Before the evening appearance in Princeton, we were met for dinner by Stephen Youll (cover artist for most of our Dune novels, my Seven Suns novels, and my Star Wars anthologies) and his wife Jamie (who created the original cover design for House Atreides and the nine subsequent books).  We ate in a small Indian restaurant in downtown Princeton.  The heat and humidity were oppressive, and by the time we got to the store for the signing, Brian and I were both drooping, and the fans in the audience were fanning themselves furiously.  Dave and C’Anna Bergman-Hill, a couple that Brian had met on his cross-country Amtrak trip, also came out to see us give the talk.  It is always nice to see friends in the audience, and very often it is a pleasant surprise.

The next morning a driver picked us up and drove us to Fort Dix, NJ, where we did a signing in the PX. Two thousand soldiers had just returned from deployment and in a few days, two thousand more were ready to ship out.  We met many military fans who bought a copy of The Winds of Dune to take with them overseas to the desert.  We signed 180 copies of the book in the two hours we were there.

Our driver, Byron, and our Philadelphia-area media escort both pulled out all the stops and did service for us above-and-beyond the call of duty.  I had talked ahead of time with Joan, the media escort, and asked if she could help arrange for getting some laundry done.  On this tour, traveling to a different city each day, we would arrive in the hotel mid-afternoon and then leave the next morning; I hadn’t yet found a hotel that could do an express turnaround in a few hours.  So, after dropping us off at the hotel, our driver took a bag of dirty shirts and slacks off to Joan’s apartment and she arranged to get them cleaned before we needed to change for the evening event at the Philadelphia Free Library. 

Another telephone interview in the afternoon, and then off to the Barnes & Noble across the square from the hotel to sign their stock and meet the staff.  I took a shower, ate an early dinner, then met Joan in time to get my clean clothes. 

Brian had a complicated day, and didn’t have time to change into his best clothing or eat dinner.  With Joan’s help, he arrived at the signing with five minutes to spare, having just finished a sandwich for dinner in the front seat.

At the beautiful, enormous library building we met Darrell Schweitzer, who would interview us for the event.  Brian and I spent an hour on stage, being interviewed by Darrel and answering questions from the audience, and then we signed books in the main lobby of the library.

As a very pleasant surprise, Brian’s friends Tad, Khadija, and Sean Dodds arrived with a big box of books to be signed.  Sean had grown up reading the Junior Jedi Knights and Young Jedi Knights novels, and now is a huge Dune fan; he has joined the Navy and is stationed in Florida; his parents have moved to Pennsylvania and drove more than two hours to see us.  Khadija is Moroccan from the city of Meknes, which Rebecca and I visited during our tour of Morocco.  (Meknes has had a big influence on some of the Dune novels; historically, one of the leaders Iblis — whose name we used in the Butlerian Jihad series — dug large swimming pools so that his desert fighters could learn to swim before they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in their invasion of Spain…an event that we drew upon for a scene in Paul of Dune.)  After the signing, we had another surprise waiting for us—the Dodds had brought a home-made Moroccan feast for us in the back of their car.  Brian had often told me stories about Khadija’s cooking, and she had brought a large container of freshly made tajine chicken with wonderful spices, olives, and raisins.  Standing behind the car in the dark streets at the rear of the Philadelphia library, we broke bread and ate with our fingers in true Moroccan style.  A very memorable evening and very suitable on our Winds of Dune tour.

KJA & BH