Charlaine Harris

[bodger]

We heard Charlaine Harris (author of several popular series of books, including the popular Sookie Stackhouse novels upon which the HBO series True Blood is based) was doing a reading at the Border's in Bailey's Crossroads. We thought this would be interesting, but possibly a mob scene. So fizzygeek met me in Sterling after I got out of work, and we looked at possible routes. Since we're no fans of the DC beltway (especially at rush hour), we took route 7 in.

There was a biggish crowd, pretty much filling the upstairs, but not a mob. We missed the reading, but were there for most of the Q&A. Harris is a lot of fun in person, with a quick wit and lots of personality. From the crowd response, it was clear that Quinn is a popular character. We did see the inevitable Linkin Park shirt. As there were nearly 400 people ahead of us for autographs, we didn't bother (we picked up a signed book of hers at a con a while back). We bought a few unrelated goodies and headed out.

Since we hadn't had time for dinner beforehand, we decided to head out route 50 and eat at the
Tastee Diner on the way home. Turns out it's now owned by Ginger Guevara, who has been a waitress there since 1966, and her husband Fredy. It was a little quiet, being a weeknight, but it was nice to eat there.