Austin, Texas: weird and wonderful

Hey from Austin, the capital city of the Lone Star State. We drove down from Dallas this morning, via Killeen and Ft. Hood, the town and army base that will be fictionalized in my September 2008 book. Austin will be playing itself because there's just no point in fictionalizing Austin. I mean, it's not like anyone could improve on this place.

I have always loved Austin. This unique, artsy town is known for its live music and is to Texas what Texas is to the rest of the United States: a whole 'nother place. Individuality is celebrated in a big way here in Austin. That's the explanation behind the catchy slogan the local small business association adopted a few years back: "Keep Austin Weird."

The food's good here, too. Tip for sushi lovers: try the Japanese version of tapas at Mikado. We dined there tonight, and it was amazing.

I'm very familiar with Austin, but needed to refresh my memory about a couple of the places that will appear in my book, so here we are. Tomorrow morning we'll head over towards Houston, where we'll spend several days visiting relatives.

I'm officially on vacation now, so don't look for regular blog entries. And if you're waiting for me to answer your e-mail, please be patient. The messages are really stacking up, but I'm expecting to get through them all sometime next week.