The Cactus Eaters and upcoming class featured in Santa Cruz Sentinel

The Sentinel published this article today, featuring that picture of me on the left, dining al fresco at Joshua Tree with my least-favorite snack in the background. The author, Christa Martin, who writes for O, the Oprah Magazine and many other places, worked with me at the Sentinel some years back. This piece mentions my first book, The Cactus Eaters, the 36 Hours anthology featuring two of my travel pieces, and my upcoming place-writing class, which will be held May 11 at the Capitola Book Cafe.

In other news, one of my blog's devoted readers let me borrow an alarmingly good book by Adam Johnson called The Orphan Master's Son. The bummer is that I have to give it back to this particular reader tonight -- and I've got 301 pages to go!!!! Drat. I don't know how I'm going to pull that off. And, finally, in closing, I find myself inexplicably disappointed that unhappy Axl won't go through with the rumored Guns N' Roses reunion at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. At least I can take comfort in the fact that UCSC's very own Grateful Dead Archive is going to have a big presence at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that week.