Last Night in Detroit

The Detroit metropolitan area is huge. So huge, in fact, that there are five different Civil War Roundtables, if you count the one in Ann Arbor. Months ago, I was invited to speak to the Israel B. Richardson CWRT, which is on the northeast side of town. The CWRT meets in a Barnes & Noble store, and it’s the largest B&N store I’ve ever seen. I’m told that it used to be bowling alley.

I agreed to accept the invitation largely because Susan’s got family in the Detroit suburbs. Her aunt and uncle live in Franklin township, and she has cousins in Bloomfield Hills. We figured we could tie a visit with them to the talk. Unfortunately, they weren’t available, and we couldn’t find anyone to watch the dogs. That meant driving 4+ hours to Detroit, doing the presentation and the book signing, and then driving 4+ hours home to Columbus, all in one evening. I had a 7:30 breakfast meeting yesterday, so it was a VERY long day.

However, there were about 75 people in attendance, and the B&N customer relations person did a fabulous job of it. She had multiple copies of all of my books but one there. There were probably 40 copies of the Stuart’s Ride book, and I signed about 30 books over the course of the signing. One fellow who came arrived toting his copies of all twelve of my books for me to sign, which I did before the start of the meeting. Paul Taylor, who regularly comments here on the blog, also came. It was really nice getting to meet him in person.

I did my Stuart’s Ride talk for them. I enjoy that talk because I can do it almost completely without notes. I use the notes only to read the operative orders for the raid, and then work off the cuff. I get a charge out of that, and the audiences always seem amazed that I can do a talk like that without notes. From my perspective, the interesting thing is that because I do it off the cuff, no two talks are ever the same. That helps me to keep it fresh and keeps it interesting for me.

We finally got home after 1 AM. Like I said, it made for an incredibly long day. Fortunately, Susan came with me, so that we could split up the driving. Unfortunately, the consequence is that we’re both exhausted tonight. I could use some sleep.