WHAT: BLAZE: Operation Persian Trinity Book Signing and Cigar Event!
WHERE: Blaze Cigar House, 433 Saint John St. Havre De Grace, MD 21078
INFO: 443-388-0800 BlazeCigarHouse@yahoo.com
WHEN: Friday May 1st, 2015
TIME: High Noon until Midnight
WHY?:
1) Because its Havre De Grace’s first “First Friday” of the year and the town will be hopping
2) Because when else to you get to buy a great spy novel signed by its author at a new cigar shop that share the same name as the novel’s main character?
3) Because your signed copy of the book is only $8 if you buy a cigar
4) Because I’d love to have a cigar and a drink with you and kick off the month of May
“My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.”
- Winston Churchill
In my novel BLAZE: Operation Persian Trinity, a fictional cigar lounge in Toledo, Ohio is converted into a CIA safe meeting room. The lounge is owned by a fictional charismatic, comedic Lebanese tobacconist named Butros who reckons that providing the safe room was “the least he could do” for his friend, CIA director Chuck Gallagher. Butros then figures that the most he could do would be to “provide some free cigars and top shelf liquor when those meetings occurred.”
I don’t know if Winston Churchill ever enjoyed cigars and fine liquor with the CIA, but I’d imagine he would’ve been comfortable doing so. Given his legacy, I’m sure he’d comfortably wallow in and persistently produce bellowing clouds of premium cigar smoke for an extended period of time in such a meeting if a meal was also involved.
On May 1st, the onset of Havre De Grace, Maryland’s “First Friday” tradition, the BLAZE CIGAR HOUSE will be hosting yours truly for an all day event of book signing, booze sipping, and fine cigar smoking. Winston Churchill will be likely often invoked and recalled, but not present, outside of maybe one’s belief in lingering ghosts.
Your humble, yet proud, young entrepreneurial tobacconist will not be a comedic Lebanese fictional character, but instead, the passionate lover of the leaf, one Mr. Ray Leak. The cigars will not be free, but your signed copy of BLAZE: Operation Persian Trinity will be discounted if you purchase a cigar.
Ray’s character-rich cigar house rests seductively in front of a gorgeous view of the Chesapeake Bay that can be visually accessed by one by sitting on Ray’s divinely spacious back deck—when weather does not seek to interrupt.
Inside, you will find comfortable leather seating, a strategically stocked humidor full of fine cigars, and accommodations for all your BYO libation catering needs.
Outside, you will be a part of the procession of cabin fever weary townies and tourists eager to shake off winter and celebrate the first day of the annual “First Friday” unique to Havre De Grace, Maryland. Washington, St. John and Franklin streets will be closed to traffic. You’ll see market stalls lining the street. You’ll hear street musicians charm your ears. Stores, cafes, and restaurants will entice your inner night owl by staying open later than normal.
And special events will be ubiquitous throughout the town, including the book signing of BLAZE: Operation Persian Trinity at the BLAZE CIGAR HOUSE. Stop by. Puff and rotate. Pour a few fingers. Buy a book. Get your BLAZE on in text and in tobacco.
