This is what our booth at the Trade Show looked like. Actually, doing a Trade Show was a bit like having a baby -- an interesting experience, but not one I'd want to repeat. You stand there and smile. And smile and smile and smile, whether anyone smiles back, or not. Disapppointingly, there weren't nearly as many people as the organizers had promised. Par for the course, I was told by other exhibitors. Ah, well. You live and learn.
We took a different route home from Denver, through Durango and Flagstaff. It's beautiful country, especially in Colorado. The leaves are changing, and some of the vistas were truly spectacular. You don't see anything like this in Australia. I sometimes think Americans don't realize how very beautiful this country is!
So it was delightfully scenic, but it was also slow -- mostly two-lane highways (one lane each way) and a lot of roadwork. Six hours of driving for each of the first two days, four hours yesterday. I really must teach Bao how to drive!
Back home in Tucson, our so-called monsoon has ended. We got a grand total of three inches of rain. I'm thinking that instead of calling it The Monsoon, they should dub this annual non-event, The Dribble.

Bao's idea of heaven is breakfasting in bed on sausages and crispy bacon, followed by a nap among the feather-filled pillows before his morning walk.
He is loving this part of the book tour. He loves to roll on the cool tiles in the lobby. He loves the grass and the trees and the myriad "messages" left by all the other visiting dogs at this very pleasant and pet-friendly hotel. He loves sitting on his own little chair at our booth and being told he's gorgeous. Bao is having a ball.
I'm enjoying it, too. We're not allowed to actually sell books -- the idea is to allow librarians and booksellers to become familiar with new titles. Later today, I'm participating in an Author Signing in which we autograph and give away up to 100 copies of Sea Changes. I don't mind -- if these people enjoy reading Sea Changes, they'll order additional copies for their stores and libraries. That's the plan, anyhow. And it's difficult to "fail" when you're handing out freebies!
So this morning, we're both happy campers.

It snowed. I kid you not -- about 50 miles south of Denver, the temperature dropped and the rain turned to snow. My car is not eqipped to handle snow. I am not eqipped to handle snow. I would have got off the road and waited for it to stop, but the visibility was so bad I was afraid to change lanes. Bao was asleep, and no help at all.
Anyway, here we are in Denver for the Mountains Plains Independent Bookseller Trade Show. The idea of the exercise is to make booksellers and librarians from Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Wyoming, South Dakota, Texas and Utah aware of the fact that this wonderful new novel called Sea Changes exists. You can't say I'm not trying!
Our booth looks really good but alas! Until I get home and can plug this device into my computer and download the gmail update, I am unable to send photos from the iPhone to Blogger. You might say we've been updated right out of the system. But you know what they say. In cyberspace, nobody can hear you scream.

We're on the road, again.
First stop, Las Cruces -- and one of our most successful signings ever, at the Barnes & Noble.
Now we're in Albuquerque, getting ready for a signing tonight at Bookworks, a lovely, local independent bookstore. Bao's intestinal woes have cleared up nicely. I give him a tablespoon of puree pumpkin every night, and it works wonderfully. (This was the vet's idea) So I suppose you could say, All systems are go. Or going.
My iPhone stopped speaking to Blogger yesterday, so we spent all morning at an AT&T Store, where a nice, young man erased my carefully-written and saved blog, decided he didn't know what was wrong after all and sent me to an Apple store, where they got me this far. I have to say, I've been very impressed with the level of technical support I've recieved at Apple stores. These days, customer service is as rare a species as Bengal tigers!
If you also see a photo with this blog, you'll know the Apple intervention was a success!

Broken phone. Again.

Visited http://www.dogwalkmusings.blogspot.com/ to see what our friend Mari was up to, and look at the great photo of Bao I found!

Ah, those were the days.

Meanwhile, Sea Changes has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Isn't that exciting? This is probably as close as I'll ever get to being famous. Bao was utterly unimpressed until I explained to him that if Sea Changes makes the final cut, we'll get to go someplace really nice for lunch. That got his attention. Bao loves doing lunch.

We've been doing the eye-drop routine every six hours, and Bao's left eye seems to be improving. At least that's what Dr. Rincon said. Well, I think that's what he said. I'm sort of doing this in Spanglish. We have to go back for another check up, tomorrow.

I'm exhausted. Getting up in the middle of the night to squirt eye-drops into Bao's eye is not all that difficult, but getting back to sleep afterwards is almost impossible. So I've been taking afternoon naps.

Afternoon naps. My mother used to take afternoon naps. Does this mean I'm getting old?

We get beautiful sunsets here in Mexico at this time of year. Here's one of them.

Bao has an ulcerated cornea. Actually, I think it started while we were still in Tucson. I remember him shaking his head, and pawing at the left side of his face, although I didn't think anything of it at the time.

We came to Mexico last Saturday and the next morning, he was distressed. He lay on the couch, whimpering and pawing at his face. And when he stood up his head wobbled and his eye drooped. I got really scared. I thought he was having a stroke. Why do these things always happen on a Sunday? I was getting ready to drive back to Tucson, but then he seemed to improve.

On Monday morning, things were worse again. My friend Bonnie (who raises Bichons) came over and examined Bao and said it wasn't his ear, it was his eye. She recommended a local (Mexican) veternarian, and drove us there for a consultation. Eye drops were prescribed, two drops every six hours. Day and night. I am exhausted, but Bao is much happier and his eye looks better, too.

We have another veternary appointment tomorrow morning. Never a dull moment.