Adventures on the CBS Early Show

by Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack

The book tour for A Version of the Truth kicked off with a much coveted spot on the CBS Early Show.The producer read the book and liked it enough to contact our publisher and ask us to appear on the Dec. 27^th show.This was cause for much elation.

Preparations were made,airline and hotel reservations, hair and make-up appointments. New York during the Christmas season. Festive. Huge crowds. Lots of snow and ice. We arrived on Dec26^thready for action. The publicists from Random House had graciously interrupted their family vacations to escort us to the CBS studio. We didn't sleep much the night before. Excitement mixed with fear. We were to be picked up at 7:15AM, camera ready.

At exactly 6AM a hair stylist arrived to try to comb my mangled mess into some kind of order. At exactly 6:30 AM, a make-up person, friend of my son's, arrived to paint our faces. By exactly 7AM, Jennifer and I had never looked so good. We put on our carefully planned camera outfit. No prints that would strobe. I never imagined my wardrobe was filled with so many strobing patterns but there you are. I chose a black suit. A safe but funereal choice.

We arrived at the studio at exactly 7:45AM and were taken to the Green Room. We waited with an MTV personality who was very personable. He laughed. We laughed. He told jokes. We told jokes. We were scared shitless. At 8AM we were escorted into the studio. Mikes were carefully attached to our clothes. Sound check. Five minutes until air. And then Bhutto was assassinated.

All programming was preempted. A tragedy of immense proportions and I found unseemly, selfish thoughts creeping into my head regarding the timing of the occurrence. But then, sanity returned. We stood there for a few minutes in shock and saddened by the loss. We began to gather our things when a producer approached telling us there was a hole in the 8:30 hour tomorrow and could we come back.Could we! I think we might be able to squeeze that into our schedules.

Another sleepless night. The next morning, like Ground Hog Day, at exactly 6AM a hair stylist arrived to try to comb my mangled mess, at exactly 6:30AM, a make-up person arrived, at exactly 7AM--you get the picture.

Thankfully, the anchor, Maggie Rodriguez liked the book, gave it a big plug and the interview went splendidly. And so it begins--as T.S Eliot says about life, but could be applied to book tours,"Here we go round the prickly Pear..".