Personal Appearances

Sounds important, right? I like doing personal appearances, whether I get to make a presentation to a large or small group or just talk to people one on one.

Wednesday I got to do the big presentation when I spoke to at least 60 people in the Renaissance group at the Fort Worth Woman’s Club.  Lisa Staples, a friend from church asked me way back last year. We go back a long ways. When I was on the school board, her husband served a couple of years on my District 7 Advisory committee. The only thing I worried about was the outside stairs Lisa told me about.  Fortunately, it was the stairs on the left and not the ones on the right! LOL

This was my 4^th presentation at the Woman’s club. The first time was when my mother was the program chair for the Creative Writing Department. I was an assistant principal, and I talked with them about how to make oral presentations. As writers, you do have to do that sometimes, and most writers are pretty uncomfortable getting up and speaking.

Then flash forward 20 or so years when I presented to the group two years in a row about writing and publishing.  Joyce Miller is in the picture with me. The building is the Woman’s Club.

 

Which brings us up to the Wednesday presentation. You always say yes, when it’s way off, but then comes a time you have to gather your thoughts and put something down on paper. Way back when Lisa asked me, I gave her a title of “How Many Lives Do We Have?” Then that morphed into “Marsha’s Many Hats.” Ultimately, I went with

“The Three Steps to Reinvention.”

1. Be a Life-Long Learner (borrowed from my American Association of University Women days)

2. GO through the OPEN Door (Bob’s moto for our family)

3. Keep on Keeping On (From my experience as an author/publisher.)

I knew several of the women from previous lives, including Terry Morrow, whose husband Jack served on the school board when I did. Hadn’t seen her in a long time. It was nice to reminice.

I felt good about the presentation. The women were a gracious audience, laughing at all the appropriate places, and asking some great questions at the end. I picked up several people for my newsletter and handed out a lot of Bitty Booklets. All in all, a successful day. (This would’ve been a better post if I’d remembered to give my phone to someone to take pictures. Geez! I’ll share more later.)

Tuesday I was on the Sisterhood of Suspense blog talking about spring. Here’s the link. https://sisterhoodofsuspense.com/2018/03/20/spring-time

Wednesday I was also a guest on my friend JQ Rose’s blog. Here’s the link if you missed seeing it on FB. There’s a GIVEAWAY here. 😊

  http://www.jqrose.com/2018/03/the-five-ws-marsha-r-wests-act-of.html

Which brings us to this weekend. Bob and I are driving to Galveston for the Galveston Island Book Festival on Saturday. We’ll be across the street from Ball High School in a separate school building. If you’re in the vicinity, please stop by. If Bob couldn’t go, I probably wouldn’t. Long drive by myself. So, we have a mini vacation in the lovely town of Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico.

The only down size is Charley has to go to the SPA PAWS Hotel. It sounds great and for many puppies it is. But Charley isn’t terribly sociable with other pups and doesn’t really play with toys. He likes to go on his morning and evening walks, and he likes to cuddle and nap.  I think all of that will be in short supply. I take comfort from the fact it is only for two nights, and we’ll get him Sunday afternoon. Our kids are hanging at our lakehouse.

Do you like to make presentations? How long does it take you to get ready? I went through 4 printed copies before I had it where I liked it. And then made another cut on my way there. 🙂 Do you take your pups with you when you travel? Do you get a pet/house sitter? Do you have a special place you take them? It’s hard to leave our fur babies. Love to hear from you.

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