BOOKSIGNING PARTY AT THE SPY MUSEUM IN WASHINGTON DC FOR “THE UNEXPECTED SPY”; MORE ON MY OWN “PITCH-FEST” SITUATION
FEBRUARY 27, 2020 JBOUSHKA@AOL.COM LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT
On Wednesday, February 26. 2020 I went to an Author book-signing party at the Spy Museum in Washington DC, with author Tracy Walder, author of “The Unexpected Spy” (The Free Press, 2020). The cowriter is Jessica Anya Blau. The subtitle is “From the CIA to the FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World’s Most Notorious Terrorists”.
Ms. Walder started working for the CIA at age 21 on September 10, 2001. She worked at various stations in the Middle East, including Afghanistan after 9/11 (operations similar to what Sebastian Junger has written about). She also had to take a “gray” attitude toward the WMD issue with Saddam Hussein in the Bush years/ In 2005, she went to work for the FBI, which has a similar culture, because she wanted more stability. She and her family live in Dallas, TX.
The author was born with “floppy baby syndrome”, which she outgrew, but which might be related distant to the dyspraxia that I experienced.
She was asked by one person, what are the biggest threats today. Her answer included a failure of Fail Safe, or the intentional introduction of a bioweapon, like through an air vent. (No mention was made of the coronavirus epidemic. This was one of the last major group indoor events in DC I would attend, despite the cancellation of the California trip -- before the lockdowns.)
I did a quick 2-minute pitch of my book “Angel’s Brother” (from a microphone). I said that it depicts a now middle-aged man in Dallas, working as an AP history teacher in high school, but detailed to the CIA as a followup on his time in military intelligence working on bioweapons. He is bisexual but married to a woman. Before DADT is repealed, he is “asked” to move to civilian employment in the same job, but the encouraged to work covertly. When evidence of a bizarre virus appearing first at spots in mountain states in the US and tending to recur in the same patients in an odd fashion (the latter has actually happened now with the coronavirus) the protagonist (“Randy”) starts traveling around the world and meets a college kid who may be an alien and know what the final outcome of this virus will be.
This sounds a bit chilling now.
I expected to read the book soon and put a formal review on my Media Commentary channel.
I wanted to also make a comment on the Los Angeles pitchfest, which I could not attend by plane (as I have explained before), but discussed on Feb. 17. I’ve had some discussions by phone. The general impression is that I should fix the screenplay to match the treatment exactly, and complete one of the courses (Tyler Mowery has one) to study the expectations from a professional-looking submissions, and then go through the publisher again as an agent. I am looking at this seriously and could get going in early March, all online, no travel (especially now).
I might very well consider making a pitch for a documentary on the idea of ending the Selective Service System, including other issues (national service, filial responsibility, jury, elections, quarantines and isolation).
The Spy Museum has moved from F St to a new facility near L’Enfant Plaza but it is hard to get to on foot from 7th St.
(Posted: Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 12 noon)