Last Thursday I did my first public speaking gig at the Hasbrouck Heights Library for my book, The Darkest Winter. There were around 20 people in attendance and I’m happy with how it went.

To my surprise, I wasn’t nervous going into it, or at the event. I attribute a lot of that to my writer’s group, where I’ve essentially been speaking to a group of people almost every week for the past 4 years. I’ve become much more confident in speaking with people in a group setting and because we talk in depth about topics, I’m also better at organizing my thoughts and preparing what I want to say. It also helped that I know this content inside and out so my confidence in what I was speaking about couldn’t have been higher.

I was the 6th presenter and while my intro was a bit sloppy (I forgot some of the smooth lines I wanted to say so things came out a bit disjointed) I think I did really well with the segment I read. I chose Chapter 22 which is my favorite section of the book. It’s one of the shortest chapters with a lof of suspense and there is a lot of dialog which made it easier to read aloud. I also think it’s one of the strongest examples of the quality of my writing so as a preview to get people interested, it checks all the boxes. It felt engaging, I got a lot of compliments, and I met some great people. I’d call it a success.

I’m most surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was more of a community talent showcase than a focused meeting for author engagement so I didn’t get to speak as much about the book and the writing process as I would have liked to but I think it was a great initial step to do more speaking events in the future. So far it’s one of the best elements of being an author I’ve experienced so far. I wonder if it made me feel so good because it fed into my narcissistic side since it was all about me and my work, but maybe it’s not so bad to get your ego some attention once in a while.