On the Road as a Writer

If you write about a popular subject or have a bestseller, people often invite you to give a talk to their group. Now and then you may be asked to speak on writing (just about my favorite subject), but usually your non-fiction book's subject or your novel's characters and plot are what people want to hear about.

This post is going to more local than not, as it has mostly to do with local speaking engagements. Lately, I seem to be giving a talk just about every four days. Two weeks ago I spoke to a large and enthusiastic inventors' group (about 80 people) at the Thomas Edison Museum in Fort Myers, Florida. In addition to Crosley, they wanted to hear about intellectual property rights--a subject I hope to address again sometime. Last week I was at the Green Twp. branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati Public Library, a large, modem facility with an avid history group. I had an attentive audience of 50 and for the first time tried out my slide show of Crosley photos--WLW, the Reds, Crosley radios, Crosley cars, etc. (Many thanks to Marya Hunt!)

Monday of this week I was scheduled to speak at Miami University's Art Museum, part of a Noon luncheon series put on by the Miami University Institute for Lifelong Learning. I was violently ill and had transportation problems late in the morning, and was 25 minutes late, I'm embarrassed to say. I really regret not getting to address the gorup of 100 or more. My sincere apologies to those who came to hear about Crosley.

Botanist Dr. Hardy Eshbauw stepped in for me, and presented an excellent program, the last half of which I was able to see and hear. Fortunately I was able to talk with some of my prospective audience, and met a lady in her 80s whose mother dated Powel Crosley, Jr., as well as an engineer who was quite knowledgable about Crosley's airplanes, so it wasn't a total loss.

This Saturday, I will be at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati as a part of the "Books by the Banks" program (yes, nice of them to name it after me), where I'll get to do something I really enjoy: meet other writers. Click here to learn about the program; if you're in the Cincinnati area, maybe I'll see you there! (After Noon.) I'm particularly looking forward to this event because there will be over 80 other writers attending. I'm sure we'll all get in lots of networking and gossiping about publishers and writers who aren't there!

--Mike

http://www.michaelabanks.com/