Save Me

A little over a year ago I wrote a post about taking my mother-in-law to a Ree Drummond book signing. My mom, at that time, said to me, "You never took me to a book signing."

It has been a weight of guilt (not really) I have been carrying for a while.

Back in January I was going to see Brad Meltzer promote his book The Inner Circle and I asked my mom if she wanted to go with me. She said no. I asked her if there was an author she would like to go see and my mom answered Lisa Scottoline.

"Who?" I said.

"Lisa Scottoline. She writes a column for the Philadelphia Inquire and she also has written a bunch of novels. I saw her on some local cable show and I just love her." My mom gushed about Lisa Scottoline for a few more minutes.

"Fine. When and if she comes around I will take you to a book signing." I said.

I never heard of Lisa Scottoline and I decided to do some research. She wrote a bunch of books. She was from the Philly area. She wrote some funny columns for the paper. She seemed down to earth. She had a new book called Save Me coming out in a few months. I emailed her my story about how I took my Mother-in-law to a book signing but not my mom and asked her if she could help. I never heard back. I emailed again. Nothing.

One night while I was Twittering I saw that Lisa tweeted something to Brad Meltzer. I jumped into the twit stream and asked Brad to Twitterduce me to Lisa. I don't know if he ever did but I did get a tweet from Lisa saying she would be doing signings in the Philly area in April. She suggested I come to one of those events.

I told my mom and we made plans to attend. My mom then read three more of her books and became a huge fan/stalker of Lisa Scottoline.

We went to the Lisa Scottoline book signing last night. We waited at the book store amongst the stacks of prenatal care and early child learning books (Scottoline does not write books about prenatal care that was where the sigining was taking place) talking to other fans. Every now and then someone would approach and ask a question about the store, which I would answer to best of my ability. Finally the author showed up right on time. Lisa Scottoline was funny and full of energy as she spoke to the group of about150 people. She was quick witted but also serious about her work. Very, very funny.

Scottoline spoke about how the seeds of the idea of the book were planted in her brain. She said that her friend was asked one night to pick up another small child with her own after school. When her friend arrived at the school she realized that she only had one car seat. The internal emotional, moral and legal debate about which child should get the car seat really weighed on her friend. Who should get the car seat?

Lisa Scottoline asked everyone in the crowd who they would give the car seat to. 90 percent said they would give the car seat to the other child. Lisa then asked who would give the car seat to their own child, standing in the back I raised my hand. Lisa asked me why. I was afraid I was about to embarrass my mom who was sitting to my right.

"I don't know if you ever had to deal with a car seat, but they are a pain in the ass." I said. "They do not make it easy to adjust and re-adjust the straps and buckles and seat belts for the weight and size of another kid. I would have put my kid in the car seat out of the simple fact it was already fitted perfect for him."

People in the audience appreciated my answer and Scottoline threw a bag of  Herr's potato chips at me and then moved on (The bag of chips, as I later learned, comes from a lesson Lisa' mom told her about always bringing food to a gathering. Lisa always brings PA based food to her signings to support PA). Her entire talk was funny and engaging. She even took the time to point out and recognize a fan that just earned their U.S. citizenship and another fan whose daughter was in the military. Scottoline also explained that her book has nothing to do with car seats but it does involve a what would you do type of dilema.



Lisa has law degree, is twice divorced, has an adult daughter, and loves her dogs. She even brought her dogs to the book signing. Which made me laugh to no end. My mom is very very afraid of dogs, it is a borderline phobia.

My mom and I stood in line for about 30 minutes waiting to get a chance to meet Lisa Scottoline. I used some Jedi mind tricks and some old school "my mom has a condition" tricks to get us through the line a bit quicker. My mom was absolutely ecstatic to meet Lisa Scottoline, she was grinning from ear to ear.  Lisa was so awesome taking her time to chit chat with my mom. My mom beamed the entire time.

Guess what? My mom soooo not afraid of Lisa Scottoline's dogs. She even said they were cute. What the?

I  then mentioned the Poop and Boogies blog to Lisa and gave her my card.  I could see either a hint of fear or recognition in her eyes as she read it. She gave my mom three more bags of Herr's chips.

My mom was very excited as we left the book store. I asked her if I embarrassed her at all.

"No, not in front of Lisa." She answered. "But you did when you were acting like a book store employee."

We got into the car and I breathed a sigh of relief, I no longer felt the guilt over my head. I finally took my mom to a book sigining.

My mom handed me the bags of Herr's chips.

"I can't believe I gave up chips for lent. "  she said.

And that, right there, made my whole night.

I have never read a Lisa Scottoline book. Now, after hearing her speak, and listening to my mom, I am very interested in reading some of her novels. If you get a chance go check her out.

Lisa's question in the beginning of her talk really struck me. What would you do? You are asked to pick up your small child's friend, two kids, one car seat, do you give the car seat to your kid or the other kid?

Or two book signings same day at the same time, one is your Mother-In-law's favorite author and one is your mother's favorite author, who do you choose?

History

30 years from now someone is going o look on the Internet, in their brain, to see who was the number 1 best selling author of this week of 2011. They will punch in their search terms into the search engine Poop and Google and find that Brad Meltzer's book, The Inner Circle, will be listed # 1 on the New York Times best sellers list for the weeks of Jan 30th 2011.

