I survived my Authors! Authors! appearance. I know I worried about it too much and spent too much time preparing for the lecture, but I am extremely pleased how everything worked out in the end.
I posted two blog entries featuring The Blade's coverage of my talk (see the 2 previous entries).
I've spoken many times about my book, including 500 or so at a Rotary Club meeting, but this one was different and I felt pressure to deliver on many fronts.
I realized that the people who were coming this night were coming specifically to hear me talk, and they paid their $10 to see me, not to attend a luncheon meeting that coincidentally featured my talk.
I spent about 20 hours preparing for a one-hour talk. I typed out almost an entire speech, word for word, then refined it, then pared it down, then outlined it, then revised the outline numerous times... And then, during the talk itself, I found that the pacing was not going right so I ended up scrapping parts of it and just winging it at time.
Which was good, because I definitely wanted to avoid doing the boring "read-from-the-printed-page" kind of speech that puts everyone to sleep. I made a point to just talk freely with some improvisation and a few jokes.
I also spent a lot of time getting a PowerPoint presentation ready for the talk. I never really use PowerPoint and although it's fairly easy to do at the basic level, I kept it simple and didn't try to do anything fancy.
But I am sure the photos added a lot to the talk
So I may have been overprepared, but it was not a waste of time. You never know what kind of questions are going to be asked from the audience and I am always looking to know more about this amazing topic.
A typical Authors! Authors! event draws 250 to 300 people, so I was thrilled to have nearly 600 for mine (The Blade said 550 but library officials said there were 600).
The biggest crowds in the series' 14 year history of the series were 1,450 for Nicholas Sparks and 1,600 for the author of The Kite Runner (can't remember his name), but I didn't expect to match up with those literary stars. Not yet anyway!
My worst-case scenario nightmare was either having an ice storm hit Toledo that night, or just general apathy about the topic and seeing only my family and close friends in the audience. I was thrilled by the actual turnout -- and so were the library folks, who paid me a decent stipend for the speech. I wanted to make sure I earned my keep for this event, and did not want the library to lose any money.
So I'm very glad how everything worked out. It was really a highlight that I will never forget. Afterward, my family and I went out to celebrate at ... Waffle House. (We went to Bob Evans but it was closed, so we went across the street to the elegant five-star Waffle House. OK, a crazy choice but it was fun.)
Now I can breathe a sigh of relief and get working on promoting the paperback, which comes out on Friday. Hey Larry King and Oprah, are you there?? Hello??
I'll be able to get back into the blogosphere now that I am no longer preoccupied with getting ready for the speech.
Toledo, Ohio
Feb. 9, 2008