The past 2 weeks of speaking engagements and book signing as publicity for my new book have been fast paced and exciting—making “The Mary Walk” WILDLY SUCCESSFUL.  To describe it, I could simply exclaim, “Wow!”  A more cultured response would be, “the book tour was splendid.”  I choose, “Wow!”

There were several events in and around Norfolk.  Norfolk State College put “on the dog.”   Dr. Dorothy Jones and the entire school made me feel stellar.  These folks thought of everything including  a campus police escort to and from the event, packed house, food, celebration, book-signing and radio appearance.

For 10 days there were book signings at Barnes & Noble in various Virginia cities to numbers we were told almost never occurred for first-time authors.  In addition to Norfolk State, there were stops at The College of William and Mary, the 2nd oldest in the U.S., and Howard University.  At the Norfolk Nauticus Museum, I was surprised to see my image displayed on a larger than life billboard.  At the revered African-American Civil War Museum in DC, I was honored to meet many “singular” people—especially Ms. Nia, a woman of respect who takes me back to my roots.  Further, a distinguished gentleman who attended is now exploring establishing a historical landmark to commemorate Mary Louvestre’s heroism along her walk-route from Norfolk to Washington.

At the College of William and Mary, Dr. Francis Tanglao-Aguas, head of Africana Studies was a charming host.  I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to almost 80 of his progressive students. At Howard University, Dr. Dana Williams interviewed me for the university TV station and is using my book to teach some of her English and journalism classes.  At Hampton I appeared on Caldwell’s Café, a taped TV program with the renowned journalist Professor Earl Caldwell.

There were radio shows, local TV appearances, newspaper interviews with the Washington Post and several Virginia newspapers.  I had to chuckle when we checked through airport security and the officer there recognized me.  When I looked surprised, his response was, “I watch TV and I read books.”

Returning to Las Vegas, I spoke at the Springs Preserve Black History month outdoor festival which attracted several thousand people.  We sold and autographed many books with folks asking for more.  What a pleasure to meet and speak with so many people from local businesses, schools, celebrities from the Strip, and local and federal government representatives.  Media coverage abounded on the network local affiliates for the past few days as well as in the Sunday edition of the major newspaper.

My next appearance is Sunday Feb 24 at 2pm at Community Lutheran Church in Las Vegas. There are several others scheduled and many invitations to respond to.  I’ll update the schedule soon.

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