As an aside, we thought this was a funny episode after the Grand Ole Opry. You know, country music makes one get the munchies…

Okay, going through a drive through is easy, isn’t it? Not when you’re going through one for the first time, it would seem.

When we pull in, one of my companions (okay it was Sharon, for those of you who know her) gets out of the car to read the menu. Sorry?

The attendant comes on the speaker and asks, “What would you like to order?”

“Can we have a moment, please?”

Silence.

The newbies then peruse the menu for a moment. He says, “Don’t want anything.”

Her: “What’s that? Is it a cheeseburger? It says sandwich.”

Me: “Yes.”

Her: “I’ll have one of those, with chips.”

Me: “They’re fries.” Pause. “Are you ready to order?”

Her: “Yes.”

Me: “Go on, then.”

Her: (knocks on speaker) “Hallooo?”

Speaker: “May I take your order?”

Her: “I was wondering if I might trouble you for a burger?”

Speaker: “What would you like, Ma’am?”

Her: “I would like one of your sandwiches…”

Speaker: “Which one, Ma’am?” (patience appears to be thinning)

Her: “I would like one of your Single Cheeseburgers… and chips…”

Speaker: “Do you mean fries, Ma’am? Would you like a Combo?”

Her: “What? No, no, I don’t want a drink!”

Him: “I’ll take one as well, no chi-, fries.”

Me: “I thought you didn’t want anything?”

Her: “Did you get that?”

Deb: “I’ll have the Spicy Chicken Sandwich and fries!”

Me: “I’ll have the Single as well… Make it a Combo with Coke.”

Speaker: “I’ve got three Single Cheeseburgers, one Combo with Coke, a Spicy Chicken Sandwich, and three fries… Will that be all?”

Me: “And a small Frosty and a large Frosty.”

Her: “What’s a ‘Frosty’?”

Deb: “They’re loooovvvely.”

Her: “Oh, I don’t think I want one…”

Speaker: “Anything else?”

Me: “No, that’s all.”

Speaker: “Drive up to the window please…”

Me: “C’mon, get back in the car…”

End of the road(trip) 2012

So, after an overnight flight, we arrived back in cold London. Well, colder than Houston, anyway!

We saw a lot of things, ate a lot of good food, heard lots of good music and sampled some decent local beers, too. Although, somewhat ironically, the one most prevalent seemed to be Blue Moon from Denver!

After unpacking, redistributing clothing, food items and various souvenirs (and trying not to fall asleep) started looking at the hundreds of photos and realise I have some work to do!

We drove 1,589 miles, saw countryside ranging from mountains to beach to swamp and flat Mississippi Delta, not to mention the one big freeway that seems to be Houston! We got to see a lot, but didn’t do all of the things we’d planned. Guess we’ll just have to go back!

It was a great trip, with lots of memories and photos, but I haven’t done much writing in the last two weeks – so I guess it’s time to rectify that!

Well, it’s over. Almost two weeks on the road, hitting the highlights of the musical south and we’ve reached Houston. It’s our last night, so we’re going for a steak and a beer.

Leaving New Orleans was tough – it would have been easy to stay! I guess we’ll just have to come back. Scratch that, we’ll definitely be coming back!

On our way to Houston today, we did stop (however briefly) on the Gulf coast. I don’t know that I’ve ever been to this coast before, and I’m sure my companions haven’t. It was a nice place to stop; we saw pelicans in the wild for the first time!

We also stopped at that institution, Denny’s, twice: once for lunch, and once for dessert. Again, not something they’d experienced before.

I have another post to write, about our experiences going through the drive-thru at Wendy’s but it’s taking a bit of thought. Maybe I’ll get it done tomorrow… As tomorrow’s another day…

So, Monday wasn’t worth reporting.

‘Why’ you ask? We spent eight hours in a mall! No, don’t ask, my mind is still boggled.

So today, we had coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde, a coffee house and bakery that’s been there since 1862, pretty old for the U.S. Good coffee and great beignets!

