remember jfk?

"i'm still remembering" by the cranberries & a book tour powered by hyperfixation

I’m back from book tour, and from traveling around Texas hyperfixating on the JFK assassination, and unfortunately I only have pictures representing one of those things.

I also really have been listening to a ton of the Cranberries — I had to, it just felt thematic! I downloaded their first three albums and listened to them on shuffle on every plane ride, walking around Austin and Dallas, and hanging out back in my hotel rooms. I’m going to put together a playlist of Cranberries songs specifically for In Every Possible Way, and this one will definitely be on it.

I need your affection all the way/The world has changed or I’ve changed in a way/I try to remain/I’m trying not to go insane/I need your affection all the way

It fits!

The song also references JFK which, like I said, has been my current hyperfixation. But I’ll let that unfold naturally as I tell you about my book tour!

I started, as always, at my hometown indie Tombolo Books. I keep telling you about how much I love this bookstore but it’s only because I’m worried you don’t realize how much I love this bookstore. It’s women-owned, queer-owned, everyone who works there is the kindest person you’ve ever met, they have impeccable vibes and selection and book clubs and they know how to run an event! If you’re an author and you’re ever in St. Pete (beaches! museums! baseball! me! why wouldn’t you come to St. Pete?), you should really try to do an event with Tombolo so you can experience it yourself, like a warm hug.

“Gorgeous writing by a local legend!” Put it in my obituary!!

At Tombolo, I talked with my good friend Jessica (the one the book is dedicated to!). We really got into a lot of the Ireland research in particular, since Jessica is a literature professor and so always down to talk about Yeats and Joyce and Tana French, and we also traveled to Ireland together last year for my birthday. We’re both Pisces, as is the Jess-from-my-book, so we also talked about astrology some¹. My in-laws really liked Jessica. They told me afterward something about how we seemed so different, but obviously very good friends, and that intrigued me so much because I was like how do you see us as so different?!?! Unpack that for me!

Speaking of packing, I had all my usual packing dilemmas while preparing to leave for book tour. You know when traveling I care very deeply about a) maximizing efficiency, and b) spending as little money as possible. In the name of efficiency, I’d thought at one point that maybe I could get away with only packing a single backpack — I was only going to be gone a few days, after all, I could wear one pair of boots the whole time, I was in the middle of a physical book I felt a real pang of loss at the idea of having to leave it behind (Devil House by John Darnielle), but I could get by with my phone. I had multiple episodes of a JFK podcast! I had Case Closed downloaded through the Libby app!

And then I realized, Alicia you dumbass, you have an entire box of swag you need to bring with you. Art prints, sticker sheets, all the stuff you were going to give out at events. Try fitting that in a backpack!

(Well the backpack will be my carryon and the box can go under my seat, I did think at one point, and then I had to tell myself to get a grip.)

So I brought a carry-on, and I actually got super into gate-checking! Every time I walked to the baggage claim my bag was right there, coming around the belt right as I arrived, and in the meantime I never had to worry about it. It was quite heavy with that box!

Believe it or not, when I showed up at the LBJ Library I had only half-decided how deeply I cared about the JFK assassination.

I only had a few hours to kill in Austin before my event, so I had a Lyft driver drop me off at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library & Museum, still dragging my carry-on behind me. This Lyft driver was a little odd, to be honest. He was nice enough, but one of those people where it was very hard to get a read on where he stood politically. (*I* do not need to talk politics with my Lyft drivers, to be clear, but he kept bringing stuff up!) Like he’s originally from Ukraine and seemed to commiserate with me about Florida politics somewhat, but then he’s also very pro-AI and data centers. When he found out I was a writer he was shocked I didn’t use AI. “But it’s so helpful!” he said. He then basically told me about how AI relationships are so easy, no wonder people would rather have those than human ones. “Isn’t that bleak?” I said. I can’t believe how little I want to have these conversations anymore, and I also can’t believe how often they just keep coming up. He was nice, though, and had gloves in his trunk that he put on every time he handled my luggage. That felt like a very human detail to me.

Did you know that you can get in the LBJ Library for free if Lyndon or Claudia is your first, middle, or last name? That doesn’t pertain to me so I paid full price, but I thought it was neat.

