I was squatting in one of the science-fiction aisles at the Barnes & Noble in Roseville last night, perusing their selection of Philip K. Dick books.  I’d just sold them a huge stack of old sci-fi paperbacks from my high school days, and decided to convert those 26 Star Wars/X Files/Stargate novels into a couple of books I’d enjoy as an adult. 

When I pulled The Penultimate Truth for further inspection, a voice behind me said, “That one’s really good.”  I looked up to see a guy in his late thirties or so with a handful of books, also wandering the science-fiction section.  We chatted briefly about Philip K. Dick books, I told him about our show, et cetera, and after a minute or two, he said, “Good luck with your play!” and we each continued our respective browsing.

About ten minutes later, the voice on the PA heralded the arrival of author Michael Perry, who was doing a talk and book-signing, and the stranger who’d struck up that Phil Dick conversation with me took the microphone.  Apparently, I was talking to this guy, who was there promoting his new book Coop.  On my drive to work this morning, he was announced as the guest on MPR’s Midmorning program.

I still ended up buying Ubik instead of The Penultimate Truth, but his opinion suddenly had that much more weight.

P.S.  Anybody wanna buy some Star Wars hardcovers?  B&N wouldn’t buy those.