Mark your calendars: June 15. 2 pm. Barnes & Noble in Aliso Viejo, California. Just in time for Father's Day, I'm doing a talk and signing for Taking London. It's a treat to stand in a bookstore and talk about any new book I've written, but this one's special. I feel like I've written at a really high level with TL — action-packed storytelling that will keep you turning the pages. "Top Gun meets the Nazis" is my elevator pitch.
Karen Cutler, store manager at Aliso Viejo, was kind enough to give me this prime time spot. Hopefully, a slew of shoppers desperate for a last-minute Father's Day gift will stumble into the signing and breathe a desperate sigh of relief that they have discovered the most perfect Dad gift ever.
Now, about the little speech I'm to give. Fifteen minutes max. Q&A afterward. I am very comfortable in front of crowds. Public speaking no longer demands a quick glass of Chardonnay to calm the nerves (it's the opposite: drinking and speeches are a recipe for disaster). I speak each day to the forty or so young runners comprising the distance squad at Santa Margarita Catholic, a no bullshit audience if ever I've seen one. So why am I feeling a little jittery about the June 15 signing?
Maybe because I've used a variation on the same bookstore pitch for twenty-five years, describing my journey from cubicle-bound corporate lackey to realizing my dream of writing for a living. It's solid, but overdone. I want to do something new. I may actually write out the speech beforehand, rather than just making it up as I go. I seem to have a talent for this, but I have learned through other speaking engagements that the words are funnier and more profound if they're scripted.
Maybe it's that me and Taking London have been having this little romance for a couple years, conducted within the silence of my office as I lovingly chose each word. A bookstore signing is a final way of letting go, allowing the world to wander into my office and join the party, so to speak.
Whatever. I'm nervous. Join me if you can on June 15 in Aliso Viejo. 2 pm. Let's see how this thing shakes out.
Party on.