The library has LBJ’s limousine in the lobby, and all around there are phones you can pick up and listen to recorded conversations he had with various politicians, journalists, MLK Jr., Jackie O., and a bunch of other people. It was pretty cool. There was not a woman alive LBJ wasn’t inappropriate with, though, including Jackie right after she’d lost her husband. It was also funny to read about how he was very good at “bullying” people into doing stuff he wanted them to, and then to hear it for yourself on the phone. Like some senator being like, I’m not sure I want to serve on that committee . . . and then by the end of the phone call he’s all, okay, I look forward to working with you, Mr. President.

Of course I had to check out the Warren Report:

Would you look at that, it’s as long as the book I’m currently revising.

I forgot to pack two key things on this trip: my water bottle, and a jacket. The water bottle was half-deliberate — I just hate holding things. I’m sorry. I will dehydrate myself before I hold something. (This is also why the I’ll carry the box plan was never going to work, I would’ve abandoned all that expensive swag under my seat on the plane.) The jacket was a true oversight — I didn’t pack one because I figured I’d just wear it on the plane, and then I never grabbed it before I walked out the door.

I felt the lack of water as I wandered around UT Austin’s campus, wanting to check out the clock tower, wheeling my carry-on down cobblestone paths. I didn’t feel the lack of a jacket. I thought I might never be cold again.

Then it was on to my event at Flutter Romance Bookstore! I met up with my conversation partner Ehigbor Okosun for Tex-Mex beforehand, and I got to talk to her about the first book in her fantasy duology, Forged by Blood, while she basically warned me that I wasn’t ready for some shit that goes down in the second book. I’m bracing myself! Ehi is a friend I could talk to forever (especially about Paramore/Twenty One Pilots), and she asked great questions at the event. We talked a lot about the scene right before Jess and Eamonn visit Yeats’ Grave in particular, which is one I love to discuss.

I love a converted house-turned-bookstore

Unfortunately, I was cold again, because the Austin airport was freezing. I walked up and down the gates, trying to warm myself up but also searching for a relatively cheap hoodie or something I could buy. I found a deal on long-sleeved shirts, two for $30, but I really didn’t like the design so instead I bought a lightweight sweatshirt that cost way more. I’m only mentioning this because again, you know one of my goals is always to spend as little money as possible, but I liked the look of this sweatshirt so much that I decided to take a swing! I decided I was going to rebrand this to myself as The Time I Bought One of My Favorite Sweatshirts at the Austin Airport instead of focusing on how much money I was out! Plus, now I could be warm.

The pilot on my brief flight to Dallas was really invested in us looking out of our windows. He kept narrating what we’d see on each side of the plane, landmarks to look out for, told us what a beautiful day it was. One of the flight attendants explained that the front bathroom was for business class only and the back was for everyone else and another flight attendant got on the line to say, “Use whatever bathroom you want.” I listed to Who Killed JFK? and typed notes as I listened.

So of course you know what I did the minute I landed in Dallas!

views from the Sixth Floor Museum/Dealey Plaza

I’ve historically been a believer in the Lone Gunman theory of the JFK assassination. I think it only makes more sense as time has gone on — we’ve seen what one isolated, disillusioned, delusional man can do with a gun. It feels shocking to think that one man could take down Camelot but, well. It was a different time, too, as far as security measures and investigations, so some of the ways that those were bungled can be explained more by naivete or incompetence than by conspiracy.

But I gotta admit. There is also a lot of weird shit that went on. I see why it’s the conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories, because no one can agree on almost anything. You almost have to throw out all eyewitness testimony — how many shots were heard, where they came from, was Oswald down in the breakroom, was Oswald at the window, was there another Oswald on the lawn. Some of it is downright silly, some of it erodes with time, and other parts only get explained with time and better technology. And the CIA is everywhere you turn, which is either because you believe they were vaguely watching Oswald but nothing more than that, or else because they were actively involved in a plot. And then afterward, they covered up so much shit, which again is because you either believe that they just didn’t want to be associated in any way / they’re always up to shady shit that’s the whole point of intelligence, or else is because they were heavily involved.

I’ve been doing so much research on this subject over the last week that I could

e a s i l y

write an entire newsletter just on this! But I won’t. Suffice to say if you want to talk single bullet theory or Jack Ruby or “I’m just a patsy” or the eerie detail about how Oswald kept moving seats at the Texas Theater before he was apprehended, sitting next to one person and then getting up to go sit right next to another, even though the theater was mostly empty, even though he should’ve probably been trying to lay low . . . well, I’m your girl.

