As I wrote last week, at almost the last moment before releasing my book 3500 I got an email from New York Times best-selling author Cory Doctorow saying he had read the book and enjoyed it. He was just starting his signing tour for his new book Homeland (the sequel to Little Brother), and he had read my manuscript while on the flight from London to Seattle. I was (and am!) very flattered by his endorsement of the book, and when I saw that his signing tour would bring him to Florida last Friday it was a no-brainer that Ben and I should go to the signing and say hello.

When I got Ben from school on Friday and told him we were going to the bookstore to meet Cory Doctorow, Ben immediately perked up and said, "Doctor!" You might think it's odd for him to be so excited, but Ben has been jazzed about going to see the doctor for years now - eversince his five-week hospital stay back in 2006. I think it is because he had been in so much pain for so long (a good six months before landing in the hospital), that he firmly associated doctors with finally taking away the agony in his gut from the bile stones and pancreatitis. Ever since then he has been enthusiastic about visiting the doctor at every opportunity.

As a matter of fact, at times that has been an issue. True story: He has been known to intentionally shove things in his ear so that we have to take him to Urgent Care in order to have a doctor carefully remove the foreign object. One time a few years ago I noticed Ben pulling at his ear and wondered if he had shoved something in there, so I took him to the local walk-in clinic for a quick look-see. The doctor there took a quick glance inside the ear canal with his otoscope, and stated that the problem was actually an ear infection. We left the clinic with a prescription for antibiotics and instructions to follow up with Ben's primary doctor if things did not clear up within ten days.

Two weeks later Ben was still pulling at his ear and the course of antibiotics was long gone. I made an appointment with Ben's pediatrician, and in due time we were sitting in Dr. Coffman's office waiting for an exam.  Ben was grinning ear-to-ear, overjoyed to be in the doctor's office. Meanwhile I was moderately concerned, wondering if this was going to be the start of a new hospital adventure. When Dr. Coffman came in and I explained the recent history, he took out his otoscope and had a long look before starting to chuckle.

"What do you see?" I asked.

"Well," he laughed, "I can understand why the other doctor said Ben had an ear infection.  When I look inside it definitely looks very red. But it doesn't really look like an ear infection, it looks like a cartoon drawing of an infection. I think he actually has a little piece of rubber or something in there, pressed right up against his eardrum ..."

Because the foreign object was right up against the eardrum, Dr. Coffman was afraid to try to reach in with forceps to get it out. Instead, he used what essentially amounted to a squirt gun with a little rubber hose coming out of the end and into Ben's ear. As I cradled Benjamin's head against my chest to hold it still, and a nurse held a cup under the ear to catch the flowing water, the doctor squirted a steady flow of low-pressure water into Ben's ear in order to try to dislodge the unwanted piece of whatever-it-was. It took about three cups of water, with Benjamin giggling the entire time, but eventually a chunk of red rubber came floating out of the ear. This was not a tiny little piece of something, but a significant flat slab of rubber that must have come from a dismantled stretchy ball. It measured nearly a half inch square, and I was so impressed by its size that I just had to take a picture.



Although Ben thoroughly enjoyed his visit to the doctor, he was also visibly very happy to be able to hear normally again. He had been carrying around that giant thing against his eardrum for at least three weeks, and it must have been driving him insane.

So anyway, yeah, Ben loves going to see the doctor and that is why I had to carefully explain to him last Friday that, no, we weren't going to see the doctor but were instead going to meet someone named Cory Doctorow. Ben was a little unsure about that, but he does like a nice visit to the bookstore so that was enough to reassure him.

We arrived at the book signing just as it was starting, and as we walked into the room Cory was already up at the podium speaking. He saw us walking in, and paused to cheerfully say, "Hi, Ben!"

That tripped up Benjamin for a heartbeat, and when I prompted him to say hello he just kind of shyly muttered, "Sayhi ... " in one quick exhalation. I didn't want Ben to be a distraction for the other people who had come to the event, so I took him to a spot at the back of the room. As Cory spoke about technology and government overreach, I knelt on the floor next to Ben pulling up pictures on my iPhone from his favorite Disney scenes. One half of my brain tried to focus on the very serious conversation about the abuse of freedoms and invasion of privacy, the other half of my brain searched for images of Sorcerer Mickey turning brooms into bucket-carrying slaves. For his part, Ben spent the next hour being admirably quiet while asking for help and telling me what pictures he wanted to look at. I suppose I might have gotten more out of the reading if Ben hadn't been there, but really it was a pretty nice evening spent out in public.

Once the talk ended and the book signing began, I held back with Ben and let everyone else get their autographs. I knew that Ben wouldn't handle waiting in that line very well, so it was easier to just sit patiently off to the side. Every now and then Cory would glance over at us and give Ben a little smile and a wave. Finally the last of the line dwindled away, and the two of us came up to actually say hello.

Cory was very gracious, and not only signed my copy of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, but also signed the two poster-sized prints I had brought of my own book cover. I also brought him a final copy of the book to look at, and he complimented me on how nice it looked. Just this morning I placed a copy in the mail to him (I knew he wouldn't want to have to lug around yet another thing for the remainder of his tour). All in all we spent perhaps five minutes chatting, and although Ben was a bit shy around Cory at least there weren't any meltdowns or other disruptions.

In the end Ben seemed to enjoy the experience, and I was very pleased with how well he behaved in an unknown space around a large group of strangers. I continue to be impressed with how much more patient he has become, and how adept he has become at quietly entertaining himself in appropriate ways while waiting. It was a good visit, and well worth the time spent.

Cory Doctorow still has another week left on his book signing tour, and I can heartily recommend that you should go see him if you have the chance. I haven't read Homeland yet, but I am currently about halfway through Little Brother and liking it quite a bit. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.