"Which one?"  I asked.
 

"To understand the people I may be thrown amongst" 
(Jack London, quoted by Victor Turks)


Oh, so much to write!  "Where shall I start?" ..
That it is not perfect will continue to frustrate me.
But these are writers.

"To be audacious!"-- as she swept her hand across the room to us all.
And had the book for me with her: "IF YOU WANT TO WRITE"
But I missed it.  I miss it all the time.

"More to come"..

Happy writing to you all.
 

6 minutes: it's an "endurance" hyperventilating and all.  I wasn't expecting that one!

The first speech I ever gave in my life.

"After all, communication is what we're all about" (Bree LeMaire)
(and I have to hear anyone say it better)

  At the first meeting I attended (Nov 2004) when I joined, Bree offers me a membership application and encourages me to join.  Apparently, someone has vouched for me.  Who?  How sweet.  And I never expected them to pull my business card out of that hat they passed around.  "I stutter" I told them with my head in my hands confessing my fears.  They had no intention of letting me out of it.  As I found an Arctic class icebreaker steaming into position and plowing ahead for me.  And she did it in only three words.  Thanks for the self-esteem.  That’s when I knew I could handle it.  At their next meeting I gave my first speech ever (but they didn't know that).

What a thrill!
Everyone knew who I was.
Instantly.


 

 

"Stay tuned.."
 
Whetever happened to her website? .. "where did she go?" and I forgot her real name:
Shyne
: I had never met her before.  After my speech, she pulled out her book, signed it: "To Geoffrey, Best Wishes..".  And gave it to me.  Thanks Shyne. 

Betty did too ..  "took awhile" didn't it?  Shyne didn't waste her time.

Carla King
at Wild Writing Women:  "It's for men too!"
Thanks Carla, it was one of the best reviews I've ever had.  Sorry I had to pull it all down.

And Pamela Michael.  Thanks.

Diana Richomme (12/14/06): "Not everyone is as good a writer as you are"  (hmm.. how would she know? .. hmm..)

George Jansen

Sylvia

Maya Papaya  'feel the galactic terror'
Thanks for telling us how terrified you were giving your first speech at Borders.  You had all your books with you.  Including "the one's you were hiding" on the bottom that caught my interest.  Know any groups for those venues?

"see what it is to be afraid ..
let everyone see this
let you see this
loud and clear"
 

 

 


"Surround yourself with the Best and the Brightest"

Bill Baldwin ( "Sail on,  Sail on  ..  Sail on,   and on .." )
Bill gets "top billing" (well.. so far).  I'm a fan!

You know them when you meet them.  They're just brilliant.  That’s all.  Just plain brilliant.

(aside: where the hell have they been hiding all my life?)
All of a sudden you're alive and "walking on the clouds".
And (typically) it has absolutely nothing to do with their writing.





Ejner   Thanks for the hug.   (4/19/06)


(5/17/06) 
It's late and she's pulling on his arm trying to drag him away from me in the parking lot: "I love it!" I told them.  What a compliment!
(8/16/06)  Oh dear, she's still "pulling on his arm".  This time she doesn't even give me a chance to start talking to him.
Bill Copeland  -- (but the problem is that you won't "see" him there, you have to meet him "in person"..)

..just like Martin: I keep telling him he should be doing Humor.  That Martin repartee.  Touché!  I have no idea what he's writing.  Or why.  Something the size of  "War and Peace" or something ("Ever hear of something called 'Concision'?" I asked him).  Some kinda top secret something or other.  "Who knows?.."    It's all "hush hush"..  "surrounded in darkness"  Sshhh..! 

Don't tell anyone I told you!:

Martin Shane Dowd (aka "the high-speed microchip brain interface")
(another one: what happened to his website?  You need to maintain a presence I told him.  However low key.)
 

Jim Hana  (our open mic emcee)

  There are certain compliments that a fellow writer bestows upon another that are immensely powerful.  And, oh dear .. this one he tries to hide!  He knows I'll blab?  Anyway, I wish I had his voraciously absorbing reading abilities "like a sponge" I told him recently.

