On the Road: BITTERS
The Highs, Lows, and Whoas of Writing, Photographing, and Promoting a Book
“So drunk in the August sun
And you’re the kind of girl I like
Because you’re empty, and I’m empty
And you can never quarantine the past”
—”Gold Soundz,” Pavement
The Highs, Lows, and Whoas of Writing, Photographing, and Promoting a Book
As my sadly-in-need-of-an-update City Guides series can attest, I’m not traveling these days as much as I used to. The primary reason is the cost (flight, rental car, hotel, Ubers, cat sitter for Enzo) coupled with the headaches, delays, and indignities of flying, especially as a husky (though not as husky as I used to be, but still husky) fellow.
There’s a whole slew of media professionals and now, more and more, influencers and content creators who seem to barely have time to unpack their carry-on suitcase between the many brand-sponsored press trips that send them gallivanting around the world, yet who rarely ever end up publishing a story about the swag-soaked excursion. Don’t get me wrong, back in the day I went on a few brand-sponsored international press trips (Beefeater and Plymouth Gin, Martell Cognac, and Kavalan Whisky) which were all great opportunities but I was often uncomfortable with the built-in expectations even though I told each host that as a writer and an author, they were investing in me in the long game and not a turn-and-burn story, especially as most outlets don’t want a press-trip tainted pitch.
In 2017 I was also was part of a Gruppo Campari project called the Amari Club where I was paid to travel to Palermo, Bormio, and Milan to chronicle an international bartender deep-dive into Avera, Braulio, and Cynar. And while two other brands brought me back to Italy for paid speaking engagements that same year, I do often wonder why my name never seems to come up in the many brand trips to Italy these days, like the springtime celebration of the historic Camparino bar or the trip to Altamura Distilleries). I try not to take it too personally, but as someone who writes extensively about Italian drinking culture, you’d think my name would at least by on the long list by now. I know, I know… “BTP Problems.”
Last summer I did make it down to Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. I didn’t bring home the Spirited Award I was up for but instead brought back a mild case of PTSD from a weather-related disruption that had me trapped on an Atlantic City tarmac for six hours until they let us in the terminal at 10 p.m. only to be told two buses, set to arrive around midnight, would be driving us to our final destination at JFK. Even though I purchased insurance for the flight JetBlue ultimately only refunded $75 of the $350 cost of taking an Uber back home to Brooklyn. And I finally made a return to Seattle last September for the first time in six years, and had an incredible few days collaborating with Fast Penny Spirits and Tom Douglas & Co. on two amaro events.
I may not clock in the miles and frequent-flier points like a brand rep, business consultant, traveling salesman, flight attendant, or long-haul truck driver, but as an author I typically experience two bursts of compressed and often frantic travel periods with each book project: photographing the book and promoting the book. These remain a period of weeks of geographical barn-storming sandwiched into a finely calibrated calendar built around lack of sleep, packing as much as possible into one day, and extreme tolerance and flexibility for all the unexpected problems and detours certain to arise.
This fall marks two momentous (at least for me) book anniversaries. My debut book, Bitters, will mark its 15th anniversary, while my second book, Amaro, will ring in its 10th. I haven’t really had the time to seriously consider any public events to celebrate the occasion, but maybe I can get something small-scale cooking at a bar or venue here in New York, my old stomping grounds of Seattle, possibly Lancaster and/or Philly, and maybe a city or two who has hosted and celebrated my work on past book tours or who have been itching to bring me into town. And of course, my friends at Book Larder, Omnivore Books, and Now Serving.
Again, just planting the seeds of manifestation and I’ll keep you posted if anything sprouts up from the earth come fall. I get a lot of DMs and email invitations to do events with “Hey, let me know if you’re ever in Memphis, Atlanta, Austin, Montreal…” But if you’re a bar or business open to the idea of an anniversary-timed event (talk, tasting, class, aperitivo hour, etc) and up for bringing me into town, or a like-minded brand who would like to partner up on this Bittersweet 15th/10th Anniversary Mini-Book Tour and help make it something special, please drop me a line.
