Penultimate day of the 2008 Sepulchre tour, and an early start, driving along the Pacific Coast Highway (star of so many songs and movies), to San Diego. I'm staying in the Westgate Hotel, which is ornate and gilded and beautiful in a fin-de-siècle kind of a way. I have no difficulty imagining my 19th century heroine, Léonie, and her brother Anatole taking tea in the lobby, sitting in dinner suits and evening dress, fanned and gloved, watching the palm trees sway in the breeze.

Tonight, another independent bookshop - Warwick's in La Jolla. This evening, before the public event at 7.30pm, I'm meeting with Warwick's BookClub, the first time I've had the opportunity to do this on the trip. I loved meeting BookClub members, although it's sometimes daunting, in that they often have read your work so closely - and more recently than you've written it - that they have picked up all sorts of tiny, intricate details. Tonight, I expect to talk as much about my last novel, Labyrinth, as my current, Sepulchre. After more than a week on the road, it's the readers and audience members who contribute as much to the event as the author!

So, if you're in the La Jolla area for an hour this evening, come along. Now the trip is nearly over, I'm feeling nostalgic and want to meet as many real live readers as possible, before I head back to England on Thursday.

A bientôt ...

Kate