It's the event you've been waiting for. Mark your calendars. Reschedule your vacations. And tell your parole officer where you'll be.
Because the First International Ask Vance Book Signing will take place on Tuesday, September 13th, at The Booksellers at Laurelwood (formerly known as Davis-Kidd). The event starts at 6 p.m.
My first book (humbly called Ask Vance: The Best Questions and Answers from Memphis Magazine's History and Trivia Expert) included more than 50 columns culled from the magazine between 1995 and 2003. The second volume — with the equally catchy title of Ask Vance: MORE Questions and Answers from Memphis Magazine's History Expert — picks up where that one left off, with 60 double-page columns published between 2003 and the present day.
Do you know everything there is to know about our city's "Monster of Ceremonies" who's quite possibly the best-known Memphian after Elvis Presley? Or the eccentric "monkey man" who terrorized motorists in Midtown? How about the federal government's completely insane plan to protect all of us from the dreaded "H-Bomb"? Or the Memphis lawyer who opened a Poplar Avenue restaurant and then adorned it with a 14-foot-tall spotlighted version of his own head? Do you remember the go-go dancers at a local nightclub who caused a sensation — and landed themselves in court — with a sexy move they called "the Gravy Train"? Well, the new book covers all these fascinating stories, and a whole lot more.
Fully indexed, and illustrated with vintage photos, postcards, matchbook covers, and all sorts of other images, it is — quite frankly — a bargain at $24.99. That's a bargain, but my personalized inscription and autograph will make it priceless.
The first book will also be for sale too. Buy both, and I'll sign both. Really, what more could you ask for?
