My Speaking Engagement at Readers Conference

As the author of my book "288 Chances:  Reflections on Everyday Life, One Word, Five Minutes at a Time", I was invited to be a presenter at the 2014 Iowa Reading Association Conference in Ames, Iowa, on June 25, 2014.  I met some wonderful people there and saw first-hand all the good work that this group of teachers, educators and dedicated individuals do to promote literacy. 

I was honored to have been extended the opportunity to share my passion for writing, to share my experience in the writing and publication of my first book, as well my opinion as to the importance of literacy for all, the ability to read and write, for even the youngest readers. 

My program was entitled "Write to Express, Not Impress",  based on the idea that I’m a reader who became a writer. I’m convinced that a love of reading, the passion to both read and tell a really good story, are essential in every writer, professional or otherwise. I wrote in the dedication of my book, “I write because I can and because I have to.” I say that because, for me, it’s a privilege knowing I can write any time I want to, and I have to write any time I can.

 

Here is an excerpt from my program.  "But writing to impress, while it might showcase a skillful command of language and sentence structure, the words may end up sounding pretentious and uninspiring to some readers. If the end goal for the writer is publication of their finished work, my hope is most published authors would tell you that writing and publishing are not about ego and self-promotion. A writer writes because they have to. And publishing one's work should be more about the satisfaction that comes from finishing something you started, from dedicating yourself to doing the hard work and seeing it through to completion. Admittedly, publication is validation that someone recognized the worth and value in words which you wrote. But I can't stress enough. Write to express, not to impress."

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience and would gladly participate again.  I received some valuable feedback and received several interesting questions from those who attended my presentation. 

My book was also available for sale at the Barnes and Noble Booth set up at the event.  A booksigning was scheduled immediately after my prestation and I was honored to sign books for those who purchased my book at the conference or brought their book for me to sign.

My thanks to those who extended me the invitation, and for their kind words of encouragement leading up to the conference.  This was my first public speaking appearance, and while it did take many months of hard work and preparation, choosing my topic, writing my program and the PowerPoint presentation that accompanied my talk, I would do it again - in a heartbeat.

Signing off for now,

Brenda  :)