Meeting a newly-minted author

It started with a notice for a book-signing that I saw at our library. It ended with my own, private audience with that author - - and his mother.
I believe in supporting new writers and other artists. If I were wealthy, I would become a patron of the arts, but as it is, I offer a wealth of praise and encouragement along with a few modest purchases. That's why I just had to meet the young man whose recently published novel I read last night.
I made telephone contact with the writer's mom, which sounds funny until you understand that the young man is a 2007 high school graduate. His book, Danger In the House, was published in October 2006. It isn't available anywhere but in my town because it doesn't even has the ISBN yet, but all that is in the works.
Danger In the House is a horror novel, not my usual choice. But Nicholas Brady's book provided me with chills and thrills and a certain spooky atmosphere on a soft summer evening. Young Nicholas has many writing basics in hand, and turned out several nifty phrases in his story of a haunted house and its new inhabitants. It was not scary enough to make me turn on every light in the house, but I consider that a plus as I'm a regular scaredy cat. His book is told from the perspective of the teenaged protagonist who finds herself struggling against possessed parents, ghosts and a malacious house while trying to protect herself and her hapless younger brother.
Ms. Brady, Nicholas' mother, provided his transportation to our meeting place yesterday. Her persistence won me over in deciding to buy the book. I had a pleasant chat with mother and son, asking the usual questions about inspiration, method and future plans. I was amused to see Ms. Brady superintend her son while he inscribed my book, telling him where and how to sign and what to say.
Nicholas has the potential to be a crowd-pleaser if he carries on his intention to major in writing arts when he enters college this autumn. In fact, I look forward to being scared by Nicholas many times more in the future.
(submitted by Moon Rani)