Slight Schedule Change -- Duttons

Hey, tomorrow's reading at Dutton's Brentwood (11975 San Vincente Blvd) is at 7pm not 6pm. Given the challenges of LA traffic that's an important distinction. Hope you can make it.

Links, Emails, Schedules, Thoughts

Hi Everyone. Been a busy week of book events, magazine assignments and lingering Otis-headaches. Tomorrow morning, I'm off for LA for some more of the same.

So a few quick things:

First, an updated event schedule. Readings are now scheduled in Boston, New Haven and other places. Hope you can make it to one.

Second, there are some reviews up on the Amazon page. Among them is an absolutely beautiful one from Greg Irish, one of the people I had the privilege of serving with as a volunteer in Zambia. Greg, thank you. Hope we meet again before too long.

Next, as promised, a close-captioned version of Soundproof -- Rebecca Haimowitz's remarkable film.

Finally, don't be a liger, be a snake -- but beware lawnmowers! A valuable lesson in business strategy courtesy of Mununga, Zambia.

Hope you all enjoyed the NPR interview. Up here in Cold Spring, we turned on the radio at 8am, only to find that we could not get the NPR station. Then when we found it, a tree branch came down on the power line and cut power for the day. We ended up listening in the car, which we had to back out the driveway to get reception. Not the easiest way to enjoy it, but sort of fitting.

Back soon with a longer post. Thanks again to everyone who's taken the time to write.

NPR page and Prologue

NPR set up a special page to run with the interview. There's a nice summary of the book, a link to Rebecca's video, and the prologue of The Unheard is up there as well.

You can also find the prologue here.

UPDATE: They've added outtakes from the interview that didn't make it into the Weekend Edition Segment.

Time. Close as I can figure

Just received word that the interview has been moved to the first hour of the show. Here in New York, that means there will be a promotion at 8:00 and then the interview will run at 8:40.

Also, NPR.org will have transcripts of the interview available for the hearing impaired.

Upcoming Readings and Signings and Sightings!

September 28, 5:30pm: Trojan Vision TV show taping (Los Angeles) Broadcast live

September 29, 11am: KABC Radio (LA) Broadcast Live

October 1st, 6pm: in Los Angeles, at Dutton's Bookstore at 11975 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles.

October 4th: at the New Haven Library in New Haven, CT. Not sure of the time. Not sure where the library is either. But my publicist knows and hopefully she'll tell me soon.

October 8th, 8pm: at the Half-King Pub on the Lower East Side 505 W23rd St, NYC.

October 11th, 1:30pm: at Penn State University, University Park, PA.

I'll also be taping other local radio and TV shows in LA. I'll let you know where and when those will be broadcast soon as I find out.

And don't forget, if you miss the NPR broadcast, it will be up on the website the following day.

Another Review

Just got a very nice review from Worldhum.com -- a great site devoted to travel writing and international affairs. Check out if you get the chance.

A shorter version of the review will run in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

UPDATE: World Hum also saw fit to ask for my picks for three great travel books.

The NPR Interview and Video!

Hey all. The Scott Simon interview will run during the last fifteen minutes of Weekend Edition's second hour this Saturday. To find out exactly what time that is (could be anytime from 6:45-11:45), go to NPR.org and plug in your local station's code. I hope that clarifies things. Hope you get to hear it.

Concurrent with the interview, the NPR website will run this video trailer.



It's called Soundproof and it is the long awaited Cochlear Implant video directed and edited by my cousin, Rebecca Haimowitz! She's done a phenomenal job and we're hoping this exposure will help us find the funding to finish it.

Quick Update

Hey...A couple people have pointed out that NPR's Saturday Weekend Edition is a loooong show. Having never listened, I missed that. I'll try and narrow down exactly what time the interview is next Saturday. Check back later this week for more on that.

And the long awaited book party/bacchanal at Sweet and Vicious is still on. 8pm start, but come earlier if you want as happy hour is until 9. Pizza and books until we run out. See you there.

NPR Schedule Change

Just back home from sweaty DC and the NPR studios, via an eventful train ride in which a woman walking down the coach aisle next to me tripped and smashed her face on my armrest, shattering her nose. Proving, unfortunately for her, that the God of strange and slightly ridiculous injuries plays no favorites. Or maybe, perhaps, this one time His aim was a hair off? I hope that's not it.

The interview with Scott Simon went very well...but it will not be airing tomorrow, September 8th. Instead it will run the following Saturday, September 15th. The show starts at 10am and runs an hour. The day the show runs, NPR will post, on their website, a video about Sam and my cochlear implant surgeries that my cousin Rebecca has been working on non-stop for two years. It's really well done and I'll ask nicely and see if we can get a sneak preview here.

The Day. This day. It's Here.

Tuesday, September 4th. The book is finally on the shelves. You can drop everything you're doing, put down your hammers and scalpels, your thoughts and your crepes, and run to your neighborhood bookstore and ask for The Unheard. If they don't have it please, do me a favor and ask them why. Why? Why exactly? Why? What are you waiting for? Then make em order a dozen.

This is important – going to the bookstores, calling bookstores and asking them for the book is, unfortunately, the main way to get them to carry it. Seems kind of backasswards -- shouldn’t they carry it in case someone wants it? -- but that’s how they do.

Anyway, I am excited for all of you to finally get a chance to read it. Been a long time coming, a long strange nearly three-year trip replete with highs, lows, middles, and multiple excursions to the operating room, and it’s finally come to an end.

Or a beginning? A lot of events in the pipe for the fall. First up, an interview with Scott Simon of NPR’s Weekend Edition airing this Saturday, the 8th, at 10 am. I’m headed down to the NPR studios in DC to tape the interview Weds. Will report from there.

Next after that is the big book party on Monday the 10th at Sweet and Vicious in downtown Manhattan. It starts at 8pm and they will be extending the happy hour until 9pm, so get there early and drink freely. Books will be sold and toasts will be toasted.

Finally, a couple excerpts are online! From Lost Magazine, a chapter about learning to hear with hearing aids called Deaf Not Deaf. And in Smith Magazine, a site dedicated to the art of the memoir, an excerpt about weighing babies in the village. Enjoy!