Signing Schedule For Tahoe Deep

My new book will be out in a few weeks. Here is my initial signing/appearance schedule:

August 2, 2019 6:00 p.m. I'll be giving a Talk and Signing my new book TAHOE DEEP at Shelby's Bookshoppe 1663 Lucerne St. in Minden Village, Minden, NV 775-782-5484.

August 3, 2019, 11 a.m.,  Talk and Signing for TAHOE DEEP at Sundance Bookstore at 121 California Avenue, Reno, NV (775) 786-1188

August 3, 2019 3 p.m. Signing TAHOE DEEP at Geared for Games, Boatworks Mall, Tahoe City, CA

August 4, 2019, 8:30 a.m. I'll be signing my new book TAHOE DEEP at The Red Hut Cafe 4385 S. Carson, Carson City, NV

August 7, 2019 6:00 p.m. I'll be signing my new book, TAHOE DEEP, and giving a talk at the South Lake Tahoe Library, Rufus Allen Blvd., South Lake Tahoe, CA. NOTE: Room opens at 6 p.m. for signing, Talk is at 6:30 p.m.

August 8, 2019 5 - 7 p.m. Signing TAHOE DEEP at Truckee Thursday street fair, at the Word After Word tent in Truckee, CA

August 17, 2019, 8:30 a.m. I'll be signing my new book TAHOE DEEP at The Red Hut Cafe @ Ski Run Blvd and Lake Tahoe Blvd in South Lake Tahoe

September 7, 8, 2019, I'm exhibiting and signing  books at the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival, Mountain View, CA

September 28, 29, 2019 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Exhibit books at the Candy Dance Festival, Genoa, NV

September 30, 3019 4 - 5:30 Minden Library Author's Day, I'll be signing my new book, Minden, NV

November 15, 16, 17, 2019 Exhibit and sign books at the San Mateo Harvest Festival at the San Mateo Event Center, San Mateo CA.

November 22, 23, 24 2019 Exhibit and sign books at the Sacramento Harvest Festival at Cal Expo Fairgrounds in Sacramento

What A Castle, Vikingsholm!

Last week, I was invited to give a talk at the Vikingsholm Castle for a Trivia/Murder Mystery event.

My talk was fun, and I gave it to a sold-out crowd assembled in the courtyard behind the castle. My name might have been on the invitation, but the star of the show was of course the Vikingsholm Castle. No finer place like it exists.

If any of you haven't been there, go. The castle was built by Lora Knight in 1929. It is considered as good example of this type of Scandinavian architecture as anywhere on the planet. Add to that its location at the head of Emerald Bay, one of the most beautiful and most photographed places on the planet, and you have an amazing experience.

Look it up and visit. Bring your camera. Plan to spend some time taking the tour, hiking the short distance to Eagle Falls, maybe renting a kayak and paddling out to Fannette Island.

You'll be glad you went. Here's a link: Vikingsholm Castle

Another Roundabout Coming To Tahoe

By several measures, Highway 50 is the busiest route into the Tahoe Basin.
And, by several other measures, the intersection where Highway 89 comes from the south and ends at a "T" at Highway 50 in Meyers, is one of the most accident-prone, delay-causing places in the basin.

The powers that be have long debated if there should be a traffic signal or roundabout at that intersection.

The roundabout won the debate.

Construction has begun. Completion is expected in the fall.

Let's hope that traffic will flow better. (Although we locals fully expect that congestion will still be a feature of all our roads during the tourist season.)

Check Out Summer Snow At Kirkwood!

We just drove out to Kirkwood, the base of which sits at 7800 feet. Talk about beautiful, summer back-country skiing. Round Top (10,400 feet) and The Sisters (slightly lower) are buried in snow. Caples Lake is still mostly frozen, and the runs at Kirkwood could be covered with skiers. Except the skiers are all thinking about summer stuff. But with this much snow, summer stuff should include skiing.

Round Top is on the left, The Sisters on the right.

In the middle of June, the runs at Kirkwood are still heavy with snow.

Summer Skiing At Squaw For $5

My wife and I once skied at Alpine Meadows in June. It was a wonderful combination of hot sun, great snow, and purple butterflies that filled the air all over the mountain.

Now you can enjoy June skiing for $5.

Really? $5 Skiing? Skiing in June?

Yes, it's true. Squaw Valley, which is planning to stay open until July 7th, is offering $5 Fridays in June.

There are a couple of catches. (Of course!) You have buy the ticket a couple of days in advance. You have to do it with a special app. And there are only 500 cheap tickets available for each Friday. (Otherwise, the ticket is still a cheap $39.)

Here's the link to $5 Fridays.

How Literate Are Bears?

Back in 2004 there was a very fun and informative book about punctuation titled Eats Shoots and Leaves.

The title was a fun joke. With no commas (Eats Shoots and Leaves), it referred to what Panda Bears eat.

With the addition of commas (Eats, Shoots, and Leaves), it referred to a robber who has a meal at a diner, then pulls out a gun and shoots it as he's robbing the place.

I think of that book every time I see one of these dumpsters. Do you see the period after the word 'Bears?' I always have the urge to get out some white paint and change the period to a comma!

Tahoe Deep (#17) Is Available On Kindle Pre-Order

The 17th Owen McKenna mystery is now available on Kindle Pre-order!

