Delirium Tunes
So here I am in the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, Ros Sereysothea playing in the background - I've brought them a CD I compiled of her greatest hits - when in walks a customer who actually recognizes that it's Khmer pop music. Hmmmm. A very nice woman - an auditor with the IRS, though she assured me audits corporations rather than individuals - who was born here, but whose family is Khmer. Considering that my newest book, GRAVE IMPORTS, is mostly set in Cambodia and about the theft of Cambodian art, it all seemed very fortuitous.
That's the great thing about bookstore appearances. I love hanging out in the places, I nearly always meet interesting people. I have yet to have hundreds of screaming, adoring fans show up to tear my clothes off or anything like that, but it seems unnecessary by way of keeping me happy.
Ros Sereysothea, by the way, was the biggest pop singer in Cambodia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She, like most of the country's musicians, was killed by the Khmer Rouge during their reign from 1975 to 1978. Her music has only recently begun re-emerging, having been, literally, buried for many years. Now, it is being unearthed and digitally cleaned up an becoming available. It's great stuff. Come into the bookstore here and make them play it for you. Then buy a book - of course.
But, now I got to get in the car and head south - the Eric Stone Drive-by Book Tour '07 continues. I'll be back in Seattle, if they'll have me back, next fall for Flight of the Hornbill - the next book in the Ray Sharp series. And I'll bring a CD of strange Indonesian pop music.
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