What happens when you write wild things about a place and then go there

Plus, a map of the real life places that inspired Friends in Napa

Greetings from drizzly Los Angeles, where I am attempting to not want to be in the cowboy boots of the pretty young things populating Coachella, the music festival ongoing 130 or so miles to the east. I have been in those boots. They are fabulous boots. But I have committed to other footwear this season, and for the purposes of promoting Friends in Napa and feeling good while doing so, they suit me just fine.

A Coachella circa many moons ago.

The Friends in Napa tour shoes whose potential purchase took up a good chunk of my brain for the better part of three days.

This week took me to Northern California, where I met Napa residents who devoured my novel in the span of 24 hours (!) and “loved it” (!!) and appreciated my humor and prose to the degree that I came away awash with both joy and relief. I will not lie: I felt like an imposter, descending on a Valley that I have visited many times but have never called home, knowing that I sent it up quite ridiculously in my latest work of fiction. I was afraid that I’d be told that I’d gotten it wrong. That I knew not of what I’d written. That the locals — who have been nothing but good to me over the course of some two dozen sojourns — would chase me out with sticks, proverbial or actual.

The reception I received at Tasting House, a delightful bistro in Los Gatos — not Napa, but not far away from Napa, a petite slice of Paree in the sunny South Bay — as well as Cadet, a buzzy wine bar that appears in Friends in Napa, opposed my worst fears. They were warm. Convivial. Ebullient. I found myself overheating from smiling so hard. (Has that ever happened to you?)

At Cadet with Napa friends old and new.

I capped off my 48 hours in the Area by the Bay by swinging through the newly expanded Napa Bookmine, a haven of new and used books, and you wouldn’t believe what I found.

Friends in Napa, front and center!

This single, signed edition can be yours for the low, low price of [contact Napa Bookmine].

Now, I don’t know how other authors feel about this, but I relish seeing copies of my work on a Used shelf. Browsing the Used stands at the Strand has long been and remains one of my favorite pastimes; better for a book you loved (or didn’t!) to go back to from whence it came and possibly find a new home rather than gather dust on a shelf/in a box/beneath a table. I write to be read, by any means necessary.

A wee bit more self-promotion before we get to the good stuff. I was delighted to be featured in Curated by Kayla’s Sunday Series last week, expounding on how I got into writing, what I’m excited to read next (just started Kevin Kwan’s scrumptious Lies and Weddings), and One of the Few Pieces of Writing Advice I Have to Offer. Elsewhere, the fine folks at Air Mail bestowed a “best” ribbon upon Friends in Napa and I am absolutely besotted with it.

Now that that’s over! In the interest of Adding Value, I’d like to share a map that I made delineating prominent destinations in Friends in Napa. My publisher originally planned to put it in the book, but a change in the production schedule prevented this from happening, so we’re going to drop it here, now. I thought about putting this behind the impenetrable paywall but in the spirit of … conviviality? Maybe I’m still buzzed? I won’t do that. More fun for everyone!

Big whoop, right? It’s easier to parse if you click this link. Savvy readers will be able to decode what real life places inspired fictional settings, and in a future newsletter, I’ll dive into wineries I drew from that you, too can visit. They’re worth the trip.