Dear blog,

Another lovely day in New York City. I know I should have checked the weather. I know I should have thought about weather. Everyone’s been complaining about the cold (I got off the plane wearing thongs and a t-shirt and didn’t notice the cold), but it’s been drizzling almost constantly. I was up fairly early in the morning, did some blogging, then met up with Deb and headed down into the warm, humid subway to go uptown to meet Garth. He’s staying up near Central Park, so we met him at his hotel, then went for a lovely long morning stroll through the Upper West Side. We found a place for brunch, and sat and chatted for a couple hours, as you do, when you can.

Around noon-ish Deb went shopping and Garth and I went back to his hotel before heading down to Books of Wonder, which I would conservatively describe as the greatest kids bookstore in the universe. Lovely staff, a terrific proprietor, and just wonderful stuff everywhere. Garth and I arrived, and a few minutes later Margo and Stephen (yay! I met Margo!! At last!), and then Scott and Justine showed up. We chatted for a little while and met some of the locals, which was terrific. After that we did a signing. Now, I like signings well enough, but don’t usually have to do them. And, well, I forgot I was doing this one. My name wasn’t on the poster, and I thought I was just going to meet people, check out the store and so on.

When I saw my name on the signing table, I was a little surprised. Not unhappy, just surprised. Then David, the lovely and very helpful guy who was running the event, said ‘You’re going first’. Although I hope it didn’t show too much, this made me a little less happy for a moment or two. I’d not prepared anything to say, so I burbled about editing and doing The Starry Rift and filled five minutes to so, giving a few more people time to arrive so they could hear the stars. Garth was his usual entertaining self, Scott was interesting, Justine read a really funny new short story, and Margo read some fascinating weirdness, before we took questions. The others put on a great show, and it went down well. I then got to chat with some really interesting people before heading off to dinner.

I don’t much like Mexican food. Well, I don’t like what they serve as Mexican food in Australia, and I don’t like the Californian version of Mexican much either. But, Scott and Justine picked a place and Justine said it was great. Ten of us went off – Deb, Trevor, Garth, Scott, Justine, Delia, Margo, Stephen, David and I – and it was fantastic. I drank pomegranate margaritas (the new pink drink!) and ate plaintains and had a ball. Just wonderful! And then I stopped on the way back to the hotel to pick up a book Justine recommended. I’ll let you know how that works out. :)

At this point, dear blog, I should tell you that I went quietly to bed so I could be refreshed for Sunday. That would be sensible and good and smart. But, I am not always sensible and good and smart, so Deb and I sat up chatting till 1.00am.

Today is brunch with Ellen Datlow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Best

J

Um. Thanks to everyone who’s friending me on Facebook. I’m not ignoring you. I’ve just forgotten my password. Soon!

Trevor and I on the plane to Manhattan. He slept. I didn’t. You can’t see my Springsteen tour t-shirt in this photo. Brooooce.

Dear blog,

Yesterday was a bit of a non-day. Up at 6.00am, pack, have a breakfast, check out of the hotel, meet up with Trevor, get on the shuttle to the airport (which was a mixed success), then on to the plane. Trevor tried to get us better seats, which didn’t quite work out for me, but would have been great if I lost a few kilos. A bit uncomfortable otherwise. I whiled away the six hour flight – American Airlines, btw, remains a fairly ‘orrible airline and is back on my ‘avoid if possible’ list – while Trevor slept.  A highlight was getting to talk with Mike, an event producer who was sitting behind me on the flight.  He’s producing live events all over, and had all kinds of music gossip and chitchat. We touched down half an hour late, then took forever to get into town by shuttle. I spent about an hour chatting with a fellow Aussie about cricket and such, which was nice, and then got to the hotel

Blog, I know you know me fairly well, and that I’ve lost my love of travel a little, but the hotel is very budget oriented and my room is so small I can’t leave my suitcase open, and there’s really nowhere much to put it (it currently sits on top of the tv), and that made me a little unhappy. However, Deb Biancotti is staying at the same hotel. We met up and went for a walk in the drizzly Manhattan night. We found a great Korean BBQ place around the block, grabbed dinner, and exchanged sardonic barbs for a while. It was fun

Today is breakfast with Garth, Books of Wonder, and dinner. I’ll keep you up to date…

Dear blog,

I managed to get a pretty good night’s sleep, and shed quite a it of jetlag. I woke up this morning, lazed around a bit, and then headed over to Haight-Ashbury for breakfast with the Shade’s Jeremy Lassen.

Jeremy had suggested we meet for brunch at The Blue Front Cafe, on Haight, and it was a great suggestion. It’s a small, comfortable place and perfect for spending a couple hours over omelettes or whatever discussing publishing and such, which we did.

After brunch I headed back to the hotel to catch up with Trevor, and to head out and get a new cell phone for the rest of my US visit. That took and hour. After that I crashed, the jetlag hitting me a bit like a brick. When I woke up, I shot off an apology to Jason, who I’d been supposed to see. I then skyped the family. It was our first real test, and after a few hiccups, the video conference went really well. I think it’ll help manage the homesickness, and keep me in touch with my girls.

Round 4.30pm, Cheryl and Kevin arrived at the hotel and we headed for some great Spanish food down near the Moscone Centre. It was a real blast from the past, because we kept walking past places where I’d spent time back in 1993 when I was in town for WorldCon. We even went past the restaurant (Chevy’s) where I Marianne and I shared our first meal. It was something. After a some very good food, we headed for BART (the local train system), which took us down to the Oakland Colliseum to see Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band.

Writing about music isn’t my forte, but it was really something. We took our seats around 7.15pm, and less than an hour later the houselights went down and the strains of “Radio Nowhere” crashed (a little muddily) out of the PA. From there, Springsteen and his well-drilled gang ran us through two and a half hours of rock ‘n’ roll as community celebration. While I’m no fan of 2002’s The Rising and am only getting to know material from this year’s Magic, most of the newer songs were great (and it was interesting to hear Rising tracks without the awful production). The highlights, though, were the oldies: “Badlands”, “Adam Raised a Can”, “The Ties That Bind”, “She’s the One”, “Backstreets”, “Born to Run”, “Dancing in the Dark”. It was…magic.

After that, an easy train trip back to the hotel, a little time to wind down, and then off to bed. I’m going to keep hoping Springsteen comes to Australia. I’ll definitely go. But, last night was special.

And today: on to American Airlines, six hours on a plane, and Manhattan. Tonight dinner with Garth and Deb. Yay! More soon.

Note: You can see the setlist for the Springsteen show here.