Then we went Uptown to meet Gaither Pope, a friend of a friend I met via Facebook, a painter and teacher at Nichols State University. We met at the gallery that shows his work and went for a Cubano sandwich, a mixture of pulled pork, ham and cheese, toasted and pressed. Delicious!

Nicest thing was, we only met for the first time today, yet Debs said it sounded like we’d known each other for years! This interweb’s a strange thing, creating connections and communities that span oceans and continents.

Gaither told us a bit about his New Orleans, and how things have changed since 2005 in the area. It was fascinating and useful to get a local view of it all. Thanks Gaither, for a lovely afternoon.

We then took one of the horse carts, or rather mule carts, around the French Quarter, learning about New Orleans and the French Quarter. Then we went on to dinner at Arnaud’s, a New Orleans institution.

So, tonight was our last night in New Orleans and we’re off to Houston in the morning. Guess the trip’s almost over, as the day after that, we fly home. We’ll definitely be coming back to New Orleans, though!

We met a real Cajun, today, “Captain Earl”. He threatened to leave us all in the swamp when none of us admitted to having watched Swamp People.

But. He did let us all have a go at holding his cute little alligator, “Fluffy”. Anyone who has an 18 inch long alligator called Fluffy can’t be all bad. “Don’t strangle my ‘gator – if I don’t come home with Fluffy, my wife’ll kill me.”

At times it reminded Me of the safari I did in Africa, when all the swamp boats clustered around a group of gators – much like they did in thenAfrican veldt when the call went out that someone had spotted a lion! In this case, though, the captains throw marshmallows into the water and the alligators chomp them up. Who’d have thought gators had a sweet tooth?

So yes, the touristy things continued, as we did the swamp tour with a real Cajun and saw lots of alligators. What can I say, but it was great! Being from a land-locked state originally, I’ve never done anything like it. When he opened up the throttle, it was really, really loud but very fast. He called that “Cajun air-conditioning”.

The swamp is surprisingly beautiful, with it’s Spanish moss and ancient cypresses, logs with turtles sun-bathing and the odd alligator snout poking just above the water. When the sun went behind the clouds, it became a ghostly monotone study of sky and water, with the other elements sitting somewhere in the middle. I would be lost in the avenues between the plants, but Cap’n Earl navigated them with ease.

When we got back, we found ourselves wandering down Royal Street in the French Quarter, gazing in the windows of art galleries and antique shops, drooling over the menus of Antoine’s and The Court of Two Sisters – New Orleans institutions both. And the weather was a lot better, lovely sunshine! I could get used to this.

And the heavens opened… We decided to go to New Orleans landmark Mother’s today for breakfast – great idea, shame about the weather.

Debs and I set out early, just wanting to get out of the hotel, and found ourselves outside the Plaza d’Italia building. “I worked on a project based around this plaza,” I said. And I had. While still at University of Colorado, one of my instructors was partial to the Piazza, and constructed a project around it. I don’t remember doing very well, but it stuck with me, as evidenced by my reaction today. It’s been refurbished since my project and it looks good. This is what it looks like now.

Mother’s was great – an institution, and deservedly so. Great crawfish étouffée omelet! And the biscuits are very fluffy, covered in Mother’s homemade raspberry jam, just superb!

So, we wandered around the French Quarter for a bit before going in a riverboat cruise on the Creole Queen. Almost as soon as we left, the heavens opened and there were very few places unaffected by the wind and rain.

The trip goes down to the Chalmette Battlefield, site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. Strangely we didn’t get off the boat in the rain! Still, it was a nice trip and we got to see a good chunk of the Mississippi River, despite the wet weather.

As it was our Anniversary, Our companions took us to The Bombay Club, off Bourbon Street for dinner. Great place, with fantastic Martinis, brilliant food and live music. I had the Alligator étouffée to start, and really enjoyed it. The food overall was very good and the service was very good and not intrusive.

We wandered back down Bourbon Street and goggled, amazed, at the wide range of people, clothing and varieties of music blaring from the bars. We’re loving New Orleans!

Out for a swamp tour in the morning, going to see some ‘gators

Well, today’s been a long day.

