My First Book Tour

This past August, I did my first book tour. The International Wizard of Oz Club was holding its annual convention in Pomona, which is about an hour east of LA. I was on the program to talk about my book, and also had a special book signing slot in the dealers room. My friend, retired librarian Steve Klein, put me in touch with the West Hollywood branch of the Los Angeles County Public Library, and we scheduled a reading. Palm Springs was hosting a ComicCon, and the Prism Comics folks who support queer fans and creators invited me to join them at their table. I now had three venues: the OzCon at Cal Poly in Pomona, West Hollywood Library and ComicCon at the Palm Springs Air Museum. This lead to an almost 3-week trip to Southern California, flying in to LA on Aug. 8 and out of Palm Springs on Aug. 27. 

​LA
I got a rental car at the LA airport and spent the afternoon of Wed Aug. 8 with my cousin Margot Parker, who was delighted to learn about my reading in West Hollywood. Then stayed overnight with my friend David Chun in Santa Monica, who put out his copy of my book for me to sign.

POMONA
Drove to Pomona on Thursday and checked in at the Kellogg West Conference Center at Cal Poly. Oz Club Board member Gina Wickwar couldn’t attend and was greatly missed. Angelica Carpenter, another Oz Club friend, suggested I donate a book to Gina and Angelica would have all the Board members sign it. So I dropped into the Board meeting to offer a book. 

​Angelica has written books about L. Frank Baum, his mother-in-law Matilda Gage, and about other authors of kids books, and we had arranged to share the rental of a table in Baum’s Bazaar (aka the Dealers Room). I spent most of Thurs afternoon making the table look pretty. Friday afternoon I gave a talk about the implications of my research for Oz and for the real world. I was in a big auditorium, and there was a medium-sized crowd, including a smiling Steve Klein who came out from Long Beach just to hear me. Lots of laughter in appropriate places and many good questions after

---

I was at our sale table for much of Saturday. Angelica’s husband Richard and I managed to get the Square hardware and software to work to take credit cards. I sold and signed almost 20 books, which folks said was excellent. On Sunday I was on a panel Angelica chaired about marriage in Oz. ​The discussion was very thoughtful and after my summing up, everyone went away saying what a great session it was. During the convention, I managed to catch up with many old Oz friends and made some new ones as well, and appeared in a nice blog post.

LA
I was back in LA from Mon Aug 12 to Thurs Aug 23. I saw cousins and old friends from high school and college, bought show tune recordings at several used record stores, and went country dancing and inside roller skating. When I explained I was in Southern California on a book tour for FRIENDS OF DOROTHY, many folks expressed interest in my book and I got to give them shiny marketing cards.

---

I was staying at a B & B in Silverlake, and took photos of where I used to live, and of the neighborhood in general. 

Had lunch with a college friend in Culver City who took a photo of me under the MGM rainbow. ​​Also had a great dinner chat with Oz fan Adam Browne, who had taken time off work in LA to attend my talk in Pomona. The reading in West Hollywood went really well, with great audience reactions and questions after and maybe half a dozen books sold.

​PALM SPRINGS​

On Friday Aug 24, I drove to a very hot Palm Springs. ​​​The house where I stayed was gorgeous, with a nice pool.

It turned out the Air Museum, where the ComicCon was, exhibited aircraft, not types of air. 😀 It was fascinating to see all the folks in costumes, many of which I didn’t recognize. While I didn’t sell any books, two people were at least interested. ​The event and marketing coordinator for Peepa’s, a new store in Palm Springs, was very excited by my title and assured me the store owner would want to carry it and have me in to speak. I also managed to get the head of the Palm Springs Public Library interested in the book enough to maybe order it.

​LESSON
One thing I learned was to contact all possible venues in advance to try and set up readings in/with as many places as possible: bookstores, libraries, Oz organizations and gay groups.

---