PR Newswire - November 2, 1995

More than a thousand people showed up unexpectedly at Lauriet's book store in one of Boston's very upscale malls yesterday afternoon. They came to meet author Frederick Lenz and get autographed copies of his novel, "Surfing The Himalayas," which is about an American athlete in Nepal who crashes his snowboard into a Buddhist monk.

BOSTON, Nov. 2 Supporters of the "Free Tibet" movement took the opportunity to get some attention for their cause and joined the crowd, waving "Free Tibet" placards in front of TV crews and still cameras.

Lauriet's ran out of the copies of the St. Martin's Press novel after ringing up 100 sales, so author Lenz signed all the snowboards, skateboards, surfboards and other people's books on snowboarding and Buddhism that the crowd thrust at him.

St. Martin's Press launched "Surfing The Himalayas" with a 100,000 copy first printing and the day of the booksigning went back to press for a second printing.

Disappointed people who got to the store too late to buy the book, joined the demonstrators in chanting "Free Tibet" as the author was hurried out the back door by store security personnel.

CONTACT: Linda Palmer of Warren - Cowan & Associates, 310-275-0777