An Evening With Franz Wisner

Some months ago, my book club read Franz Wisner's Honeymoon with My Brother. We met in a small studio apartment which belonged to one of the girls and it was roasting hot with a dozen of us crammed in there. Despite my having received assurances and a phone number from Franz that he would happily speak to the club, when we called him, there was no answer. It was so hot, we all pretty much wanted out, so we all packed up and headed for the hills. When Franz called back a scant few minutes later, we were gone and the hostess wasn't answering, for fear it was a telemarketer. Franz hastily sent me several emails, but because I was an hour's drive away from my computer, I didn't receive the messages until the next day.

Still, I am impressed by Franz's dedication. Through these past months, he's checked in with me to see about rescheduling. When that didn't work, he recently emailed me to personally invite the club to his book signing in Bethesda last night. While honestly none of us was very keen on Honeymoon, I was won over by Franz's dogged persistence in the matter and corralled several gals to attend the signing with me. Four of us attended in all.

Franz introduced himself right off the bat and shook hands with all of us. He was most engaging and quite outgoing and wrapped me in a big hug when I introduced myself. The talk about his new book, How the World Makes Love, was intriguing as well. So intriguing that I wound up breaking my rule about "No more of Franz's books!" and I wound up buying a copy. Franz autographed it "To Susan, a toast to the mighty book club! Franz Wisner" and Lauren grabbed a photo of us. Franz also autographed a bookmark for baby Dottie, who was attending her first signing ever.

[I started the last night and am really enjoying it so far.]

Franz wrapped me in another hug and got his travel companion and brother Kurt to come and stand for a picture with us as well.



I have been to many, many book signings, but this is one of the tops--I enjoyed it so much. His personality and humor convinced me to buy a book I might not otherwise have and I was impressed that not only did he know who I was and why I was there, but that he had kept in touch these long months. Go author!