With those upcoming anniversaries in the forecast, I’ve been going down memory lane with my dear friend Ed Anderson, the talented photographer who has helped bring my books Bitters, Amaro,and Last Call to life. I’ve probably spent more miles on the road and up in the air traveling with Ed than anyone else in my life. We’ve been texting a bit lately about the many misadventures, hijinks, and serendipitous moments we’ve experienced traveling across America and throughout Italy together. I’m sure (I know, Ed has told me so) we can occasionally get on each other’s nerves. That comes with close-quarters deployment, but it’s balanced with plenty of laughs and great food and drinks. The flip-side of that extreme travel coin is the book tour. That’s sadly without my traveling companion, though Ed pops up to some appearances on occasion.
In this limited run series of dispatches, I’ll chronicle some of the highs, lows, and whoas of my book-related travel stories, from my shared journeys with Ed to the solo trips being on the road for events, promotions, book tours. And now we take at from the top, where it all began with my debut book Bitters.
Chapter 1: Bitters
Unpublished In Seattle
“I’m habitual, pulling up the floorboards in my apartment on Queen Anne...”
After earning an MFA in Writing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, rather than pursuing the life of a future NYC novelist I had envisioned, I instead stumbled back home to Central New York with my tail between my legs for a couple of years, working at the nearby Borders Books & Music (RIP) at the Carousel Center Mall.
During this time I kept trying to find an in at Amazon out in Seattle while at the same time looking into a possible copywriter job at the Borders corporate office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ultimately, I decided to instead transfer to the downtown Seattle Borders in January 1999 in the role of Community Relations Coordinator where I ran their events and readings and represented the store with the local business community and general public.
The downtown Seattle Borders had a lot of things the Syracuse outpost was lacking, including junkies regularly shooting up in the bathrooms, close proximity to Pike Place Market, and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck stopping by almost every Tuesday to casually flip through the new release CDs gathering a small stack to take over to the jaded employee behind the register. We also had a regular supply of well-known and up-and-coming authors dropping by the store to sign stock while they were on their book tour likely appearing on the other side of town at the Elliott Bay Book Company in Pioneer Square. As a then-still want-to-be literary author I found these moments, when I gathered their books, grabbed them a latte, and had a conversation with them while they signed their books which I would then mark with a gold “Signed” sticker to face-out on the big table that greeted customers as soon as they walked in the store.
In February 1999 I remember meeting Portland’s Chuck Palahniuk who was signing copies of his second book Survivor along with a copy of his 1996 debut novel Fight Club, which he shyly, though proudly, told me about the (now cult) film adaptation coming out that fall starring Brad Pitt. And I remain grateful for the amount of time future Pulitzer Prize Award winner Michael Chabon spent patiently talking with me for a half hour about writing and books and movies and restaurants signing copies of his new short story collection, Werewolves in Their Youth. I had read and re-read his debut novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and his first story collection A Model World so many times over while in college as inspiration for my own book idea about a coming of age story about a young man who should’ve come of age long ago. A year later he would publish the groundbreaking The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay which won the Pulitzer Prize among many other awards.
With my new home-field advantage living in Seattle, later that summer I attended a packed open-call job fair held at Amazon’s headquarters located in a former art-deco hospital atop Beacon Hill. Somehow I made an impression and was offered two different low-level jobs to choose from. I started working at Amazon HQ that fall, and early the next year joined the Books team where I worked my up to Senior Editor until I was let go in early winter 2010.
I had a good run, and no, obviously, I didn’t leave there a Dot.Com Millionaire. I have a handful of former colleagues that remain good friends and a my network of publishing world contacts and colleagues to show for my years there, along with many boxes of signed first editions from the countless authors I met in person over my time there and of which my sister often reminds me are still taking up valuable space in the loft above their garage.