I went to Milwaukee to give some books to radio stations. More guerrilla marketing. And now I’m going to quote Jack Nicholson from that movie where he’s an obsessive compulsive. “Don’t you be like me!” Remember when he was telling that to the dog?
Obviously it goes against the grain to just show up in person at a radio station, and tell them about your book. But I wanted to be productive, so I did. I gave it to Wisconsin Public Radio in Milwaukee.
Then, rather spontaneously, I went to Harry Schwartz on Dowson. They are one of the oldest independent bookstores in the country. They go back to the 1920s.
I loved the neighborhood and was impressed by Milwaukee. My ignorant preconceived notions of that city had been related to a bad beer rap. But I wasn’t expecting the downtown development in ways of theatres, old hotels, lots of outdoor pubs and restaurants. Then there were the tree lined streets with brick houses and apartments along the lake. Ooh Aah. The fact that the city is split by a river is great and always rates high with me. This was a place that I wanted to come back to for a weekend getaway. To have a late night and relaxing morning with a someone I could sleep in with in the Sunday-morning-Van Morrison-and-newspaper fashion. And then to go back to the pub and watch an important football game before walking by the lake and crunching the leaves underfoot.
I walked into the store and was immediately impressed. I’ll show you pictures later but they seemed to be a great gift store as well as bookstore. There was good space and walking areas throughout the store and the whole nature of the way it was set up invited me into several corners and nooks.
I went for the travel section, like always, and expected to find one book if at all. Like I said they hadn’t been expecting me.
So, when I found three copies of Sand in My Bra with a staff rec card beneath it, I was excited. They had two names attached. Conrad and Mel. So, I sought them out, told them who I was, and thanked them. We gabbed, they gushed, and then I asked for a pic.
I’ll definitely be back to this store if I go on tour for the next book and I can’t wait to show you the pics. But realistically speaking that won’t happen until late late next weekend when I’m back.