I had more Tex-Mex for dinner with my Dallas conversation partner, Alexa Martin, who is as funny and easy to talk to as I always imagined she would be from her books. The most recent one I read from her was How to Sell a Romance, which manages to include a very sexy one-night stand to start things off and then an extremely satisfying takedown of an MLM, which is my shit exactly. She asked me about my favorite side characters in my book, which meant I got to talk about the Leahys and what they represent for Eamonn in the story. I also got to talk about the waiter Joe, who’s named for a Cranberries song because that was back when I thought I was going to make all my references.

Back at my hotel, I bought some chocolate peanut butter ice cream and a pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to crumble on top. There are ways I traveled wrong (no water bottle, no jacket), but there are some ways I traveled just right.

I also loved my Lyft driver who got me to the Dallas airport the next morning. He told me all about how he loves the scheduled early morning rides and he’ll run back and forth from the airport six times before noon and make way more money that way. We talked sports and he told me he was a big Mavericks fan — “diehard!” — but that he’d never been to a game. I wanted to know why, whether tickets were too expensive or the stadium was hard to get to or what. He said he didn’t know, he just hadn’t done it. I was like, man, you have got to get yourself to a game!!! You’re a diehard fan! You gotta hear those sneakers squeak in person!! I really hope he does.

At the airport, the up escalator was broken and it made me think of this:

Not saying I don’t chuckle at the observation, Mitch, but I will say that lugging my heavy carry-on up a set of stairs instead of an escalator was a bit inconvenient.

On my flight to Orlando, I finished Devil House and then my phone was dying and I had nothing else to do so I ran it back and re-read the last section of the book again. There was these lines that really stuck with me: “. . . a lot of things happen without real motive, motive’s overrated as an aspect of the crime, it’s another thing I talk about when I do a talk, sometimes people just do things, you can’t break your back bending over to find a motive.” I just found myself thinking about them while I considered (again) the JFK case, where motive does seem to be one of the many sticking points. And sometimes we just can’t believe that a terrible thing has happened and for what good reason but that’s because there is no good reason. But also sometimes there are such obvious reasons that it feels foolish to discount them. Follow the money, as it were.

I really liked Devil House! It felt all-consuming when I was in it and it gave me a lot to think about. Lately I’ve been wondering if I could be someone who emails authors about enjoying their books because I like it when people do that to me.

In Orlando, I chatted with my friend Amy Buchanan whose debut, Let’s Call a Truce, I still think about all the time. She asked me about how I change things up between books — first vs. third person, dual POV vs. single — but also how I never change up the tense because I’m always in past lol. What can I say. I don’t like to live in the present! Get me out of here!! It was a fun, easy, quasi-hometown feeling crowd, since I know so many people in Orlando.

I should’ve taken a picture once this was actually displayed for the event but instead I took a picture of it in the breakroom beforehand.

And that’s a wrap on book tour! I still have a few events here and there coming up, and if you haven’t picked up a copy of In Every Possible Way yet, of course I personally would recommend that you do! Here’s where you’ll be able to find me in the next few weeks:

• July 10 at 5:30pm ET - LoanDepot Park (Miami, FL) at a book swap event with the Miami Marlins!!! Ticket includes a pre-game panel presentation and then a ticket to the game itself!

• July 18 at 7pm ET - The New Romantics (Orlando, FL) at a joint even with Rachel Lynn Solomon (sold out; signing line tickets only available)

Currently reading . . . I’m reading Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK by Gerald Posner and taking copious notes.

watching . . . I’m watching 11.22.63 on Netflix and am fully seated. No, I didn’t read the book — I always meant to, but then the show was right there so I figured I’d start with that and then make my way back to the book later.

listening to . . . On my trip I listened to Who Killed JFK? with Rob Reiner and Soledad O’Brien, and now I’m listening to the second episode on JFK that dropped from You’re Wrong About. Look, I’m reading/watching/listening to other stuff, but I figured I’d keep these sections thematic!

1. Like today is Eamonn’s birthday!! He’s a Cancer. I don’t always include birthdays canonically in a book, but I did include both his and Jess’. And even if I don’t put them in the text, I always know them!