Finding All The Good

Last night I gave a Dirty Shirt presentation at the Oconomowoc Public Library. It was a sparsely attended affair, but it didn't prevent me from doing my full hour-long spiel. Those that were there were very engaged and seemed genuinely interested. I could have let the small group bother me, but as per my last blog post I chose to look at the upside and make the best of it. To beat a dead horse, the event was mostly good.

And in the process of it all I came to some conclusions.

• I realized how lucky I am to be able to talk about not only my book, but all of my writing. This includes the process of how I got started. People are as much interested in how I got started as in what I've written. 
• My wife came along to help with sales time and I forgot how nice it is to have her in the room. We maintain a decent banter throughout, and because this audience was largely women, they related to her nicely after I had finished. She's a good sport, helping me schlep books around Southeastern Wisconsin, and I love her for it.
• I've found that women usually have different questions than men. Men want to know where I went, for how long, how the fishing was, etc. Women want to know what drove the love of wilderness into me, and how I feel about writing about such personal stuff. Neither are bad, just an observation.
• Donna was telling me that I need to switch up my presentation. As it is now, I do two readings, a slide show, the video trailer and an closing reading. She mentioned that it might help to do the slides as I go, which will provide some context for the reading. Makes sense to me.
• All of the librarians I've met are such nice people. Of course they all love to read, but they also can appreciate what it takes to be an author/writer. I've never met a crabby one yet, and most bend over backwards to help. 
• As much as I'd love to say schlepping books is all about making money, that is only part of it. I enjoy meeting people and getting feedback (and telling my story) as much as selling a ton of books. Does that make me a bad business man? Probably. But it sure is a whole lot of fun.

My next event will be at the Oshkosh Public Library on September 2nd. Hoping for a bigger crowd, but am sure I will have a blast with whatever I'm giving. Living the dream...

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