Bethanne Patrick

Eric Nuzum, Hallo-weenie
October 30, 2007

What is up with me? I was out on a school night again. This time, it was because I wanted to check out the new Olsson's Crystal City location. (See, things happen here in DC. They do!)

Plus, there was free pizza. (Not just any free pizza -- Roberto Donna pizza, from Bebo Trattoria down the block.)

The last, but definitely not least, reason I went out was to hear Eric Nuzum talk about The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula. (What, you thought it would be the new Tolstoy translation? C'mon, it's Hallowe'en... )

                                                         

Isn't his book jacket fabu? He told us that the illustration is by the same artist who designed the contemporary Monopoly Man. 

Now, I could tell you lots about Olsson's (a clean, well-lighted place) and the pizza (salsiccia e broccoli, molto bene), but I want to spend my time here on Nuzum and his book, because, well, that's how the Book Maven rolls. There's a lot to tell (after all, the reading was well-attended, with about 15 people listening, including the requisite types: yawning man, fangrrl, earnest questioner, and pesky journo, i.e., me), but I'd like to relate the Story of Steve.

Nuzum, who decided to write his book one morning as he consumed a bowl of Count Chocula cereal, perused a newspaper article about Dracula, and saw a TV news item regarding vampires (the man took the hint), wanted to imbue his vampire-stalking narrative with as much verity as possible. He was determined to talk to a real person who considered himself a real vampire. After looking through several vampire chat rooms online, he rejected people with names like Bloodthirsty, Vlad III, and GarlicHtr and settled on a fellow called Steve.

Steve, as it happened, lives in the DC area and agreed to meet Nuzum in a park near the latter's Maryland home. "As I sat there, I fiddled with my cell phone," said Nuzum, miming his nervous rocking back-and-forth as the sky grew darker and the park creepier. "I'd told my wife that if I ever called and mentioned my friend Dave that that meant I was in trouble... but we never discussed what to actually do if I mentioned his name!" When a stranger's looming shadow spooked him, the otherwise-intrepid author "was home in, like, four seconds." Nuzum has never heard from Steve again...

(Of course, the first audience member to ask a question introduced himself as "Steve." BOO!)

Steve, in case you wanted to try and make it out to see Eric before his appearances are finished in the DC area, head over to Politics & Prose tonight at 7 p.m. for his reading and signing.

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on October 30, 2007 | Comments (2)