Relatively quiet day today, and all radio.
Start off with Diane Rehm Show on NPR. She is on vacation, so Steve Roberts sits in. He is very relaxed and easy to get along with.
The show tapes out of WAMU at American University in DC, so short drive to get there with Kent.
Nice talk with producer beforehand: she says both she and her husband have read the book and have discussed/argued over it at length, which I always love to hear. She says the book really gives her a language to have a discussion she was dying to have, which is exactly as intended.
Comfortable little studio to do the hour show. Roberts is right across a circular table from me, so we can look each other in the eye. He runs me through a number of questions for the first 20 or so minutes, and then it's calls and emails til the end. No really surprising questions, as I heard most of them during similar call-in shows in the spring of 2003 over the original Esquire article. I expect that as people read the book, though, the questions will get harder and thus better. I answer them to the best of my ability without taking anything personally. I beg off on only one question about some special office in OSD that Rumsfeld created that I know of only vaguely and so, not wanting to blow any smoke out of my ass on that subject, I stick to what I know. Roberts says off-mike that he really admires people when they admit they don't know things. All I know is that when I speak on subjects I know little about, I usually say something either stupid or patently untrue.
After the show, the producer walks up with an instant tape and says she thought it was a great segment. Producers always like to say that, but given our pre-show talk, I know she really meant it.
Kent and I drive off and catch a light lunch. Then it's on to the second radio show. This one is an easier gig, because I just chat with the host for 15 minutes into his PC and he'll edit and come up with a nice book segment for his nationally syndicated (over 1,000 stations) show called Eye On Books. The host is a very amiable guy named Bill Thompson, so the interview was about as slick and easy as it gets from my perspective, plus I was very warm from NPR so I think I gave him very good material.
Then I am back to the hotel and free for 8 hours.
What to do?
I walk to Georgetown and see Kill Bill, Vol. 2 in the same theater. I also repeat my guerilla-signing tactic. This time I walk the other side of the street on M and duck into a small book shop. There is my baby in the shelf marked "Major New Non-Fiction" -- right at eye level. I sign the store's two copies to the delight of the owner and we discuss Iraq briefly.
Back in my room, hanging out until I do Jim Bohannon's national radio show at 10pm on Westwood One: I decide to personally reply to all the emails send into the Rehm show (they gave them to me on the way out, along with an instant tape of the show). I do this via TV internet service, so it takes a while.
Then I get a call from Steve Oppenheim, PR director at Putnam: the Dennis Miller show sent a very nice email to Putnam about my appearance, praising it, saying it ran long because Dennis really enjoyed it, and suggesting I could maybe make a repeat performance at some time. That feels awfully good!
Steve also notes the Amazon rank is down to 84.
So good news all around: I seem to be performing well and having that appreciated by both Putnam and the media people, plus the book is gaining momentum in terms of sales.
I count my blessings, but can't help thinking how much my Dad would have gotten a huge kick out of all of this. I've been using his pen to sign all my books, which keeps him close in my thoughts.
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