Midwest, part 2

(Continuing from part 1.)

From Madison I took a bus to Minneapolis to visit Jill for a few days.  We went to see The 39 Steps at the Guthrie--really good fun!--and we went shopping at a pumpkin patch in the suburbs and carved it to look like this:

The Witch's Hat Tower.

(Funny that I said 'I shall never carve a jack-o-lantern ever, ever, ever again' after seeing this--Elliot carved it; brilliant, right?--when I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was a kid.)

I also did a reading and signing at Common Good Books on the 1st of November, which was fantastic--along with Jill and Walt, Maggie's brother Max and his wife Jillian came out, and there were three complete strangers, which up 'til now hasn't ever really happened. And they were the most enthusiastic complete strangers EVER. Lots of questions and discussion and I read two passages, one at the beginning and one at the end. It was really, really fun.

And I got to sign the door behind the desk!

(I'm in Scotland at the moment, having a marvelous time.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!)