We set out early from Memphis, aiming to get to Clarkesdale, Mississippi at a reasonable time to visit the Delta Blues Museum, grab some lunch at Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Club and get on the road to New Orleans. Sounds simple, no?

We made good time and found the crossroads where blues musician Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil in return for musical talent. When I say ‘found it’, I mean drove down Highway 61 and there it was. We got out and took the obligatory photos with the sign and ran into a couple doing the same thing!

We got to the museum in good time and had a look at all the exhibits, learning about a great number of musicians and other parties we’d never heard of, particularly when their music influenced most music we’ve listened to for the last 40 years – okay, not me personally, but you know what I mean. Oh, and that couple from the crossroads turned up!

Bluesman Muddy Waters is sort of the focus of the place, being one of the local boys and lyrics from some of his songs are displayed on the walls, as well as a long quote about how important it was to him to be a gentleman. An amazing man with an amazing life.

After lunch, we drove down Highway 61, marvelling along the way at the ghostly towns, remnants of the last century in so many ways. It was something my companions had never been exposed to. And driving through Rolling Fork, birthplace of Muddy Waters was anti-climactic, if anything.

We then started the long drive on to New Orleans, and the rain started. We got to New Orleans late, had a few beers and a pizza before collapsing!

Tomorrow, off to Mother’s for breakfast, then wander around a bit, getting our bearings before going out for a nice anniversary meal!

We left Nashville yesterday, driving through Jackson, Tennessee, on our way to Memphis.

You may not know this, but Jackson, Tennessee is the home to Casey Jones’s Village – a museum and shops dedicated to the memory of Casey Jones a railroad engineer killed trying to save the train and passengers on his train, the Cannonball Express when it collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi, on a foggy and rainy night. We stopped, had some good ole down home cookin’ and experienced a bit of America none of us had seen before.

Then today, we started with the famous Sun Studio in Memphis, where people like Ike Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Howling’ Wolf and, most importantly, Elvis, got their start. Rather unbelievably, the place is almost intact after sitting vacant for more than 20 years. It was pretty amazing when you consider all the great music that came out of Sam Philip’s venture.

From there we went to the ultimate musical Mecca, Graceland. I was unprepared for a lot of things – most importantly, it wasn’t that over the top or completely rammed with tourists or Elvis fans. It was almost a normal family home which would be almost liveable. I would, however, have to redo the Jungle Room – aside from all that green shag carpet, the mere thought of which brings me out in hives – it was my least favourite room.

What it did do was remind me what a talent Elvis was and the impact he had on the whole planet in a mere 42 years. Who else has sold over a billion records across the world? That said, he also had a great PR machine – still going strong, I’d say.

Perhaps the most telling comment was by our guide at Sun Studios who said something along the lines of “Sadly, Carl Perkins has been mostly forgotten, even though he wrote a number of songs Elvis went on to have hits with.”

So, tonight we went down to Beale Street and had some barbecue and decent music. It looks a wonderful place to have a good time and the music from all the restaurants was very tempting.

Like Nashville, Memphis turned out to be completely different to what I was expecting (and no, don’t ask what I was expecting). In a good way, and we’ve been made to feel very welcome.

So it’s off to Clarkesdale, Mississippi tomorrow to see the famous crossroads where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil for decent musical talent. Then off to New Orleans for more culture and food.

Well, I have to say Nashville’s been nothing like I imagined. I never imagined that you can’t throw a cat in this town without hitting a musician… I’m travelling with my English wife and two of our English friends, and they all enjoyed it too.

Tonight we went to the Grand Ole Opry – hey, it’s Nashville, what else are you going to do? – and the experience was pretty good. It was one of the radio shows they do there every week and highlights the talent that is the membership of the Opry. The headliner was one Alan Jackson (who I had never heard of before tonight), and by his reception was the one everyone had come for.

I was impressed by the musicianship and the showmanship on display and they put on a good show. One of the most remarkable performers was Little Jimmy Dickens – 91 years old and a member of the Opry for over 61 years. As Debs said, “I hope I’m enjoying life as much at that age as he is!”

