performance.) I had a great meeting with my publisher. I met Vincent Diamond and Shanna Germain (it's late, I may have the spelling of their names wrong) both whom are great erotica writers.

But about the last day - we ran into friend Trebor by pure coincidence as we had our morning espressos at Club Envie. Then we went to our usual praline shop. I was sad to see my favorite fried gator on a stick place on Decatur was closed. (Favorite not because I'd eat it, but I loved their sign.) Then we wandered around Royal and went into a bunch of mask shops and bought a really cool leather one that we are having shipped out to us because we were afraid it would be ruined in our luggage. As usual, I was feeling a little low about Saints and Sinners being over as we headed back to our hotel to check out - which was when one of those "Only in New Orleans "and "I couldn't make this stuff up if I Tried," moment happened. We walked right into the tail end of a jazz funeral for a local jazz musician who was killed by a car earlier that week. It led us right to the front steps of our hotel. Somehow, it felt like a fitting send-off.