For those of you who tuned in late, last week's post was a page out of my forthcoming (Someday) book. It took place last year in London around the tiny table in my flat. I had to buy folding chairs to seat the guests and I still have them on the porch.

We had a little technical glitch on our side and our blogs took a bit longer to get posted. Sometimes you just can't push the 'enter' button hard enough for the computer to know what you mean by "publish". Silly computers, why can't we all just get along?

Anyway. I had the chance to go down to our Dupont store and host a speaking event this week. This was a book I could really get my head around. The "Hemingway and Bailey Bartending Guide to Great American Writers" (I love the long title). Not only is it a bar guide that gives you the recipes for all the best, classic cocktails from the era of classic cocktails, it lets you know what author prefered said cocktails.

Did I mention the book was about cocktails? It does go a bit beyond the typical "...Mark Twain liked to drink bourbon. He drank bourbon sometimes with dinner and sometimes without dinner." * The authors did extensive research into hard-drinking American authors and the drinks they enjoyed. It is layered with excerpts from the author's more famous works and punctuated with original illustrations by Ed Hemingway.

If you were wondering, he is THAT kind of Hemingway. All the way from the frozen tundra of Montana. His grandfather was Papa Hemingway of the bullfights, safari hunts, and old men wrestling with their demons against giant Marlins. Some people can't get into a Hemingway book, but I think they are great. They are brief, to the point and sometimes painful, just like life should be. I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite but the whole concept of Ernest Hemingway makes sense to me.

Given my feelings about Hemingway, I was very excited to get the chance to meet Ed. We talked a little about growing up in the mountain states and where he got his inspiration for all the illustrations. So many authors from the book are known to us in name only. You may know that Sinclair Lewis won a Noble Prize, but could you pick him out of a line up? Ed's drawings bring life and interest to otherwise faceless entities that might ring a bell if you heard the name in the right context.

The guys were kind enough to sign all the copies I had in the store and to personalize a few for me to give out as Christmas gifts to my drunken friends and family members. All this even after the botched introduction I gave them. (I am a much better speaker when I have a drink in hand.)

Altogether, it was a success in my eyes.

What other good event news can I tell you about? Things are starting to quiet down a bit on the Event Front leading up to the big holiday. I have a couple things on the horizon for the end of December (See the event calendar, I can't do it all for you.) and then it is smooth sailing until January. I have some good things booked for the first of the year and I have been spending all my free time looking through the catalogs for the summer. If you didn't know, booking authors is like picking out toys from the Sears catalog when I was a kid. You lay the catalogs out on the floor and circle the things you want out of them, then you hand it off to Santa (Or a book rep) and wait to see if you got what you asked for. Neat, huh?

On a more personal note, I got a new Tattoo and I didn't make it to the gym all week. I did have martinis with Joe Murphy for dinner the other night. No food, just the martinis. If the bar wouldn't have closed on us we might have had time for three or six more. Good thing Old Man Time stepped in and asked us to stop before we hurt ourselves.

Another week of event-ish goodness awaits, so I best get back to it.

Editor's note: There is no proof that Mark Twain drank Bourbon with or without dinner. This is only an example comment by the Blogger to demonstrate how the Bailey Book is not written. Twain may have drank Bourbon. Heck, I drink Bourbon. Bourbon is a very good drink. In fact, I think I will pop out for one after work.

Blogger's note: You may or may not remember that I am the editor of this blog as well as the writer, and I only drink bourbon when I have a cold. Unless you say it too often, then the idea sticks in my head worse than "Yellow Submarine"