ROBIN HOBB

Imagine my surprise to discover that Shawn Speakman, Terry Brooks and I had attended the grand opening of a Lakewood Barnes and Noble yesterday! There it was, reported by KIRO 7 on MSN news.  I thought I had been up at Third Place Books in Bothell, interviewing Joe Abercrombie!  I thought we had had a wonderful time and I stayed to sign books until 10 PM and bade farewell to Joe Abercrombie while he still had a substantial line of people!

The MSN news report is, of course, false.  I have no idea why it was put up as if it had happened, but I assure all and sundry, that Terry, Shawn and I will indeed be at the grand opening of the new Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Lakewood on May 28th. Here is the correct information from the Tacoma News Tribune.  I will even be there at 9 in the morning!  The address is 10330 59th Ave. SW, Lakewood Washington.  The fake news would be kind of funny, except I fear people will see it and think they've missed the grand opening!  It's just a very strange thing.  So I want to assure everyone that YES, we will be there and happy to meet readers!

It was great to see Joe and he has two more stops in the US before he heads back to the UK, one in Royal Oaks, Michigan and a final stop on May 24th in Naperville, Illinois at Andersons Book Shop.  If you haven't read The Devils, I do think you should get a copy.  It is Grim Dark fun, with many a sly joke. And if you haven't ready any of Joe Abercrombie's books, well, I sort of envy you!

Well, I'm very last minute with this, but really, what better use do  you have for your time?  At 7 PM on May 21, I'll be at Third Place Books at their Lake Forest Park location in Bothell to interview Joe Abercrombie about his latest book, THE DEVILS.  There are still a few tickets available if you go to their website and click on the event.  I expect to have a wonderful time and I hope to see you there!

In March to celebrate my birthday and again in April for Fool's Day, I offered to send a hardback to people willing to donate at least $20 to Doctors Without Borders.  The deadline was April 15, and many people responded. So many, and so generously that we raised over $5000 for Doctors Without Borders  Some donors were very generous indeed.  So I have a LOT of books to ship out.

I have a couple of people lined up to give me a hand, and I've prepped the local post office so my ducks are in a row, but this will still take time as I need to dedicate each book personally.  So if you have not received your book yet, please be patient.  I am shipping them as I do them, via Book Rate, as noted before.  To those who included a shipping label, my weary typing fingers thank you!

I did not feel well enough to attend Norwescon, so I missed seeing friends and readers.  I simply don't have the energy levels I used to have for the fun stuff.  Somehow it all gets used up on the 'gotta get it done' stuff!

I am still very much anticipating Worldcon in Seattle.

Things on my tiny farm still keep me very busy.  We have a bee hive now, and I am learning how to take care of it, one mistake at a time.  I seem to have won the battle with the ants.  And I'm keeping a list of all the things I should have done before the bees arrived.

I carefully seeded about 40 pots of vegetables yesterday to get some starts for my garden.  Pumpkins, beans, sunflowers, squash.  This morning, I discovered that mice had raided every pot and dug up all my seeds except one bean.  So they are re-seeded now and covered against mice and I shall hope for the best.  Potatoes are in the ground and growing.  I've put in a bigger garden this year as I believe prices can only go up.  Luckily we have chickens both for eggs and meat, so that end of things is covered.  

And yes, I am writing.  Just slowly with painful 'space bar' thumbs.  

Patience.  That's my watch word these days.

A couple of things coming up!  

On May 21, I will be interviewing Joe Abercrombie about his new book The Devils.  It's extraordinary and I very much look forward to seeing Joe again.  We will be at Third Place Books at their Lake Forest Park location. It's at 7 PM.  Better get your tickets now!

And on May28th, I'll join Terry Brooks to celebrate the opening of a new B&N books in Lakewood, Washington.  We'll be starting at 9 AM!  The new location is 10330 59th Avenue SW, Lakewood, Washington.  We expect to have a very good time!  I'll post more about that as we get a bit closer!