Back from the book tour. . .back to reality!

   The build up to the launch of a book can be darn exciting. A long time ago I use to compare it to the anticipation a couple must feel waiting for the baby to arrive...(then I became a father and that analogy was dumped, the arrival of my daughter was far more exciting...and scary, and at least there are no critics lingering in the wings!)
 
   The day after it is over? Well...I slept....and unlike having a new born in the house, you really can sleep.
 
   A few thoughts now a week later. First off a thank you to all who anticipated the arrival of the book and helped to put it into the number eleven slot as a New York Times best seller. Whenever I see a listing like that, I think back to an English professor in college, sarcastically telling me I could never pass her composition class and should drop out of school and join the army since I had expressed pro-military ideas in her class  (yeah there were those types definitely around back then too, so Kerry and now Stephen King are not alone with their ignorant comments about our proud military.) I wonder if that English prof, I can’t remember her name, just the fact that she tended towards purple mini skirts and tights...it was frightful to behold...might have seen the Times and my unusual last name made a connection. A sweet thought!
 

   But seriously, there were a couple of days of just sleeping. Frankly, I have no idea how Newt maintains his schedule and energy. I got home, he was still out there touring for the book and already peppering me with emails about what we do next.
 
   That is always the fun part of doing the book tour with Newt, there’s a lot of drive time in between events, and that is usually when we start hashing out further steps. We’re talking not just about book three, but all the way out to books five and six already. Both of us are great fans of the Hornblower series and the Aubrey series...both of which went well past a dozen titles...and we wish it had been twenty more. Newt and I feel that there is such a vast scope for what we can write about, and from that derive a better understanding of how profoundly complex our current situation in Asia is, that we definitely will continue this series well into the future...though at times we might side line to another idea for a book or two.
 
   One fun part of coming back was just doing a signing and talk at my college. My students are use to dealing with me as the prof up front talking about history, and it was fun to share instead what it is like to write a book with Newt. We had our commencement ceremony this weekend and after it was over, two folks I didn’t know, came up to me, one carrying Days of Infamy, delighted to have a chance to talk about it. The really funny part was when all of us professors were lining up before the ceremonial march, looking like peacocks in our cool robes (I jokingly tell people I went for my Ph.D. because I grew up Catholic, was an altar boy and as an adult suffered from a severe case of robe envy, and thus had to get the Ph.D. so I could get the great looking robes.)   Anyhow, a professor, from one of our other campuses was standing next to me, someone introduced us, he repeated my name a few times, his eyes lit up, and next thing I knew, he was pumping my hand, telling me how much he enjoyed all the books I’ve done with Newt. So those are fun moments. The real business though is now getting back to the computer, sitting down, trading emails with Newt, and looking forward to a long summer of writing, and rewriting, and rewriting. If all goes according to schedule, we should have the next installment of our story out the same time next year. In our heads already, Yamamoto is struggling for political survival and pushing his demand for an "America first" offensive, and Commander Stubbs  (character based on the real engineering officer of CVN 71 the T.R.) continues the fight to keep “Enterprise” afloat while Halsey tries to reach the safety of the West Coast.
 
   One of the other pleasures of getting back to my mountains of North Carolina was that my WWII plane was waiting for me. The day after I got back, I took her up for a relaxing peaceful flight, for once not doing any “experiential research” of chasing trains, just floating between some early morning clouds which always reminds me of the poem “High Flight,” and the great line “dancing on laughter silvered wings.” It does remind me that yes, World War II in the air was a deadly, frightful thing, but there must have been moments, for all pilots of such birds, as they climbed through the clouds, that they did indeed feel as if they could reach out “and touch the face of God.” Those of you who fly, or dream of flying, know what I mean.
 
  
Sincerely,
 

Bill Forstchen