While I still won’t be listening to country everyday I can, at least, admit that there’s talent there. and having seen the original building, the new Opry building is very impressive. if you haven’t been to Nashville yet, you should go.

The barbarians are coming!

This was my third London Book Fair – and I think I felt the same sense of awe/fear/smugness/boredom I felt at the first one. If you don’t know it, it’s one of the largest annual trade events, up there with Frankfurt and attendees come from all over the world (Wiki has representation at over 100 countries). So there’s a lot of money on show here one way and another. But seriously, who wants to see a 6′ photo of George R R Martin on a good day?!?!

I’ve been thinking about what I should say about it this year, hence the delay in posting. Anyway, here goes.*

Look, I know the London Book Fair is a trade fair and I’m only an independent author and it’s not, strictly speaking, aimed at me. Well, I also know that’s changing. This year, the show’s organisers let some of the barbarians through the gate – with their blessing. A week later and I’m still smiling.

No, it wasn’t Visigoths or Huns this time, just a g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶u̶p̶s̶t̶a̶r̶t̶s̶ startup group calling themselves The Alliance of Independent Authors, “a global, nonprofit, collaborative collective of independent self-publishing writers”.

Orna Ross, founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors

In the Old Press Room, overlooking the teeming masses of traditional publishing, Orna Ross, founder and author, opened the session by stating the intent of the group to be a support community for self-published authors. I think her quote sums it up for me:

““Hello. We’re here. We’re at the London Book Fair and we’re here to stay!”

And her enthusiasm is infectious!

The Launch

Structured around two panel sessions, the morning seemed to zip by, starting with representatives of some of the self-publishing tools, namely, Michael Tamblyn from Kobo, Teresa Pereira from Blurb UK and Tom Kephart from Amazon’s CreateSpace.

It was good to have the chance to meet them and hear what they think (positive) about self-published authors like us. Tamblyn announced Kobo was planning to have its own self-publishing platform in place in the next month, fully supporting independents. And listening to Pereira from Blurb, I had a few ideas about things I can do with my books, particularly making special versions in print.

The second panel was made up of authors, most of whom had been published traditionally at some point: Dan Holloway, Linda Gillard, John Logan and Joni Rodgers.

Dan has been writing online since 2008 and has never wanted to go down the traditional route, enjoying the flexibility and freedom of the online world. I’m going to have to check out his work.

Dan Holloway, Linda Gillard, Joni Rodgers, John Logan and Sam Missingham of The Bookseller

Of the remaining three, Logan and Gillard were both traditionally published authors who’s publishers dropped them – on the basis that their books were great but un-marketable. Hah. Okay, they’re from two different sides of the equation: Linda had a fan-base that encouraged her to self-publish and John just published his novel The Survival of Thomas Ford>/em> to get it out there. If anything, they both seem shocked that they’ve managed to do so well on their own.

Joni Rodgers has been involved in the industry for years, so for her to take the step away from traditional publishing and say things like “I’m not going back…” does more than suggest that the sea change traditional publishers are worried about.

Her response to the question whether Amazon is Evil or not (okay, I’m paraphrasing) was similarly succinct.

“Amazon… is like that big sandworm in Dune. Sooner or later you realise, either it’s going to swallow you up, or you’re going to get up there and ride it! I’m riding that sandworm, baby.”

It’s all well and good for purists to deride what Amazon’s accomplished and what they offer new writers, but I suspect they’re not struggling to get sales or audience. So I’m with Joni on this one.

Join the Alliance

I joined ALLIA – the official shortening of the name, before the Fair, as I’ve been looking for a group of like-minded people who do what I do for some time. One of the things the interwebs have been good for is finding communities. I continually marvel at how much smaller the world is since I was a kid (or maybe I got bigger, who knows?). This is also the opportunity for us to pool our experiences and try to learn something from each other.

So, if you’re publishing your own work and want to be part of a group helping people like yourself, join up today. I think it’s going to be great!

Join the Alliance of Independent Authors today

And you can find more about the launch on Orna’s website.