Bestselling author came to SLO on a book tour. Now she’s stuck in a Pismo hotel with COVID
Maureen Johnson may be a bestselling author, but all she dreams about these days is acquiring another pair of comfy lounge pants.
“Sometimes I sit at night and I dream of a second pair of sweatpants,” Johnson joked with The Tribune from her hotel room in Pismo Beach on Wednesday. “But I’m like, that’s too nice — like, people don’t have second pairs of sweatpants.”
Johnson — who is known for novels such as “13 Little Blue Envelopes,” “Suite Scarlett” and her “Truly Devious” series — doesn’t normally yearn for such mundane fashion needs.
But when you’ve been unexpectedly trapped in COVID quarantine while on an international book tour, these things become essential.
As part of her book tour promoting her latest novel “Nine Liars,” Johnson stopped on the Central Coast on Sunday to sign copies at Barnes and Noble in San Luis Obispo. The stop here was expected to be extra special because she would also get to see friends who live in the area, Johnson said.
That visit was already impacted by the major storms that swept across the region in the past weeks, as one of the friends she was staying with works in emergency management response, she said.
Then she tested positive for COVID-19.
“I got really sick really fast,” Johnson said. “Looking back, I probably got it on the second stop of my tour.”
She didn’t want to continue exposing the friends she was staying with, so Johnson booked a room at the Vespera Resort in Pismo Beach, where she has spent the past week of her quarantine tweeting, gazing at the ocean in the dead of night and generally acting like the hermit character in a gothic novel, she said.
“I think I’m like the resident weirdo,” Johnson laughed. “I sort of only emerge at dark and go out on the balcony. And I took out a little telescope they gave me last night and I just stood on the balcony like this weird creature from a novel that comes out at night — never leaves the room — but she appears on the balcony and she looks at the sky.”
In spite of her new persona as the Boo Radley of the Vespera, Johnson said the hotel has been wonderful about accommodating her during her recuperation.
“Everyone has been so nice in this hotel, and they’re so sweet,” she said. “They’re so good about having (room service) come right up to the door and then when everyone goes away, I open it a crack and I reach out a spidery hand and then drag the thing inside. So that’s me.”
Though she has sported a fever and the signature COVID cough throughout her entire stay, Johnson has found ways to enjoy some of Pismo’s most popular offerings while confined to her room, like Old West Cinnamon Rolls.
“My friend felt so bad, and she was like, ‘I’m gonna get you a roll from this cinnamon roll place,’ and it’s so good,” Johnson said. “I actually ate a whole one the first day. And let me tell you, that is a thing of magic. It’s just made of calories, but it was really something else.”
Because it is unclear how long she will have to be in quarantine (as of Wednesday, she was still sporting symptoms), the final leg of her book tour sadly had to be canceled, Johnson said.
She does have a humorous solution to the predicament, however.
“If anyone wants to catch an author event, they can hang out under my balcony here at the Vespera and I’ll just stare down at them with my weird look just as the sun is falling,” she said. “They could shout up questions and then I’ll just make mysterious hand gestures back at them.”
Also if someone could get her a second pair of sweatpants, that would be great, she added.
To follow along on Johnson’s quarantine journey, check out her Twitter @maureenjohnson.
This story was originally published January 19, 2023 at 11:52 AM.
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