Goonie Getaway

For probably a year and a half now, I've been promising Chris a get-away. ANY kind of get-away.

Deadlines, misadventure and disaster have gotten in the way. I've canceled out repeatatedly, and Chris has gone on a couple trips without me. Well, this morning I turned in the (hopefully) last rewrite on MechWarrior Dark Age, Trial by Chaos, and we jumped in Herbie and got the heck out of the figurative Dodge.

Somehow we ended up in Astoria, Oregon. I'm not sure how we picked Astoria. It was not too far, not too close, not someplace we've spent time in before, and some place that looked vaguely interesting. So far, it's great.

The Elliott Hotel is a restored downtown hotel, and we've got a gorgeous suite here. There's a rooftop garden with a view of the famous (more on this later) bridge, and a nice wine bar in the basement. Two bookstores within a block, and what seems to be half-a-dozen good places to eat. What more do you need?

Astoria is best known to the outside world for its appearance in various movies, most infamously, the Steven Spielberg movie, Goonies. But the Governator was here to do Kindergarten Cop, and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 did some shooting here. My favorite Astoria film, though, is Short Circuit, where robot Johnny Five was chased across the bridge and skydived to safety.

It's unfortunate that's all people know about Astoria through. It's a nice little town, and we're having a great time just based on its own merits.

Oh, cool moment of the day. We stopped in at a Fred Meyer department store in Tillimook to see if they had my new book, Heretic of Set, which is officially out today. I didn't see the book in the sf/fantasy section, but a jobber was there putting out books. I flagged her down to ask if she'd done the science fiction section.

"No," she said, "but I have these." I looked down, and she had six copies of Heretic in her hand! We had a nice conversation, and I think it was as cool for her as it was for me. I signed the books before leaving the store. Of course we'll be hitting stores in the Astoria area, and on the way home, we'll head back through Portland and Salem, hitting bookstores and signing stock as we go.