For those in the Mooresville, Lake Norman area, I will be speaking at St. Therese Catholic Church on Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. The church is located at 217 Brawley School Road. This coming Saturday, at 7 p.m., I will be speaking at the Barnes & Noble at Friendly Center.

Looking to next month, I have book talks set for St. Thomas More in Chapel Hill on Nov. 1, at the High Point Friends of the Library on Nov. 4 and St. Paul the Apostle Church in Greensboro on Nov. 12. These are all evening events, around 7 p.m.

Book signings will follow each talk. Come on out!

Tomorrow night, a new and unique Triangle entertainment event comes to Greensboro — The Monti, an evening of storytelling. I was lucky enough to be part last month’s event in Chapel Hill, and will take part again. There’s a wonderful lineup of storytellers, including Greensboro singer songwriter Molly McGinn (fresh off her success in Triad Stage’s “Bloody Blackbeard“), Greensboro fiction writer Quinn Dalton, as well as Jeff Polish, founder of The Monti.

Starts at 7:30 p.m. at The Underground, 1720 Battleground Ave. Tickets are $7. Details here. We’ll be done before Biden’s speech, promise!

UPDATE: News & Record praise for The Monti is here.

Tonight at The Monti in Chapel Hill, I will tell the story of my Uncle Tony and how he came to find and meet his long-lost aunt during World War II in Chorio, the Calabrian village where his father was born. There’s a side story that I won’t tell but is in my book, and it centers on Rina Catanoso, the lovely Italian woman on the left. She remembered the day in 1944 when Uncle Tony showed up in the piazza in Chorio and the commotion it caused. Two summers ago, she invited me to her home in Messina, Sicily, to share the story. Others pictured here include her husband, who was held as a POW by Americans during the war, as well as her three daughters and son-in-law. Next to me is Patrizia Catanoso, my cousin from Reggio.

The News & Observer wrote about the Monti on Sunday.

The Monti is a new organization in the Triangle region of North Carolina that “brings personal narratives and good old-fashioned storytelling to lives audiences.” This organization is the brain child of Jeff Polish of Durham. His first two events have been SRO, attracting more than 100 paying customers.

His third event is next Tuesday, July 22, at Spice Street in Chapel Hill. Tickets, $7 apiece, went on sale today. I’m lucky enough to be among the storytellers next week. Details are here. Jeff predicts another sell out.