Last Saturday, I traveled to Lansing to speak to the Peninsula Writers group about memoir writing. I spoke for about an hour in the morning and then led two writing sessions in the afternoon.
I arrived about 10 minutes before 9 a.m., and I was supposed to speak at 9:30. When I arrived, the other two speakers and the organizer was there along with the Barnes and Noble rep. I was worried no one would be there, and I would basically end up talking to myself.
About 10 minutes later, enough people had arrived that I began worrying about having to speak in front of too large a crowd. In the end, there were about 19 people there, which was a good size. I was happy with the turn out.
I had practiced reading the passage I was planning to use, but when I began talking, I heard a request from the back of the room for me to speak up. I was speaking loudly (I thought), but there was a fan system that was blowing, and it made it hard to hear me. I had to speak louder, and I worried that my voice projection would leave me little for voice inflection. I was grateful there was water for me to drink, and by the end of my hour of speaking, my throat ached a bit. The loud (and I hope inflected) voice had caused the sore throat, but everyone heard me just fine.
I read a column from I’m the Mommy (On Our Way to Crazy), and I read a portion of my memoir, Fat Man’s Daughter. Overall, I was pretty happy with the reading. It went well, and I had a lot of people asking questions during and after the reading.
Later, during the writing groups, I was so impressed with the talent of the group. There were some wonderful writers there.
My only awkward moment — at the very end there was an open mic section. The first time someone read, I clapped. Everyone else snapped their fingers. Whoops. The second time someone read, I tried to remember the snap, but I still clapped. It is hard to not clap.
One reading that stood out for me — I believe the author’s name was Lisa, and she did this wonderful piece involving her husband, Bruce Willis and a knight in shining armor. But really, everyone who read was just wonderful. It was a great way to spend the day, and I was amazed at how valuable it was (it was free for everyone to attend).
Plus I learned something as I listened to the other speaker talk about poetry and creativity. I never realized there were different genres within poetry — duh!
Thanks for playing.
