Just finished my reading at the Kansas Author’s Club District 2 meeting this morning. Many thanks to club president Ronda Miller for inviting me.

My choice of reading was the section of A Lake Most Deep near the end as Edward leads everyone into the Gropa Mansion and begin the Agatha Christie-style ending. This is the same section I read at Ad Astra in April.

I wish I’d realized, though, that I had more time. I could have done the section from I Am a Wondrous Thing I read at LibertyCon, which, though about 20 minutes, is a much stronger piece. Perhaps if I read it a few more times I won’t always cry while I do so.

In any case, while I don’t think I read the snippet from ALMD poorly at Ad Astra, I think I did a much better job of reading it today. Every time I do a reading, though, I really appreciate my theater experience and time in the SCA as a herald and performer.  I’m still not sure if I’m choosing the correct snippets to read, but I’m confident I’m presenting them reasonably well.

The other headline performer, Mark Scheel, read a snippet about becoming a writer that skillfully wrapped a core of good advice inside a humorous shell. Then he read one of his poems.

I then mentioned that I had a poem in IAAWT, the riddle at the end, and they graciously gave me the opportunity to read it as well. I have the opportunity to submit up to a page for the 2017 KAC yearbook, and I think that might be what I put in.

There were 12 of us total, While Mark and I were the headliners, each person had the opportunity to read what they had available. Many of the other readings were quite good. The most powerful one was a gentleman named Mike who read about his experiences on 9/11. As a historian, the most interesting actually came from Sally Jadlow, who is fictionalizing a series of letters about her father and family in the 30s and 40s. I was reminded of the song Kilkelly.

District 2 is in charge of the 2016 Kansas Author’s Club convention, so there was also a goodly amount of discussion about the logistics of the con. Since I don’t really have a ton that I have to do because I got in late, I’ll be helping some in the book room. I also added my name to do a reading in the evening on that Friday.

It also made feel a lot more confident going into the KAC convention as I now at least have an idea of some of the other attendees, including putting faces to emails.

All in all, a very pleasant way to spend the morning. I got to talk about my books with a collection of readers, hear quite a bit of well-written stuff, and talk about writing in general. I’ve created quite a full list of things to attend in the rest of 2016, but I know I’ll be back when I can.