The Mob, Vegas, and Tea

Las Vegas Noir is coming out May 1!

Several reading/signing events will be held in Vegas, in honor of the book's completion. The first one (aka the big launch party!) will be Thursday, May 8 at the Freakin' Frog.

Check out the signing schedule below. I just got it from my editor Jarret Keene. All of these events will be super fun and a chance to hang out with Noir aficionados. You might even hear me read my story "Three Times a Night, Every Other Night."

----Thurs., May 8, 7pm The Freakin' Frog 4700 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV. ***Launch party for Las Vegas Noir featuring both editors and all contributors. Cash bar and live music by local Vegas rock band to follow reading/signing.

----Thurs., May 15, 7pm Clark County Library 1401 E. Flamingo Rd., Las Vegas, NV. *Featuring the editors and select contributors.

----Sat., May 17, 2pm, Borders 1445 W. Sunset Rd. (at corner of Stephanie), Henderson, NV. *Featuring the editors and select contributors.

----Fri., May 23, Time TBA, Borders McCarran Airport Las Vegas, NV. *Featuring the editors and select contributors.

----Sat., May 24, 3pm, Cheesecake & Crime 10545 S. Eastern Ave. #100 (Eastern Commons Shopping Center behind the Colonial Bank), Henderson, NV. *Featuring the editors and select contributors.

(You can pre-order the book on the Akashic Books website at http://www.akashicbooks.com/lasvegasnoir.htm. Or on http://www.amazon.com/.)

I am headed out to Vegas this weekend for a wedding. Though I chose to fly this time (for the sake of time), I am thinking of the long desert stretch that connects L.A. and Vegas, and how I wrote a travel piece about that drive once.

All swirled together, you could call the drive something mystic. A reminder that the desert is uncharted and untamed. A foreshadowing that you are about to enter the world's largest adult playground. A detox from L.A.'s Hollywood, and a preparation for something even more gaudy.

Listed all together, I see it in postcards:
The 1950s diner, the Joshua Trees, the abandoned waterpark, sweltering heat and a dry cold blistering the roadkill, all the billboards, the World's Largest Thermometer, the Alien Jerky stand, and the big rollercoasters near stateline, right after you are welcomed to Nevada.

There's nothing like that drive, a Led Zeppelin cd, and caffeine.