eric nuzum dot com

I'm a Washingtonian favorite

Washington Monument
Originally uploaded by DistortedReflections

So much is going on this week it is impossible to keep up. This week I'm doing 24 interviews and 3 events--all in six days. I'll try to post some links when I have a chance (especially the New York Times, CNN, and USA Today pieces).

Here's one worth sharing--an interview I did with Washingtonian's "Capital Comment" blog.

From the slightly hyperbolic introduction:

Eric Nuzum doesn’t find himself in unsettling situations—like spending a night locked in a hotel suite with a ghost or trying to meet up with a self-declared vampire at a deserted park in the middle of the night—by chance. It’s his choice. He actively engages in questionable behavior, full throttle, never stopping to second-guess himself—and his stories (if not always he himself) are all the better for it.

Here's a link to the whole interview (including some almost-distasteful comments about missing your hands and feet)

Come out to tonight's reading!

dog_vampire
Originally uploaded by carlsoje

Don't forget! If you are in the DC area and want to see one of my readings--this will be the last one for about two years.

Plus with everything going on the world, laughing at me would probably be a welcome distraction.

It's at the Georgetown Barnes & Noble at 7:30.

I'll be bringing plenty of free vampire protection kits for everyone who shows.

Afterward, there will be beers and bullshiting across the street at Garrett's Railroad Tavern.

Hope to see you there!

More info here.

New guest post at PoP: Help! I have an ethical dilemma!

Keys I found
Originally uploaded by ericandkatherine

I have a new guest post at Prince of Petworth today, asking for help dealing with a dilemma that's dropped in my life over the past few weeks: what to do with a found set of keys.

Quote:

When I’ve asked others about what I should do, everyone first scolds me for picking them up in the first place. They say I should have just left them there, which is also no good. I mean, who is to say that the next person to happen across them would be so honest and neighborly. Who is to say they wouldn’t go around the neighborhood trying to stick the keys in every lock…and then steal the contents…and then spray paint a big “fuck you” on whatever they unlocked…and then it would all be my fault because I hadn’t picked up the stray keys.

Feel free to add in your 2 cents--or 2 keys--or whatever.

Here's the link to the full thing.

Dispatch from my preteen diary

Welcome to a new occasional feature here--"Dispatch from my diary."

When I was 11, my mother gave me a pocket diary for Christmas--a little 4 x 5 inch canvas to capture my daily musings.

Now, when you are 11, not a lot happens. This was reflected in my diary, where, on at least half the pages, I simply wrote "Nothing happened today." But the other days contained thrilling adventures and events!! Adventures I will share here (when I have time to scan the pages).

I was really into the diary for awhile. That is until April 22nd, when I abandoned the diary for good.

While I remember the diary, I lost track of it a few years later. When I was in my 20s, the family that bought my parents house found it stuck in the corner of a crawl space and kindly mailed it to us.

For today's installment, I decided to share my diary entry from March 20th of that year.

The entry:

"At 12:43 today it was spring time. Before it, we had bad weather and after it was worst."

As you can see, this entry noted the deep irony involved in crappy weather on the first day of spring. Of course, at age 11, I had yet to cognate that Ohio weather sucks about 361 days a year.

March 20th was also my parents' wedding anniversary. Much like cyclical weather patterns, this seemed to be an event far beyond my 11-year-old interest or concern.

I wonder if, someday, I will post entries on this blog about the blog entries I did years before. Given my limited range of topics to discuss (dog poop, midgets, and vomit can only yield so much material), it will probably happen sooner rather than later. In fact, I'm already planning the blog post about this blog post.

Coming up in the next installment: January 24th!!

Tale of two Bills

My friend Matt sent me an email last night with two pieces of news from my home town.

The first was the death of William G Fry. I was fortunate enough when I was growing up to have several adults in my life who were "teachers" in the best sense of the word--Mr Fry was one of them. He was the youth director at the Canton Players Guild, which became my home away from home for many years. It wasn't so much that I loved theater as much as I simply loved being there. It was a collection of odd, interesting, and eccentric people--kids and adults. It was one of few places in my life were I felt that I "belonged." Some of those Players Guild weirdos had profound influences on me and who I've become.

Bill Fry was a weird kind of leader or teacher to this group. He was a teacher--as in instructor--in the traditional sense, but he also had a subtle way of giving you lots of freedom and opportunity, having very high expectations and standards, and was great at bringing people together.

I saw him a handful of times as an adult and he was always happy to see me and learn what I was doing with my life. Even though its been a long time since I saw him, I will miss him.