TAHOE DEEP is about the famous SS Tahoe Steamer.

Here's a short description:

"In 1940, a teen-aged blind boy named Danny Callahan witnessed the scuttling of the SS Tahoe Steamer, the grandest ship to ever sail Lake Tahoe. Eighty years later, a killer beats up old man Daniel Callahan, demanding to know the truth about a secret that went down with the ship. If Callahan doesn't tell all he knows, the people closest to Callahan will die..."

While the Kindle version is now up on pre-order, the paper version will soon be available as well.

Also, my events for the new book are being scheduled, and I will post those when the dates are set.

Thanks again for your interest!

South Lake Tahoe Is Not Casinos

People who live in or near South Lake Tahoe are sometimes exasperated by the perception of some tourists that "South Lake Tahoe is where the casinos are."

Not true.

The South Shore Casinos are in Stateline, Nevada. If you look at a map, you'll see that South Lake Tahoe is at the very south end of the lake, 5:30 on the dial to 6:30. The casinos are more like 4:00.

Many or even most people who live in South Lake Tahoe can go months at a time without ever seeing the casinos. They only occasionally drive by them on their way to Carson City or Reno.

If you ask most South Lake Tahoe residents to describe their community, they'll talk about Tahoe's grandest beaches (Baldwin, Pope), Tahoe's highest mountains (Freel, Job's Sister), Tahoe's highest ski resort (Heavenly), Tahoe's most visited wilderness area (Desolation Wilderness), Tahoe's second largest lake (Fallen Leaf), Tahoe's largest community college (LTCC) and, of course, Emerald Bay, Tahoe's most picturesque and most photographed place.

One of the hotel casinos in Stateline, Nevada

The casinos are popular with a certain type of tourist. That's all good.

The valley where South Lake Tahoe residents live.

But South Lake Tahoe is much more about recreation, hiking, biking, skiing, boating.

Tahoe Colleges!

It is a lucky community that has a college. Colleges provide a huge positive input to a town. Education, culture, jobs, and a huge draw for people who attend. Of course, not all students are young, but many are. When a town attracts young people, it creates its future. Towns that lose young people struggle. Sometimes they even die off.

We are very fortunate to have multiple colleges in the Tahoe Truckee area.

Check them out:

SOUTH SHORE

Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) http://www.ltcc.edu/

NORTH SHORE

Sierra Nevada College https://www.sierranevada.edu/

TRUCKEE

Sierra College https://www.sierracollege.edu/about-us/visit/tahoe-truckee-campus.php

In many, if not most, towns, the cultural center is the library.

Incline Village library

Tahoe and Truckee are especially fortunate in that we have many libraries. Here are several of ours:

SOUTH SHORE
1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.
South Lake Tahoe, CA
530-573-3185
https://www.eldoradolibrary.org/ (Click on the South Lake Tahoe link)

EAST SHORE
Zephyr Cove/Glenbrook Douglas County Library Lake Tahoe branch
233 Warrior Way, Glenbrook, NV 89413
775-588-6411

NORTH SHORE
INCLINE VILLAGE
845 Alder Ave, Incline Village, NV 89451
775-832-4230

KINGS BEACH
301 Secline St, Kings Beach, CA 96143
530-546-02021

WEST SHORE
TAHOE CITY
740 N Lake Blvd, Tahoe City, CA 96145
530-583-3382

TRUCKEE
10031 Levon Ave
Truckee, CA
(530) 582-7846
https://www.mynevadacounty.com/290/Library

Check them out. You'll likely find them to be a great resource for information and events.  (Apologies to any I've missed!)

Next week: Tahoe Colleges

Paddle Boarding, A Winter Sport?

As I write this, the snow has mostly melted at lake level. But we still have over 4000 vertical feet of white stuff above us on the mountains that ring the lake. Actually, 4600 feet, when you look up at the summit of Freel Peak on the South Shore, or Mt. Rose on the North Shore (the mountain on the far right of the picture below).

But what better time to go paddle boarding? The view is gorgeous. The weather is often gorgeous. And there is very little boat traffic to get in your way.

The Great Lakes Of U.S.

I remember as a kid learning that Lake Superior was, by surface area, the largest fresh water lake in the world. I don't recall talk about volume. When volume enters the picture Superior is only #3 behind Baikal (in Russia) and Tanganyika (in Tanzania).

Along with Superior are the other U.S. Great Lakes, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, five lakes that are too big to see across.

That makes five big lakes that are very deep. Superior, for example, has a maximum depth of 1,333 feet. And an average depth of 483 feet. That's a lot of water.

But what comes after the U.S. Great Lakes? What lake is #6 in water volume?

You guessed it. The 6th largest fresh water lake by volume in the U.S. is Tahoe. How could a relatively small lake be on the list of most-voluminous lakes? Because it is very deep, with a maximum depth of 1635 feet and an average depth of 1000 feet! That's a hole deep enough to hold a lot of water. (Yes, Tahoe's volume is substantially less than most of the Great Lakes. But #6 is still significant.)

On the list of voluminous lakes, Tahoe stands out as #1 in one way - possibly of all the substantial lakes in the world - and that's its purity of water, meeting many standards for distilled water.

A special lake indeed.