I must admit, that however much I enjoy the public speaking side of things I do get extremely nervous beforehand. It’s that little feeling of whether everyone who is there is glad that they came or really they are staring straight through me thinking they could have spent an hour painting their coving or something similar.
Last week, there were three very different talks. The first was over the internet to a London Book Group who had all read The Radio and wished to discuss the reasons for certain ideas and events. This was good as I could speak freely.
The second was to 16-18 year old students at Barnsley College. About 39 of them. In the main, they were quite attentive and seemed fairly interested. I was inspired buy the fact that some of them already know that they want a career in writing when they get older. I had to wind some in so as not to give away the twist.
The final was at the Sheffield Off The Shelf festival as part of Abbeydale Writers Group Anthology. This was a fantastic evening with plenty of questions and plenty of thought going in so as not to accidentally give away the twist in The Radio. Everyone was really kind and it was a great evening. There were a lot of fellow authors there who stood up and did readings as well. Inspiring stuff.
There’s plenty more talks coming up so hopefully we can meet at one of them. I’m just arranging the dates so hopefully there will be some in November and December. The Radio makes an awesome stocking filler…
As for friends, I met with a very very good friend of mine on Friday I hadn’t seen for six months. As always it was like ‘old times’ instantly, however due to this blog he knew all of my recent movements. I needn’t have spoken at all throughout the evening. I’ve now decided to sack all personal meets with friends and only communicate via computers.
It’s less time consuming and cheaper.
I bought him a curry, you see.