The other news, about a different Bill, concerns a kid I went to high school with. Seems this Bill, Bill Perry, is accused of decapitating his neighbor after some kind of bizarre argument/act of vandalism involving a broken electric meter. It seems Bill has had a quite unusual path since high school. Quoting from the Canton Repository:

The 41-year-old, twice-divorced Perry is an ex-Marine turned hairdresser, who'd spent more than four years in a Florida prison and been arrested at least five times before.

And I thought I'd lived an interesting life since high school. And I mean, who cares about an electric meter? Is that even something that qualifies as a "big deal"?

I have to admit, this is not the first person I've known who has been accused of murder. However, this is my first decapitation, so I guess there is a little bit of "pride" there, for lack of a better term.

How to get your own free vampire protection kit

Vampire Protection Kit, BLAH
Originally uploaded by revjim5000

Okay, here is how this will work. Several people have written asking about how they can get an official The Dead Travel Fast travel-sized vampire protection kit. There are two ways to make this happen:

1. Come to any of my events/readings this fall.
2. Through the mail.

While this is really meant for readers--if you haven't read my book, and really want one, that's fine too.

If you send a self-addressed stamped envelope with TWO postage stamps on it, I will send you an official The Dead Travel Fast travel-sized vampire protection kit--for free. Each contains a tiny cross, a tiny wooden stake, a vial of holy water (blessed by my friend Simon, a mail-order minister), garlic (in tablet form--good for fighting vampires and cholesterol), and a paper clip (nothing to do with vampires--always handy to have around).

Send your SASE (again, with TWO stamps on the return envelope) to:

Eric Nuzum
NPR
635 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001

I have a pile of them here, so feel free to send in your SASE. Plus, my wife will be happy when our basement no longer smells like garlic tablets!

And if you are ever attacked by a vampire while traveling--you'll have me to thank for saving your life.

A dedicated radio professional

New PoP guest post: If everything fell apart...what would you do?

Everything Falls Apart
Originally uploaded by shoes_on_wires

I guess I'm on a roll lately with the guest posts...

Today there is a new piece from me at Prince of Petworth with an intriguing question I posed to some friends at dinner the other night:

Imagine the economy gets bad...really bad. Imagine everything falls apart and you have to start over with nothing...what would you do with your life?

Quote:

As is the norm when I philosophize, my friends looked at me with a degree of puzzlement. “I mean, the ‘worst case scenario’ is scary, but it could also be looked at as total freedom. No expectations. No responsibility. Just a clean slate.”

“So if you had that–even if you got it via a terrible, frightening situation,” I continued. “What would you do with your life?”

[Link] to the whole thing--please feel free to add your own comments on what you'd do. I'm interested in hearing it.

The Joey Reynolds Show

Eric and The Amazing Kreskin
Originally uploaded by ericandkatherine

Last night I was in New York and appeared on The Joey Reynolds Show on WOR. Even though I've done the show before, it is an...unusual...set-up.

I show up at the studios of WOR in New York to tape the nationally syndicated late-night talk show, and the producer pulls me aside to share "the rules." She told me "Joey hasn't read your book or seen your book. He hasn't read the press release. Joey knows nothing about you. You should just go in there and talk. This isn't an interview show; it is a conversation show. Oh, and don't directly mention your book...he doesn't like it."

I sat there for 45 minutes before he even acknowledged me. It was a little weird. But eventually we got the conversation rolling.

However, the true highlight of the evening was my co-guest, the mentalist The Amazing Kreskin.

Kreskin had read my book and loved it--and while I think Joey had him on to talk about his visions of the future, he just talked and talked about how much he loved The Dead Travel Fast.

What a rad dude. What a fun time. If the only reward for writing books is getting meet guys like The Amazing Kreskin--then it is definitely worth it.

Washington City Paper

Vampire Love
Originally uploaded by iinemi

My favorite writer at the Washington City Paper, Angela Valdez, wrote a post on their blog about me, the current state of my new book, Bring Me to Heaven, and her thoughts on the paperback of The Dead Travel Fast...

Quote:

"...I expected little more than an entertaining gift book. I made this assumption (a bad habit of mine) even though I already knew Nuzum was an intelligent and curious guy. And he had invited me to his birthday party. Also in attendance were: an Elvis impersonator from Potomac and the ashes of Nuzum’s cat. It takes a kind of mischievous fortitude to celebrate a shitty year (death of cat) by serenading your friends with a man in sequins."

[Link]