Giving Programs

Yesterday afternoon, I was the program for a local Literature Club. This group of women have met for many years with a love of all things literary their common bond. A friend of mine, who is a charter member, was to give the program, but she is very ill and asked me if I would do it for her.

"I'd like you to read your essay "How I Learned To Love Books" and then read some of your Chicken Soup stories," she said. So, that is what I did, basing my talk on urging all the members to write down the family stories that they tell around the Thanksgving table, so that they are not lost as the years go on.

I told them about the process of getting accepted into the Chicken Soup books, then asked how many of them had read any of these anthologies. Every person in the room had read one or more of them.

I've done programs like this for several groups in our community. It's one more way to get the word out that I am a writer and hope that people will seek out some of the books in which my stories/essays appear. It's a part of that platform building that we hear about so much in the writers world of today. Public speaking is not easy for many people, but it's one of those things where the more you do it, the easier it becomes. I've reached a point where I enjoy giving one of these programs. The first couple of times I was pretty nervous, but that's not a problem now.