Book Tour Starts

Hello friends & family ~

It has been a busy last week getting prepared for my trip home, but now I am back and the book tour begins tomorrow.

My frist stop, interestingly enough, will be Franks County Market north of Elkhorn from 4-6pm. I am not quite sure where I will be inside, but come on in and find me and say hello.

I anxiously await this first event, because it will be a hopeful guage of how many people know about the book.

I may also be joined by a reporter from the Lake Geneva Regional News who is going to do a story about the book, which should be quite excting.

Next up on the tour is a stop at Deakin Isle in Elkhorn followed by Remember When in Delavan, both this coming Saturday.

I look forward to meeting old friends as well as new ones.

History Channel

Check your local listings once again, as I make another appearance as a featured extra on the History Channel series, "Man, Moment, Machine."

In this particular episode I helped shoot about five scenes in two different locations. The majority of the work that I did was on the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier currently docked in Alameda, California. A lot of the scenes were filled on the upper deck and in some bunk rooms on the carrier. In addition to that, I also filmed a very icy and cold scene which required me to be submerged in the Pacific Ocean in the middle of the night. We were re-creating scenes where members of the Doolittle bomber crew had crash landed short of Tokyo, Japan and were struggling to stay alive and crawl to shore or hop aboard an inflatable raft. It was so cold we had to wear wetsuits underneath the uniform, so my scene will show me (hopefully) as either a body floating perilously in the water as well as one that showed me struggling in the water until I flopped aboard a life raft. I am curious to see how this episode turned out. Keep your eyes peeled.

I will be home this Friday and cannot wait to see everyone.

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Episode Details;
Man, Moment, Machine Doolittle's Daring Raid.

Tune In:Tuesday, August 16 @ 10pm ET/PT
It's 1942--the height of WWII. Bombers have never before taken off from an aircraft carrier, but the moment has come. Daredevil pilot Jimmy Doolittle and his handpicked squadron train for a one-way mission using modified B-25s. They're on a mission to bomb Tokyo, avenge Pearl Harbor, and hopefully bring an end to the war. There is not enough fuel for them to land safely. They know they will either make history, or die trying. In this episode, host Hunter Ellis examines The Man--celebrated pilot Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle; The Machine--the B-25 Bomber; and The Moment--Doolittle's dramatic raid on Japan.

Reflecting

I went running after work along the Embarcadero, which is the street that leads past the bay between the Bay Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf. It put me in quite a reflective mood lately, on where I am hoping to go from where I am now. I have to say that I am really happy with the past year. I got to travel to Europe with Jon Amon and see Martin in Slovakia. I learned so much and saw so many new things that it changed my life. I also am lucky to be working, even though it gets stressful sometimes and I am happy to finally be living in San Francisco. I moved there last week in an area known as the Sunset. It is quite the foggy region of the city and I actually have yet to see the sun shine or even set for that matter. There could be no sun and I wouldn't know the difference. I only see it when I get off the subway in front of my office.

Anyhow, I will be coming home this next week on Friday, August 19. Words cannot describe how excited it will be for me to see my mom, dad, friends and other strangers for whom it has been far too long passing that I have crossed your paths. Living on the West coast sure is nice sometimes, but their is no feeling like returning to a place you love so much and one inhabited by so many great people. This weekend on Saturday it looks like I will be seeing Dave Matthews at SBC Park in downtown San Francisco so that should be great. Oh and I watched the History Channel last night. If you couldn't see me, it was tougher than I thought. I was perched on a lookout lifting a pair of binoculars and it may be tough to notice, but it is in the first twenty minutes of the hour-long show. They cut the other scenes, but next week on Tuesday at the same time, the show I appeared most in will be airing, so I hope to have better luck spotting myself and hoping I didn't end up on the floor of the cutting room.

Also - I have amended the tour dates along the right side of the page. There should be a few more that will pop up there in the coming days. I am hoping to land a date in Lake Geneva since it is so close to Elkhorn and one in Milwaukee, but we shall see and I shall keep you posted. Other than that the most exciting date to keep track of will be Tuesday, August 30 at the Matheson Memorial Library. At 6pm, I will be giving a chat and reading from the book about the history of the fair, and the process by which the book was created. I am using this event as a way to hopefully connect with as many friends and family as I can so spread the word and help fill the library up the night before the fair!

Also, for those looking for new music check out a guy by the name of Sufjan Stevens. He is an amazing singer from Brooklyn who is undergoing a massive project to create a CD for every single state in the country. So far he has completed Michigan and just released Illinois. They are well-researched songs that dive into the bluegrass, folk and Americana genres and then some. They also are accompanied by brass on some songs and it is just a great musical experience. Ill have to write more about the music that has been inspring lately.

Other than that I hope this post finds you well, and that life is going well wherever you may be!

Cheers and keep in touch!

History Channel Premiere Tuesday, August 9

Taylor will appear on the History Channel tomorrow night in a new series, "Man, Moment, Machine." The show will begin at 8pm Central time/10pm Pacific time; check your local cable provider for specific channel information.

The show was produced and filmed in Northern California throughout the last year and will be a regular player in the fall lineup of shows for the History Channel. The pilot episode, "The Great Sub Rescue" was actually filmed more than a year ago aboard the USS Pampanito located at Fisherman's Wharf in downtown San Francisco.

Taylor plays a sailor aboard the submarine, Sqaulus, which malfunctioned and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The only hope of being saved was a new invention which could help rescue the crew from below the surface as it sat on the ocean floor.

Taylor will also be a featured extra in dramatizations played out in three additional episodes of the series. One of the most exciting, and definitely the most interesting to film featured him as a crew member of one of the Doolittle Raid bombers who used modified B-25s to infiltrate and bomb Tokyo in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. It required him to actually film in the dark ocean water with a life raft (and the use of a wet suit underneath the costume)...a very cold experience.

Check their website for more information - http://www.historychannel.com

Stay tuned for further updates of Taylor's television appearances!

Where to Buy the Book?

So you are wondering where you can see or buy the book? After the first week of publication, the book can be purchased at the following locations. It is also most likely going to be available at Borders and Barnes & Nobles in the Milwaukee area, so that would include locations in Greendale, Brookfield Square, Mayfair Mall and Greenfield since its proximity to Elkhorn on the southwestern edge of Milwaukee.

Book on sale at these locations in Elkhorn:
Frank's County Market- Elkhorn / 262-723-2996
Pharmacy Station- Elkhorn / 262-723-6466
Deakin Isle, Ltd.- Elkhorn / 262-723-2909
Walworth County Fair (fair office & sold Aug. 31-Sept. 5 at the fair) -Elkhorn /262-723-3228

Lake Geneva Locations:
Breadloaf Bookshop- Lake Geneva / 262-248-9446

Delavan Locations:
Remember When- Delavan / 262-728-8670
Jan's Hallmark- Delavan / 262-728-6528
The Cobblestone Peddler- Delavan / 262-728-7860

Tour should be finalized by Wednesday, so check back, and again...the success of this book depends on you; so spread the word!

Also -- feel free to write anytime or leave a comment on this site.