Pictured here from the left are Ray Shea, Jason Berry, Toni Causey and Sarah Inman.

Last weekend in Louisiana was successful and fun — with the exception of having brother Dave's rear bumper fall off his car on the highway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans (but then again, Louisiana's drinking-and-driving laws allowed for me and Sarah to share a large can of Heineken while Dave carefully drove the bumperless Saturn along the crowded highway). The Tennessee Williams Festival panel on our book drew some 50 or 60 people — well more than we expected — and a certain erudite book reviewer mentioned to Toni Causey afterwards that she should join the mayoral race.

Baton Rouge also brought a warm crowd of about 25 or 30 — many McGees and Causeys, a few Kernions and Sheas — to our afternoon reading at Barnes & Noble. The readers showed the breadth of the book, from Katrina essays to Mardi Gras hilarity. And the big stack of books on sale shrunk as just about everybody there picked up a copy.

Baton Rouge was the equivalent of dipping our toe into the ocean to see how cold the water is. It was our first foray outside of New Orleans, and as we print another round of books, our success or failure will be dictated by how far we can take the book before we run into that most cruel of phrases: Katrina fatigue.

I'm not sure how we'll be perceived in other cities. I hope and half-expect to be well-received, but the cynic in me wonders a bit about just how much Americans do care. Of course, the cynic will be stuffed in a small box, bound and gagged and shipped to some undisclosed Central Asian country as we promote this book. No time for doubts now. Our path leads from New Orleans to cities beyond, and our long-term success will be dictated by how we are received there.