a book reading

Author bucket list item achieved:

I had my first book reading on Saturday, and I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. Sure, I had been to dozens of them, where someone else sat or stood in the front of the room, reading their work to us, the enraptured audience. So, in that way I guess I did know what to expect:

1. A book that is being marketed
2. An author who is marketing that book
3. An audience
4. A space of time for the author to read from the book being marketed
5. A space of time for the author to answer some questions
6. A space of time for the signing of books

Of course, being on the other side of the enterprise was fascinating, not unlike seeing beyond the curtain and glimpsing the “great and mighty” Oz, except it was everything I could have hoped for, not some dusty old man with very limited powers. I enjoyed being the center of attention, but more so I enjoyed having my books take center stage, as I was not just there to market one book. I was there to market a series, and it was wonderful to be able to speak to all three books in that series.

It helps that I love this series, that I spent a lot of time with these characters (and it’s not over yet), because it was easy to go back into that world, to share this passion with others, and to hype up the experience of immersing yourself in this world. Picking out the passages to read, answering the questions, seeing the nods from the audience members, it all reminded me of the give-and-take of writing for an audience.

The reading was in a library, and was the first time I’ve been in a group of people in-person for a very long time. It’s odd to even type that, but everything has been weird the past year and a half. I’m hoping it will get less weird as things begin to open up again. It was different, too, because of how far apart the chairs were spaced, and the masks, but I was able to tune all of that out once I started reading. That’s one thing about me as an author: it’s easy for me to go back into those worlds.

Anyway, I just wanted to share. Now I’m thinking about trying to include a wider scope of people for an online reading (via Zoom). That sounds like fun.