I used to hate book signings, and shied away from readings. It's not that I'm bashful. Actually, I've been a public speaker all my adult life and can ham it up with the best of them....off the top of my head and without notes. Crowds don't intimidate me. But when it comes to reading from my own books, I flounder a bit.
Selling myself as a writer is hard. I'm more charismatic in print than I am in person. I've even tried to schmooze an attractive friend into making personal appearances and pretending to be me. Darn it, she refused.
In September a book reading is scheduled at the Blue Rapids Mercantile. My sisters call it "the Merc" because they enjoy giving everyone, everything, and every place nicknames. The Mercantile is a very cool place, with the personality of an old time general store. You could wander for hours there, checking out all the antiques, collectibles, and gifts on display. Blue Rapids is a small northeast Kansas town on the Blue River, nestled into a broad valley and rolling hills. I'll be reading from My Name is Esther Clara.
Esther Clara -- my grandma -- loved Blue Rapids so it's fitting that I'll be reading from her book there. I need to choose several interesting passages to read. Everyone likes the chapter where she burns the outhouse down at age five. Me, I like the time she and her siblings dyed their father's prize winning geese green, the time they "helped" the rooster get drunk on Pa's home made wine, or when she nearly killed the hogs by scraping pepper she'd spilled into the slop bucket. Reading those passages, I could ham it up big!
Guess I'll think about it some more. Wish me luck with the reading.
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About Me
- Laurel Johnson
- I enjoy good writing by writers and poets who are not famous. My mother said I was born a hundred years too late. The older I get, the more I realize how right she was.
3 comments:
U should give the date of the BR funtime....folks from alll over should plan to attend just to say they have been to Blue Rapids Kansas..gateway to Tuttle Creek..and of course buy the Esther Clara book.It will be far more interesting and entertaining then the middle sister turning 60!!!
So have you decided what part you are going to read? I think you could pick nearly anywhere in the book and read and it would still be good.
Ah, I see Mr. Fabulous dropped by. One of the more insanely popular bloggers around the blogosphere :oP
I hope Little Seester can go to the book signing in Blue Rapids.Little town with lots of history and nice people.Everyone should buy Easter Clara a wonderful book about onery antics that Gma and her brothers got into.I am PROUD of you.Love Pami
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