The Borders staff in Farmington Hills, Michigan was busy adding additional seating for the fans and friends who turned out to hear Jill and me during our kick-off signing event for The Book of Names.

It was a day of flurried phone calls, with the signing on again, off again after the ice storm that had hit the area several days prior decided to sneak up on the strip mall early in the day to knock out Borders' (and every other tenant's) electricity just as everyone else's power in town was being restored.

But by evening, Borders Books and the reception there was warm. Jill and I read a short section of the book and shared how we came to write about the Lamed Vovniks. We fielded fans' questions about the book, about how we work together and our work-in-progress.

By evening's end, we'd autographed Borders' entire stock of The Book of Names and the staff was happily ordering more.