I've always enjoyed giving presentations on the drug war to law enforcement and military personnel because they tend to understand the issues and threats more deeply than the average person, just by the nature of what they do every day. So I was immensely looking forward to speaking here, despite the fact that my body was running on fumes after eight days of flight and hotel hopping.

The presentation itself went pretty well; just one small hiccup with one on my videos (no biggie). I was pretty woozy during the first hour, as my MS has a tendency to act up when I'm stressed out, overtired, or underfed - I was all three of these things that morning, and of course it had to hit me while speaking in front of a couple hundred cops! But I was able to recover and keep moving.

After the presentation, I went into the Expo area for my book signing, which went very well! I got to meet officers from several different state, local, and federal agencies, and collected several business cards in the process. I also made a few book sales to Expo vendors who hadn't even heard my presentation, and just stopped by my table to see what all the hubbub was about. I guess they find the subject interesting enough to pick up a copy!

Much to my pleasant surprise, I was told that a local Univision (Spanish language) and Fox affiliate was on its way to cover the event and interview me! I did the interview in both English and Spanish, and I was pretty happy to watch the video later and see that I didn't screw up the Spanish one too badly (according to my mom, anyway)! I get nervous about doing Spanish interviews because, even though I'm fluent, I grew up speaking it in a conversational at-home manner, and never really studied it formally. That means that words I usually use in interviews (weapons trafficking, drug smuggling, assault rifle, methamphetamine, etc.) don't exactly come easily to me in Spanish :). But I need the practice, as my agent is in the process of working a deal to get Cartel translated into Spanish, which means more interviews like this one!

Then it was time to head home, finally. I live in the St Louis area, and Thursday night was a big night in the city - Game Six of the World Series, which if any of you saw it, was an absolutely insane game. Our pilot actually deviated a little bit on the approach to Lambert Field so he could fly us directly over Busch Stadium during the 6th inning. That was cool! By the time I got off the plane, the Rangers were up 7-4 and I thought the Cards were done for. As we all know now, they may have been down, but obviously not out :). 

Overall, my book tour was an absolutely amazing experience! I'll offer some more thoughts about it and reflections in my next blog post, so stay tuned!