When Did You Last Fear for Your Life?

UPDATE: I will be at San Diego Comic-Con this year on Sunday, July 15th!

If you are coming, please say hi at one of my SDCC events.


And now...


The Sullivan Canyon Bike Path Story

A few months ago, my wife was getting her hair cut and I was watching our baby. In the salon they had magazines, and one of them was Los Angeles's "Bike" issue. "Well," I thought, "as a person who lives in LA and rides a bike, this is perfect."

The magazine had suggested journeys for different skill levels. I eyed "Mandeville Fire Road" for "Intermediate" (because obviously I'm not "Beginner"). I asked the lady at the salon if I could rip it out of the magazine.

"Of course you can," she said. "Nobody ever asks."


Whenever I rip things out of magazines I feel compelled to follow up on them. So the Fire Road clipping stayed tacked in my office, taunting me, as I got a new job on the amazing show Last Resort (coming to ABC this fall!) with offices that are too far from my house to bike to.

On July 1, I decided to do it.

I didn't care that I hadn't been on a bike in two months. I didn't care that the trail was "Intermediate." I didn't care that it was 82 degrees. I didn't care that I forgot to bring water.



I immediately made a wrong turn. Instead of Mandeville Fire Road I got on Sullivan Fire Road. Sullivan Fire Road isn't paved. It's a road that the LA Fire Department uses when they need to drive to brush fires. But that's not so bad. What's bad are these tempting paths that branch off from the main road.



I mean, if you're biking on a gravel road, and a trail opens up that looks like it leads to the summit of a mountain, it's tough to stay on the road.

I should've stayed on the road.

Every time I got off it, the trail quickly became a BMX NES exercise. They had mounds of dirt to do tricks off of. I hadn't been on my bike on months, and I didn't have monster-truck tires (although I do have Kevlar tires -- KEVLAR), and I basically was falling down a mountain at 27.9 mph (my GPS says so) in fear of my life. At one point I flew of the bike like Superman. Somehow all I did was get a bug bite.



Here is how my time was allotted on the bike trip:

bicylcing - 33%
walking my bike up hills - 33%
EEEEEEEEEE NOOOOOOOOOO - 34%

I planned on making a 10-mile trip. After five my heart started beating really fast and I had to lie down. I kept thinking about Quentin Tarantino's editor who died of heatstroke in a Hollywood canyon. Or about snapping my ankle and getting eaten by mountain lions. Or about falling into the canyon.

In the end, I lived, and I came out with photos of the trip and a GPS report (elevation loss, 1,418 ft?!). That's the thing about Los Angeles: you have all the comforts of a major metropolitan area, but minutes away is feral, natural death.



San Diego Comic-Con 2012: HUMOR IN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY / Sunday, July 15th

I'm coming to Comic-Con on July 15th at 10:00am for the panel "HUMOR IN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY."

The panel features me, Richard Kadrey, Doyce Testerman, Rob Reid, Gini Koch, Nathan Long, and Nick Hurwitch. It's moderated by John Scalzi.

The panel takes place in Room 25ABC.

Following the panel, at 11:15am, I will be signing and giving away 50 advance copies of my forthcoming book The Other Normals in the autographing area.



Later in the day, from 2pm to 3pm, I will sign and give away 50 more advance copies of The Other Normals at the HarperCollins suite of booths: Booths 1017, 1019 & 1021.

Copies of Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire signed by me will be available at Booth 4300 courtesy Smart Pop Books.

These events are open to the public but require a Comic-Con badge for entry. More info here. Hope to see you there!