That person doing the search will be looking for history. History is what Brad's new book is all about. The history of President George Washington's secret spy ring which was called the Culper Ring. That person doing the search 30 years from now will discover that President Obama's Culper Ring delayed President Obama in his giving the State of the Union Address until about 9:15 ish because Brad Meltzer was signing books at the Philadelphia Free Public Library. Obama's people at that time knew it was due to the fact that William from Poop and Boogies gave The inner Circle a great review just a week or so earlier which would catapult Brad Meltzer's book to hit #1 on the New York Times best sellers list that week that he should delay his speech just a few minutes. Obama wanted me to hear his speech so that maybe Poop and Boogies would write a review about the State of the Union address.

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I went to the Philadelphia Library last night to stalk Brad Meltzer. He spoke for almost an hour about the book, some of his comic book writings and his show Decoded. Decoded is a show about decoding secret societies and government secrets. Brad is a very funny speaker. The event felt like a comedy routine about nerdy stuff like comic books and secret societies. I even had a chance to talk to Brad and he told me he enjoys my blog which is always nice to hear.

When I got home my wife asked me if I had a good time. I told her I had a blast. Not only was Brad funny but I got to people watch as well.

I said, "You know when a guy who writes comics, writes novels about Masons and secret codes and he has a show about decoding possible hidden societies in the government, makes an appearance, the freaks are going to come out of the wood work. And they did."

Lauren replied, "You know you're one of them. And I am sure those people are saying the same thing about you."

The Inner Circle

The Culper Ring was a secret spy ring, made up of civilians, used by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. The Culper Ring's purpose was to provide information to the General and eventually the President without any bias or predisposition to the actual information. So secret was the Culper Ring that even Washington himself did not know who were some of the members.

Brad Meltzer has a new book that comes out on 1/11/11 called The Inner Circle. The story is about a modern day Culper Ring although the story and characters are fictional. Meltzer always grounds his characters and stories in some basis of truth which makes his work of fiction almost seem real.

Beecher, the main character, works in the National Archives and stumbles, either by accident or by design (which I still have not figured out) onto a secret communications ring which centers around the President of the United States. The secret spy ring discovers that Beecher has discovered them and now nobody is safe. Beecher has been recently re-acquainted with Clementine, his old child hood crush, who has some secrets herself.

Beecher and Clementine have to put together coded communications left in mysterious locations in an effort to protect themselves from an unknown enemy. At one point they have to seek assistance from Nico Hadrian, a mental patient and would be Presidential assassin (a character from previous Meltzer novel The Book of Fate) whose beliefs are entrenched in secret societies.

I have read every Brad Meltzer book. I watch his show Decoded on the History Channel. I would have to say that Inner Circle is my favorite work of his so far. In all of Meltzer's other books or shows there is always a moment that I say to myself ,"Oh, right, that could never happen." and it takes me out of the action or pacing of the story. Not once in The Inner Circle did I feel that way.


It is a great story, with great, believable characters based in historical locations with historical documents. It blends truth, secret coded messages and fiction. What else could you ask for?



Brad Meltzer apparently was an intern on Capitol Hill-Senate Judiciary Committee- in Washington DC in the early 90's .

Brad Meltzer, apparently, co-wrote the Ameri-Corps Oath, that has been delivered by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Brad Meltzer, apparently interviewed former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton as research for a couple of his novels.

Brad Meltzer apparently is now friendly with the former Presidents.

In 2006, Brad Meltzer participated in a group think tank, along with the CIA, FBI, various psychologists, and Department of Homeland Security intelligence staff to brainstorm new ways that terrorists might attack the U.S.

Brad Meltzer, could very well be a part of a current Culper Ring.

Anybody Want A Peanut?

My mom hosts a Christmas Eve gathering/open house at her place for a gift exchange between the various aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, Godparents and Godchildren. This past Christmas the party started at 1pm. Right before we were leaving the mailman dropped off a package addressed to me. I quickly opened it to find an advanced copy of Brad Meltzer's latest book The Inner Circle (which does not hit book stores until 1-11-11). I was quite excited since Brad Meltzer is my secret man crush author.

I took this picture in front of my Abe Lincoln portrait because The Inner Circle is about the (fictional) U.S. President's secret Inner Circle (not Abe's inner circle but you know he was a president so I figured it made sense). I also tried to get the "Bra Melt" part of Brad Meltzer's name. I plan to write a review of Brad's book later this week. Let me just tell you, so far, awesome.

While at my mom's house my Goddaughter Allyson, my brother Anonymous'/Kevin's daughter, gave me what I consider to be one of my favorite Christmas gifts ever.

That's right, she gave me a Westley and a Fezzik doll from the movie the Princess Bride. If you squeeze their bellies they say lines from the movie including "Anybody want a peanut?". I didn't know these dolls existed. I was even more excited about getting the dolls than the book.

My wife, Lauren, on the other hand is slightly disappointed. She is upset that I was more excited about the book and the dolls than I was for any of the gifts she gave to me. I think it may also have to do with the fact that every night since Christmas Eve Westley, Fezzik and Brad Meltzer's book have been in our bed.