The Book and Author Breakfast

Ah, now for Saturday. As I mentioned, part of the CAMEX trade show festivities is a book and author breakfast. This year's event included five very talented writers: Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love; Gary Moore, author of Playing With the Enemy; Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food; Jim Sheeler, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of The Final Salute; and Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

We met up with all five authors in the lobby of the hotel, where I pestered a couple for autographs and photos:

And then we walked over to the convention center for the event. Breakfast was served before the authors began speaking and Gary Moore took that opportunity to "work the crowd." He was asked if he was running for office or something and he replied that "no, [he was] the least known author of the bunch," so he was out building a fan base before they got started.

Elizabeth Gilbert led the speakers and was very funny, a definite hit with the audience. She shared her story of how, after publishing Eat, Pray, Love, people were asking her for relationship advice...she being the person who failed miserably in her own relationship. One fan even asked her at a book signing if she (the fan) should get a divorce.

Next up was Gary Moore. He followed Elizabeth's lead and kept the audience laughing as well. In addition, he shared a moving story of a federal judge who contacted Gary to share how Playing With the Enemy changed the way he saw himself in the mirror every day. And I think that story brought to light for a great many people the fact that they do focus on their failures and often neglect to see their greatest accomplishments.

Gary was followed by Michael Pollan who shared with the audience his story of how he came to write about food. He didn't start out writing about food, but instead found it so integrally connected that food is where he ended up. Michael also pointed out that choosing what we eat is essentially our first "voting" experience. We vote with our forks. An interesting tidbit from Michael's presentation was the fact that almost universally, everyone has the same head shake to indicate "no" and it likely comes from infancy where babies close their mouths and shake their heads to indicate they don't want to eat something.

Jim Sheeler stepped to the podium next and his topic couldn't help but leave the audience in tears. He shared slides and audio of people he followed and interviewed for his book, The Final Salute. Jim followed along with a Marine whose job it was to inform family members of the loss of their military loved ones. What an incredible tribute this young man has written in an effort to make sure people stop, look, and don't forget the sacrifices these military men and women have made for all Americans.

While the audience were drying their eyes, Michael Chabon found his way to the podium to end the program. This versatile, dynamic writer is the winner of not only a Pulitzer Prize, but also an O.Henry, a Hugo, and a Nebula Award. He shared a little about how his first work of non-fiction, Maps and Legends, came to fruition and how the proceeds from Maps and Legends are going to a great organization called 826 International. THEN he read an essay from Maps and Legends. Most of the time, an author reading his/her work results in a scary product. Not with Michael Chabon. His reading was amazing. I was enraptured and could have listened to him read for hours. Of course it helped that the essay was phenomenal, but I think he could enthrall people reading the phone book - his voice, his energy, his charisma. Now I will hear that any time I read his work, and I will be reading quite a bit of it!

As I hope you can tell from my summary here, the event was a great success. All five authors did a tremendous job, and I for one was over the moon to have been able to experience it.

Dinner with the Authors

So, I've returned from my work trip to Anaheim, California. For those that don't know, I attended the National Association of College Stores (NACS) yearly trade show convention, CAMEX this past weekend. Each year as part of this convention, we host a "Book and Author Breakfast." This is my first year attending with NACS, so my first year at the convention.

I'm not sure how I got so lucky as to find a job that not only provided me with a trip to Southern California but also enabled me to meet some fantastic writers. I feel blessed. I was also feeling a little warmer since the temperatures there were in the 60s!

I mentioned a short while back that I would be attending the Friday night dinner with our guest speaking authors. Those authors included Gary Moore who wrote Playing With the Enemy; Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote Eat, Pray, Love; Michael Pollan who wrote In Defense of Food; Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jim Sheeler who wrote The Final Salute, and Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon who most recently published The Yiddish Policeman's Union and Maps and Legends. Unfortunately, Michael Chabon wasn't able to join us for dinner, but all four other authors were present as was the editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness, John Mutter, several Penguin Books representatives, and a handful of NACS book seller members.


At the dinner, I had the pleasure of also meeting Gary Moore's wife, Arlene, and his son Toby. Toby, incidentally, will be playing the part of his grandfather in the movie version of Playing With the Enemy that is set to start filming this summer. Toby is also the reader for the audio version of Playing With the Enemy.

We walked from the Anaheim Hilton hotel to a very nice restaurant called Roy's at the Garden Walk. Along that walk, I chatted with Gary Moore and learned that he is working on two new books. The first should be published next year and is the story of a fighter pilot from World War II. Sadly, this war hero passed away recently and won't be able to see his story in print. But luckily, the story will live on thanks to Gary's efforts on the book. His second book is a fascinating story about Italian immigrants who formed a soccer team in a tiny town in Illinois and through a strange series of events, ended up playing the world champion soccer team.

The evening was magical. I thoroughly enjoyed every last minute of it. So, I have to send another special shout-out to Cindy Thompson who made it possible for me to join this shin dig on Friday night. Thanks Cindy!

Tune in tomorrow so I can share with you about all of the authors' presentations during the conference breakfast the following morning!



Pictured above: Editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness John Mutter and author of Playing With the Enemy Gary Moore.