OK, the heart palpitations begin now. We are a little bit more than two weeks out from the publication of The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini. I’m doing a bunch of media, which should start pushing out shortly. The reviews are beginning to come in, and while I try not to worry about reviews, they have been pretty great, and this one from Library Journal is particularly lovely.

I’m beginning to check my Amazon number, which — as the saying goes — is no way to live. But it’s a hard trap to avoid.

I’m trying out different pens to see which kind will be the best for signing this particular book. This may sound silly, but different pens work better for different books, depending on the texture and color of the pages. I believe (so far) that this book is best signed by a Sharpie though experimentation continues.*

*I actually do a cool Sharpie magic trick, I’ll have to see if I can work that one in.

And I’m looking over my schedule and beginning to think: Hey, I’m going to be pretty busy.

In the middle of all of this, Margo and I decided we should throw a special event here in our hometown of Charlotte before the mania fully hits. Well, I say “in the middle of all this,” but realistically, we thought of it way too late. We should have planned this event a month ago.

But we didn’t. We thought of it, like, three days ago. Still, because Margo is relentless and with the help of a few good friends, we are now throwing a World Premiere Houdini Bash on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the theater at Providence Day School in Charlotte. The address and details are available here.

This will be an amazing evening. I’ll talk Houdini with our dear friend, the brilliant author, podcaster and legendary Charlotte newspaper columnist Tommy Tomlinson. And, thanks to the good folks at Avid Reader Press and Park Road Books, we will be selling copies of The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini five days before it is available in bookstores. I mean, this is pretty cool. And I will stay afterward to sign them.

There might be just a little magic performed as well. We shall see.

The event is free, by the way. I mean, obviously I think you will want to buy a book or five books or 20 books, but that’s entirely up to you. Either way, we would love to see you out there.

You can RSVP here. Or, if you prefer using Facebook, you can click here.

Tickets are going fast. I have no idea if this is actually true, but it’s the thing you’re supposed to say. This, as of right now, will be my only North or South Carolina Houdini appearance before Thanksgiving so I definitely hope you can make it.

Question I just totally made up: “Hi! We live in Charleston, S.C. That’s a three-hour drive away! Is it worth it for us to make that sort of drive?”

Answer: Yes!

Oh, and as always, please remember if you cannot make it to Charlotte or any of the book events that are constantly being updated, Rainy Day Books in Kansas City is offering a special deal where if you preorder — that means buying the book before Oct. 22 — I will sign that book AND inscribe it with anything you like. We might have to do a video of me doing the signing because I’m told that orders are pouring in and the inscription requests are, let’s just say, interesting. Please remember that the author reserves the right to reject any inscription request that is inappropriate or offensive, so any requests demanding that I praise Billy Joel will be denied.