Here’s me holding one of the new shopping bags Tom Varisco Designs produced for New Orleans’ Octavia Books. Owner Tom Lowenburg took the photo at the February 10th HarperCollins dinner at this year’s 2015 American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute. Also at the dinner were fellow HarperCollins novelists, T. Geronimo Johnson (Welcome to Braggsville, William Morrow), Leslie Parry (Church of Marvels, Ecco) and T. C. Boyle (The Harder They Come, Ecco). In short, an exhilarating event with the nicest people in the world, namely, independent booksellers. Thanks to my imprint, Harper, for sending me.