And Alexander – Would you check in here because I just read your blog and now I’m really worried about you.

Even though I do not have a book published, I’ve read and sing from my fiction for over 10 years at art and literary settings. I organized a few readings over the years. One of my most memorable earlier readings was at the OutWrite festival. Because I hadn’t read before an all GLBT audience before, I was extra nervous. Another notable reading moment was when I visited my friend Emilio Fantin in Bologna,he had his friend, a grand nephew of Virginia Wolfe translate me into Italian.After awhile, he said, I understand…this is about Love and not in a soap opera way.

Julie – Same here. All the good readings are in NYC but it takes me 2 hours to get into the city. I thought of starting my own reading series out on Long Island but realized life is too short to add something like that to my to-do list.

Alexander – I never ever thought of that, not changing answers because you got bored of them. I would be the very person to do that because boredom is the one emotion I can’t tolerate.

1. Think of what questions readers are going to have about the book, and then come up with the answers.

I wrote them out, so I’d remember them easily. You don’t want to memorize them, per se, or read from them—no one wants you to sound canned. But while I remember thinking it was a little cynical, I was wrong. It’s just public life. When you’re meeting hundreds and hundreds of people, and there’s a mike on, you find you could say anything, or worse, nothing. By having the answers ready, I could give those answers when I was exhausted and had to talk to people, or exhausted and had to be live on the air, where even 15 seconds of a pause for reflection is deadly blank airtime. I could deliver the clear answers I’d thought through when I was rested, and thus give the audience a sensible and intelligible evening, even if I wasn’t sensible and intelligible, or even wanting to meet one person, much less a room of 100.

2. Don’t change your answers for being bored with them.

It has a way of coming back to you, my publicist said. And, I think that’s right also. At least I did it, and I wasn’t sorry.

For most first-time authors, it’s not normal to wake up, grab a hotel breakfast in time to get to the radio host, arrive, find they sometimes don’t even know why you’re there (they’re busier than you), give the interview prep, then give the interview or interviews, then get out to the airport, fly, land, check in to the new hotel, and have maybe an hour or so to yourself before you get dinner, then go to the event, read, answer questions, sign, and if there’s time, get a drink or coffee with the bookseller. Go to the hotel, call whoever it is in your life you miss and then do it all over again the next day. You need to just be ready in this whole different way for what’s ahead.

And for Sarah, Emily and Heather, the Britlit crew: Have fun. It’s called putting it on the room charge.

The community itself is so spread out too. For instance, I went to a meeting today that took an hour in drive time and that was actually 30 minutes away. Everything here is 30 minutes this way or that. I have some writers friends that regularly swap flash stories and we’re all spread out across the country. Fortunately, most of us are north county by the cast so we can get together socially. Even that’s a challenge with everyone’s commute to work and stuff. We’re always aiming for a half way spot to keep down on time in traffic.

I would like to do more readings locally in the future. I need to look into that more. I’ll be giving a talk at an upcoming conference and will also have table top space to sell my digital books. I think I’ll follow Robin’s advice and bring CDs of the book.

Julie

I’m glad I’ve also had a chance to see you read when there were GOOD crowds around, in Manhattan and Kings Park!

As it happens, I bought Haweswater on Saturday. It’s in a big pile of ‘to be read’ books next to my bed.

For fledgling writers without a strong base of readers, how well you tell stories to a crowd of strangers can be just as important as how you write your stories on paper. Tony D’Souza told me that he built his reading……

Mikel K – But that time’s a coming…

Robin – You better not take Valium and Xanax because you are just about the cutest nervous person I know. I will even heckle you to bring it on. (She thinks I’m kidding.)

Jim – I’ll be at AWP, too!

Amy – TAMING OF THE BEAST will inspire you. It’s sexy and funny and horrifying and tender all at once.

Alexander – I’m so glad you’re here! What a weird thing to tour right after 9-11. And the comment from that guy Paul – I don’t even have words. I’m just so glad he said that to you.

Can you tell us some media training tips you got from your publicist?

Lance – I think what I love best is seeing these icons all shy and stumbly at the mic. I don’t often run into a-holes and prima donnas in the business (but over drinks, I’ll bet you can get me to tell you who they are).

Aimee – You’re so adorable, I can’t stand it. And what a sweet response you got from Gloria Steinem. I never would have imagined her being so nurturing.

Carolyn – Oh, I agree. I once did a mass-reading with friends and we considered reading each other’s work instead of our own. But then we decided against it for the very reasons you named.