Dru, Steinbeck and the Book of Deer

Dear Juliet Just heading out to nearby Broseley, where I may be eaten by zombies. Either that or I'll buy a Snickers bar at Asda... Not a lot of news 'til I decide whether or not I book for Seattle. But here's perhaps the thing, part of me would rather throw it all up in the air, hang out with you and buy you a brew. Not at Moby's but that Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf opposite Grauman's Chinese Theater . That's pretty much where it started with me and California, perhaps where it's meant to end. At the moment, I actually don't know. I judge I have four separate possible futures, and I don't know which one will be my destiny. Well, nice to know I've got possibilities... Hollywood may be the boulevard of broken dreams, but I don't mind so long as it's got a Coffee Bean! Love, James

Dear Juliet Moby's on the 17th sounds like fun. I don't think I've got any major points to make today. Everything does seem to have fallen into place again, but my days would be full of neither coffee nor tea if I didn't have my dear Miss Landau for to go and see. So, Dear Miss Landau lore... Coffee shops were deeply entangled with the whole saga. Glasgow's always had a drinking culture, but the Seattle Company Coffee at 13 Renfield Street dared to bring pastries and mochas to its mean streets about 1998. Not being an enthusiastic denizen of Glasgow pubs, I went for overpriced coffee culture in a big way and became one of the first customers of the Starbucks which replaced it about a year later. I went there for about thirteen years and was heartbroken when it closed. Actually, you know it quite well. That's where Xander was sitting when he first saw Dru in Roses . Thank God for standardisation. A Scottish Starbucks could stand in for a Sylmar Starbucks any day...

Dear Juliet If these be dreams, I hope I do not wake... I hope you're out there, singing in the wires... I remember your hair, raven black in the light... Yes, if you're in plight I've been relicensed. And if you need to relocate, just tell me in advance and I'll send the crucial documentation before you take flight. But the funny thing is it's like it's all fallen back into place with the effortlessness of gods. The Yellow Brick Road restored, its flame burning anew amidst the old stones.  Dear Miss Landau  updated by accident or fate, bright and alive and free. Like a man on the road to Samarra , astride a horse with no name... Time is the fire in which we burn; and if Monsterpalooza was the frying pan, Toronto will be the fire. What do I think, Juliet? Well, I think that you too are free, and you should take a few days off. Climb the steps of Mount Seleya via the strawberry stand, Carmel River Inn and Gibson Beach. You have a perfect right to a little solo ...

Dear Juliet I understand you're home from Monsterpalooza, doubtless with aching feet and creaking back... I'm sorry. I hope you're getting some sleep, but noticed you'd reread Coda , Sarah's Hill , some of the rest... It was originally called Welcome, welcome to L.A...  I remember writing it in front of staff and customers at Juicy's. I meant every bloody word of it. You can't cross the desert on a horse with no name and not have all the nonsense peeled away until the only thing left to say is: “There were reasons and motives and rationales, more than I can say; but once I was on the road and crossing, all that meant anything was she and I, and getting there.” It was true, all of it. All true. You read the words like captains' logs singing down the wire . I wrote them out there for you. Part of me always will be somewhere out there, looking for that strange and savage city on the edge of forever. But all of it was for you. Welcome to L.A., Juliet. Sodom...

Dear Juliet 🤗 Love, James

Dear Juliet I was just considering things in the run-up to the Monsterpalooza Q&A. And really, it's so simple. I explained things in One Man in All the World , there's no need to burn your big toe off , ( please don't! ) and it's all just waiting for you. Timshel is absolute, of course; but Dear Miss Landau is forever . Immortal, eternal and immutable. I've also slowly realised it's even accidentally been updated, though what you do about that is of course up to you. As for me, I'm going to have my morning mocha and watch The Big Bang Theory . Here's that fun clip from the time Penny went to the Van Nuys comic-con! Yeah, I think Somebody Up There really does like you , and He keeps trying to help... I'll probably book for Seattle shortly, sorry I can't come to L.A... Okay, try and have a good day. Love, James