Practice Makes Perfect

I don’t believe “perfect” is the correct word…because I’ll never assume to be perfect, but practice does make us better. Case in point, author events where I’m not just showing up to meet readers and sign books, but to stand in front of a group to discuss my writing and publishing process and my journey as an author so far.

I attended this type of event last weekend, and I had such a good time. I enjoy meeting people who genuinely take pleasure in reading my books; again, it’s the surreal part of this process, the fact that others appreciate and enjoy the stories I come up with. But with practice, I’ve also learned to enjoy talking about my writing journey and my stories, so that I’m able to feel more confident in myself when speaking in front of a group.

Flashback to high school, when I had to take the most dreaded class of all: speech.  I wasn’t alone; I can’t remember knowing even a handful of other students who actually liked the class and what it required from us. It’s a necessary (evil) and useful class, I can admit as an adult, but as a teen I was fairly shy when speaking in front of even a small number of people, so the class was torture. Part of it was due to my shyness, while the other part was due to the fact that the subject matters we had to speak about felt forced.

Fast forward quite a few years later, when I was working as a private investigator, I was a member of a legal investigator association and I moved up from member, to board member and eventually to president. For a year in that position I ran almost monthly meetings near Seattle and had to put aside my introvert tendencies to speak in front of the members who attended the meetings and to introduce special guest speakers we lined up for each meeting. While I still had issues with speaking to large groups, this process was a great learning tool for me.

Stepping stones in life prepare us for what’s to come…

Now, I get to attend author events, I’m introduced as the guest speaker and I enjoy myself because I’m able to discuss a subject matter I’m extremely interested in and excited about. I’ve come full circle when I look back at my teenage self and how much I’ve grown when it comes to making speeches in front of large groups. I certainly enjoy myself now and I hope that my excitement about my stories and my writing journey give those who attend an enjoyable experience. I also learn from each event, so that I can make changes as needed to make the next event better, for myself and for those who attend.

But really, my favorite part of these author events goes beyond the preparation, the butterflies I still feel beforehand no matter how confident I think I am, the time I spend talking or the time I spend signing books. My favorite part is meeting new people, finding new readers who are willing to give my books a shot, and having a good time in general with like-minded individuals who just love books. Take a look at some of my older posts, where I offer a few stories: whether I’m attending a book signing, an author event, a book club meeting, or a fair, there’s no end to the interesting people I get to meet.

Meeting interesting people is a key highlight on a long list of highlights when it comes to what’s so wonderful about being a writer. Why would I ever want to do anything else?  J

The many moments in the month of May (so far)

A photo my son captured of Jozee 

while we were at the beach

Sometimes everything goes as planned, and sometimes they don't, but that's not always a bad thing.

I had planned to post on my blog over the weekend, but…it was Mother’s Day weekend so I took some time off to play. What I wanted for my Mother’s Day was at least one day at the beach, which did happen and turned out to be a great idea considering how perfect the weather was. If you are also from the PNW, you’ll understand my excitement about the fact that we actually had a nice day at the beach, and in the month of May!

While May is only half over, it has already provided me with a good feeling on how this next quarter will end. All I can say is, hooray! In addition to spending a lot of time on one of my writing projects, here’s what I’ve been up to:

I finally completed a business plan – why now, you say? I just kept putting it off, maybe because in the back of my mind I believed I didn’t really need it. But, writing is a business when you hope your efforts result in making a profit so, I finally forced myself to work one up. Right now I’m sticking with revising my business plan quarterly, so that I can focus on projects actually pending at this time, but I plan to work up to six-month plans once I move in to next year.

Session at Inspire:

Women's Business Conference

I attended a women’s conference the first week in May for business owners – again, thinking about writing beyond the craft and what I can do to focus on the business end of things so that what I’m accomplishing involves both my head and my heart.

The women’s conference was a nice day retreat for me since my days are usually spent by myself (unless you count my dogs and cats), I met some great women and business owners and from each session I learned some useful business sense tips.

I’ll enjoy attending more of these events if the business organization continues to offer them. 

I finally signed up to become a member of a local writer’s association. By “local” I mean Seattle, which is a horrible drive these days from my locale, so I won’t likely attend many of the monthly meetings, but I’ll be able to access the relevant meeting information online, as well as other member perks. I can’t honestly say why it’s taken me until now to do this…I enjoy attending conferences, and I attend them when I’m able (which takes actual physical effort), while the act of becoming a member of an association was such an easy task I could have completed a long time ago (um, can anyone say online registration?) but just kept putting it off. I can’t explain my delay, other than it must be that writer’s procrastination issue I hear so much about. 😊

I had some fun designing new business cards and bookmarks – time will tell whether I like the business cards more than my original design, but because my books now include a series and not just the first book (it’s been that long since I designed the first business card), I decided to make a change since the time to update them was long overdue.

I spent some time promoting my series the past two weeks, playing with the P.I. writing about a P.I. idea, then for Mother’s Day, and also for upcoming book events I have scheduled this month and next month. Speaking of which, for those who are local, I have the following author events coming up should you wish to attend where I’ll discuss my books and my writing and publishing process and sign books for those who have or will be purchasing them: 

The first event is this coming Saturday, May 19th from 1p to 3p at The Firs in Olympia (426 Lilly Rd NE)

The second event is scheduled for Wednesday, June 6th from 10:15a to 11:30a at the Olympia Center (222 Columbia St NW)

I'm looking forward to both events and in meeting new people, so if you’re in the area and can attend either they are both open to the public.

So, the month of May for me has been a productive one. I see the last half of the month following suit and I look forward to that!