On December 30th I went to the Sheldon Museum in town with Aly. She volunteers there every week. I went to follow up with the staff about a reading and book signing for my new book. We set the date for Wednesday, January 19th!
Here’s the poster I designed for the event. If it hasn’t already, it’ll soon be appearing around Haines.
I really hope people come to this! We’re laying plans for it now. Aly suggested refreshments. There’s been talk of sugar cookies, drawing from various holidays to create theme-appropriate goodies: ghosts from Halloween, Christmas trees re-purposed to serve as rain forest trees, bears, maybe a moose . . . . And, in honor of my Aunt Gail, whose comment anticipating the book got into the introduction, we hope to serve Russian tea, without rum, in this case.We agreed to keep the refreshments off the poster, just in case we didn’t get them made. Besides, food in a museum represents a pretty big responsibility. The reading will be held upstairs, in the middle of the exhibits. We don’t want cookie crumbs on the artifacts!
I’ve done a lot of public speaking in the past, but I haven’t done any at all since long before we moved to Haines. I’m a little anxious about the whole thing. Ironically, we almost never attend evening events in town, because of the long hike home in the dark afterward, so I have no idea whether or not these events are well attended or not. Being pretty much unknown in town, and holding the event at a venue where people will need to go to attend, as opposed to stumbling upon it while doing other things, I don’t expect a big turn out. I’d sure like one, though!
And I am looking forward to speaking in public again. As shy as I am, there is a side of me that likes to perform. I’m looking forward to reading some of the stories and seeing how people react to them.
To be optimistic, I’ve placed an order for extra copies to have on hand. If they don’t arrive by then, I can at least take people’s information and tell them copies will arrive shortly.
A portion of any books sold at the event will go to the museum. Copies are also still available at The Babbling Book, our local independent bookstore.
If you’re in Haines or Klukwan, please come! I don’t ask that you buy my book—let the stories, and my presentation of them do that, if possible—I just want to make sure that enough people show up to make the time and effort worthwhile to the museum!
Interesting looking book and enjoyed your Homestead website. Sorry wont be there as I’m at least 3000 miles away.
Found your website doing a search on my family tree. Wondering if you know the origin or meaning of your last name.
M. Zeiger (also)
Hi Mort!
Yeah, it’s sort of futile to advertise a local book signing on the Internet, I realize. I really don’t know if very many locals read it, but hopefully a few will, and will come to the event!
Zeiger, I understand, means “pointer” or similar in German–like the hand of a clock. My grandfather always theorized that the name originated from a town crier or night watchman. We are of a rare strain of Zeigers that aren’t Jewish, which means, for instance that I can’t claim Larry King (Zeiger) as a relative. Ironically, my Dad’s a Presbyterian minister, so, except for my first name, which I guess might be more Greek, my sister Elizabeth and brother, David, have good Jewish and/or Biblical names.
I had always suspected that our ancestors must have been Jewish, but that the generations of Scots, Irish, and Scots-Irish Presbyterians that make up most of my bloodline decided the connection didn’t exist. Then, my sister recently went to Germany and found our family–turns out the single person they trace lineage to was a Catholic priest who left the ministry! Not sure how some of those same Protestant forefathers would have taken THAT little detail of family history, either! We’re also shirt-tail relatives of Johann Sebastian Bach, apparently.
If your family hails from the Illinois area, we could well be related.