Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: For those keeping score at home

Okay, I've been very busy lately and very remiss on keeping this blog updated. A thousand pardons. Last Friday, September 23 to be exact, I had a signing in San Marcos at Bad Boy Books, which had the singular misfortune of coinciding with the Texas State/University of Houston football weekend. Which meant the city center was full of college revelers with nary a parking spot to be had for miles. That put a real damper on the turnout for the event, but we soldiered on and and a heck of a time anyway.

Sunday found me at Rustic Ranch in Wimberley for the annual fundraiser of the Wimberley Players. Their theme this year was "The Best Little Playhouse in Texas," and someone thought having me there would be entertaining. That, too, was a lot of fun. The M.C. for the night dressed up like the legendary Marvin Zindler and I officially sold out of Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch. A portion of every sale went to the Wimberley Players, so it was win-win. I had a lot of great conversations, particularly with Allison, a student from Texas Woman's University who's in the women's studies program. We got into a great discussion on the merits and drawbacks of legalized prostitution versus prohibition, and I look forward to continuing it some day. And yes, I have more books on order, but this is the first time since early July that I've not had a single copy of my book in the house. That's an odd sensation.

Monday proved to be one of those "interesting times" Chinese proverb-tellers are always going on about. My car was dead in the morning (foolish me somehow left the lights on and killed the battery) so I had to take my daughter's car to work. Okay, fine. Except right around lunch the skies opened up with a bonafide deluge. The San Marcos River rose up to cover the Aquarena Drive bridge, which means we're getting a lot of the wet stuff. But this wasn't a normal flood. There were pockets of heavy rain, and other pockets of really heavy rain, and that caused localized flooding where it hadn't ever been seen before. Like in the parking lots around the edge of campus. Like, in the parking lot where I'd parked my daughter's car. This particular lot was partway up a hill, so one would think the drainage would preclude any flooding. One would be wrong. The rain was coming down so hard, and the runoff from up hill was coming down so fast that everything pooled in the relatively flat lot. I saw one SUV with white water halfway up its doors. I got to my daughter's car with the water lapping around the rear wheels, and then relocated it to the third floor of a parking garage three blocks away. Then walked back to my office. My raincoat and waterproof hiking boots were completely soaked through. After dealing with the media excitement, I rushed home at the end of the day, took a hot shower and put on some dry clothes before rushing back to San Marcos for a meeting of the "Trashy Ladies Book Club." I'm telling you, I love book clubs, and the Trashy Ladies are at the top of my list. They were brassy and bawdy and knew how to throw a party with good food and plenty of wine flowing throughout the evening. That's them in the photo above. I signed a whole bunch of books and answered all manner of questions about the Chicken Ranch and Miss Edna. The ladies discussed the practicalities of "having a poke" at the Chicken Ranch so much I felt like I was an extra on the set of Lonesome Dove. It was a great deal of fun and I'm grateful for several of them leaving me reviews on Amazon. So, yay for reviews!

I've got another book club visit coming up October 9 in La Grange, when I pay a visit to the 2nd Sunday Gang at the Fayette County Library. I doubt there will be as much wine flowing, but I expect it to be a blast nonetheless, because hey, it's La Grange. Before that, though, I'm at the MSC Bookstore on the Texas A&M campus, prior to the big A&M/Tennessee football game, so for any Aggies looking to get some Christmas shopping out of the way early, I can fix you up. Then on October 15 I'm back in Houston (I can't stay away from this place!) for a 3-5 p.m. signing at River Oaks Bookstore. I've had some great experiences in Houston thus far, and am really looking forward to the return trip.

That wraps up my October events, but I've got a full slate coming up in November. Beyond that, I've got some spring tour dates firming up as well. I'll share those pretty soon, but for now, wow, I sure am busy!

Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse is now available from both Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com. It's also available as an ebook in the following formats: Kindle, Nook, Google Play, iBooks and Kobo.

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