News from the North

Notes from my visit to San Quentin State Prison last month: Take the 101 North across the Golden Gate Bridge, follow the signs for the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge onto Sir Francis Drake Blvd, keep going until you reach the LAST MARIN COUNTY EXIT sign, bear right, and you'll find yourself in the tiny, quaint little hamlet of San Quentin, a few dozen houses and a post office in search of a village, entirely dwarfed by its most famous residence. I drove through the open VISITOR PARKING gates, and readied myself in my rental car. I'd already dressed appropriately: no denim, no blue or orange, no open-toed shoes, nothing "provocative", and above all, no cell phones or recording devices. Carrying only wallet and car keys, I walked back up to the main gate, where the guard on duty was opening and checking the trunks of all of the many cars filing out of the grounds. We congregated near the entrance - "we" being myself and a group of Corrections students from Pittsbu...

So my online poll regarding the setting of my next book was only supposed to run through September. And we do in fact have a clear winner, aided, no doubt, by its recent run of publicity: the troubled nation of Myanmar. However - it is - um - well - let's just say, in light of recent and current events, it's an open question whether travel to Myanmar will be wise or even possible anytime soon, so I'm going to monitor developments and in the meantime, I'll keep the poll open to collect votes for a backup destination. In other news, Beasts of New York is a mere 20 days away from completion, and I'm soon going to to post a fan's German translation of the first part. And speaking of Deutschland, I seem to have sold the German audio rights to my first two books. Ah, sweet, sweet euros.