  To listen intelligently and then say something brilliant and incisive in only a few words.

  The ability to understand where someone is coming from and "be there for them" when they need it.  His review after my Larry Wilde speech that completely removed any doubts whatever that I may have had: "Ya done good Geoffrey"

  "Who's Jim?" this 'mystery person'  who has caught my interest.  I'm starting to wonder if he's had us all snookered with that deep authoritative voice of his.  Is it in fact "shy guy Jim"?  I completely missed it until his CWC speech at Hobee's in front of our membership.  Welcome to "The Order of the Shaky Hand".  Yes, it is indeed called 'desensitisation'.  Maybe that’s why you seem to know what I need: Encouragement.  Supportive words.

  Ed Mysak would have said it himself to you after your Hobee's speech: "Ya done good Jim".  Sail on!

Thanks.

8/17/06

 

Vivian Sheehan:
"You go up to him and you introduce yourself to him!"

Christopher Gortner  Thanks for expressing an interest in meeting us all after your speech and encouraging us to do so individually.  Which I did for the first time for any author at our meetings.  Commenting that we shouldn’t feel reticent or shy just because they're the speaker and clueing me to the fact that I've been missing all those great opportunities to meet all those interesting authors "face to face" and chat with them a bit and give them a chance to "see who I am".  Like Mary Monroe, Denise Roy, and Elizabeth Kearney "speeches, speeches, speeches" -- (good advice for this 'shy guy' here).

 

 

Teresa (our past president)

Having run myself, I have come to learn how important honest elections are.  Though our 2005 election was not perfect, it was well-attended and went far to restore my faith in the world.  As I watched a fearful and trembling Teresa accept Martin's nomination from the floor.  Which produced a contested election.  And impressed me immensely.

I like Kevin too and hope to encourage him to become more of a politician by increasing his visibility to us all: "thanks for the tip" he told me.

Actually, I didn’t care who won.  I just wanted to know that our membership was in control.


"Round up the usual suspects.."
"Oh dear, it seems someone has moved my card up from the back to the front of the table.." -- looks like another Investigation.    Hmm..


Happy Speeches to you all
(open mic at San Mateo Borders Bookstore)

photo by Teresa LeYung Ryan

Hi, Geoffrey Genius,
This will be your nickname from now on...
I might not understand your wit much of the time, but I recognize genius.

 

Yeah, well..  I think you're hot too..

  Whoosh!   What was that?   Look! .. up in the sky!  It's a bird?  It's a plane?  No, it's Hotstuff


Hi, Hotstuff,
This will be your nickname from now on...
I might not understand your "Whoosh"-ing much of the time, but I recognise a Contender when I see one.

 


Good luck Teresa.  And thanks.



"Jeff Brooks" -- remember what he looks like. 
I don't know who or 'what' he's working for.  Or which planet sent him.  Or if he's even from our own Solar System.  Galaxy.  Universe.  Or Dimension.  Or how he got here.  But he's definitely not "one of us".  Keep an eye on him.




"Round up the usual suspects.."
Other supporters, acquaintances, associates, confreres, chums, pals, comrades, winks, nods, smiles, well-wishers, cohorts, fellow travelers and/or accomplices:
Joyce Robins and Leonard (both are "always good for a smile").  Thanks, it means a lot to me.
Michael ("what dreams are made of") and search for: "Angela Berquist"
Brian ('epiphany') Wong: "Don't Panic!"
Elliotte Mao
Rick Kaplowitz (a writer of limericks my research turned up -- you must recite one sometime to us all!)
Ansa
Woody (I know something about this "shy-guy" thing..)
Some of you I simply forgot to remember so far.  Be patient.  And/Or "don't look!".  Some I've left out for weird reasons *I* still haven't figured out yet.  In fact, it's all become so bizarre that I don't know who to leave out or in anymore..
Then there's those "Cupertino Writers"..


"Much much more to come"  ..  "stay tuned!"
(What a story!)

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