The ageless Jackie Collins is singing the song of the open road these days from her queen-sized bed aboard a plush tour bus.

The coach pulled into South Hills Village Monday night at the Barnes & Noble outlet, and the author disembarked long enough to promote her 26th novel, "Married Lovers" (St. Martin's Press, $26.95).

Before greeting fans, Collins provided a brief tour of the vehicle that features a glass-door shower, four bunk beds and a window-side table "where I watch the road go by while writing my blog," she said with a sweep of her hand, heavy with rings.

"I'm working all the time," she added. "When I'm not writing my next book ["Poor Little Bitch Girl"], I'm answering fan letters or autographing my picture for readers."

Collins is also a busy producer of films based on her books. She not only writes them, but "I get on the set first thing in the morning and stand two inches behind the director when he shoots the scenes. I like to be in full control."

She says her novels are successful (more than 200 million in print and a long list of best-sellers) "because there's something for everybody in them. My fans cover the waterfront. I have women readers, certainly, but also gay readers, black readers, all ages and all sizes. Sure, I write about sex, but on a large canvas."

Aiding the titillation factor are Collins' characters based on celebrities and other well-known people, an approach that she brings to full flower in her latest.

"You'll have fun guessing who they are," she boasted.

After Monday night in a Downtown hotel -- she doesn't stay overnight on the bus -- Collins chugged to Cleveland yesterday, then on to Louisville, Ky., and a visit to a gambling casino in Indiana, one of two dozen she'll hit on her summer tour.

Harrah's Entertainment is sponsoring the tour and providing the bus.