Leo, and the Lovely Ladies of Lancaster

Ellsworth, Maine.

Phew, just finished up several weeks of nearly nonstop running around, promoting the paperback edition of THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS. I have a few more events to do on Cape Cod later in the summer, and at least one more in Maine, but for the next week or two I can actually stay home and try to get some work done for a change -- until it's time for me to leave for L.A.

Thanks to all who came out for my events. Big audiences make it more fun, and the packed halls these past couple of weeks have been great. Particularly fantastic turnouts at Port in a Storm bookstore on Mount Desert Island, at Ellsworth Public Library nearby, and at the York County Audubon Society in Wells, Maine.

The barn in which I gave
my talk at Laudholm Farm.
(Wish I had taken this picture but
I didn't; found it on the web.)

Special thanks to Rich and Ellen Chasse of Kennebunk Book Port for coming out to the gorgeous Laudholm Farm and nature reserve to sell books at my Audubon talk.

Thanks, too, to Andy at Bookstacks bookstore in Bucksport, Maine, for his warm welcome during my signing there. I had the honor of sitting around the sunny store swapping stories with a few locals, who relaxed on Andy's couch while I showed them underwater videos on my laptop of lobsters having sex. Andy is a huge supporter of THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS, and had copies of the new paperback edition filling his front window.

Leo the cat at Bookstacks
in Bucksport, Maine. Note the
homemade metal lobster claw
Leo is sitting on.
(photo: Trevor Corson)

Andy told me that a Bucksport resident had been walking down Main Street, saw THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS display, and came back a few minutes later with a metal lobster claw that he'd hand-welded previously -- it had been an art project, I gathered. The metal claw went straight into the window display with the books. This is why I love visiting small towns in Maine. Pictured here is the bookstore's mascot, Leo the cat, who decided that the metal lobster claw would make a first-rate seat cushion for soaking up the afternoon sun. You can just make it out under his front paws.

Me with the lovely ladies
of Lancaster.

At my talk in Ellsworth, it was a special treat to meet a book club that had come all the way from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to hear my talk. Well, sort of -- the club had decided to take a Maine vacation together. Of course, that meant they had to choose a book about Maine to read. I was thrilled that they picked THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS, and they were thrilled that they happened to be in Maine when I was speaking in Ellsworth. They said they liked the slides and underwater videos I showed during my talk, and none of them seemed especially scandalized by my digressions on the ins and outs of lobster mating. In fact, they seemed rather to enjoy it.