August 23, 2004

Finally, my extended book tour winds to a close this weekend, ending up where ‘it’ all began, out on the east end of Long Island. My last day out promoting my book will be spent in an expected place…and an unexpected one…..but more on that in a moment

First, the top ten moments on tour as a first-time author:

10. The local TV interviewer in Kentucky who mispronounced my last name 3 different ways in just 8 minutes. And she talked even faster than I do.
9. Making the front-page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch arts section the day of my reading at Left Bank Books. Slow news day, I guess, and also some sense of a returning local, even if it was just one year as a Random House sales rep stationed in Missouri back in 1980. (And the 15 vinyl records I scored for 99 cents each at a store that day; bet they’ll sound just great…hah!)
8. Seeing my now-retired high school math teacher at the reading I did in July at a vineyard on the North Fork, a few towns in from where I grew up. Mr. Clark, the calculus taskmaster.
7. Getting an envelope from an old classmate, full of clippings from our hometown paper, verifying a claim I made in the book, that Tim Rice and Paul McCartney really did come to our hometown to see a pre-Broadway production of Jesus Christ, Superstar. I know, move on, but it was neat.
6. Ol’ bookseller friends coming out to say hi, from Jill & Jenny, formerly of 3 Lives, now happily living out on the North Fork, to Joe of Books & Co. in Dayton fame, coming to my Joseph-Beth reading.
5. The full half hour that XM Radio gave me to read, for their book/talk channel. A very cool operation.
4. Cracking the amazon top 10,000 for an hour.
3. Various bookstore t-shirts gathered along the way.
2. Yup, seeing neat Book Sense displays everywhere.
1. Booksellers’ generosity in hosting me, taking time after a long day and with so many other authors to work with that week and every week. I am indebted to them beyond words.

And now, to the denouement this weekend: A reading at the East Hampton Bookhampton Saturday, which is good, because the Hamptons are the bling to my hometown Southold’s yawn. Two areas founded the same year – 1640 – and they still argue about it. The Hamptons got the ocean and the dunes; we got the vineyards and the no-place-to-eat-after-9 PM. Dan’s Papers vs. the Peconic Bay Shopper. Great bookstores, vs., well, no bookstore, which is why, if you can’t make it to Bookhampton, I’ll be at the Southold Pharmacy at 10 that morning. Just go to Riverhead and turn right. They have all the newspapers and plenty of parking. And I’ll take you across the street to the hardware store to show you the photo of Albert Einstein and Mr. Rothman sailing on the bay together. Walk, don’t run, and let Mr. Clark by.

Carl