The American Association of University Women Luncheon

 It forgot to ask questions and to take pictures, so my event last Saturday was a surprise and I don't have any photos to show for it.  In all fairness to question part, the luncheon was supposed to take place a year ago and I might have asked some questions when I was first invited but by this year it was too caught up in a wonder to having the event, I didn't think to ask more than where and what time.

It was hosted by the American Association of University Woman at the Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo.  They asked that I be there by 10:00.  It was only on the way there that I began to wonder if I was going to have to wear a mask when I spoke. But by them it was kind of a whatever point since I was almost there.

I had no idea how many people would be there, particularly since the pandemic has made a lot of people uncomfortable with any sort of crowds.  I though the place would be deserted when I got there and I thought I would be on a panel with the other three authors, none of whom wrote mysteries.  I had planned what I would say and had tried to put it on a couple of big index cards, but I did it in pen, so I couldn't erase anything when I wanted to change the order of what I said, leaving me no choice but to draw lines and arrows and out of order numbers to indicate what I was supposed to say when.  And there were the things I wrote up the side of the card so I'd remember to say them.  Did I mention my handwriting is often hard for even me to read?

I was wrong, wrong, wrong.  At 10:00 the place was busy and lots of people were milling around.  One of the authors had cancelled because he was sick.  There wasn't going to be a panel.  We would each speak separately.  Two authors were planned for before lunch and two after.  Because of the person who cancelled, I moved up to the second before lunch spot which I was very happy for.  I thought it was only me that had this sort of love hate feelings about speaking, but then I was reading WRITE OFF by E.J. Cooperman who is really Jeff Cohen.  It's mystery series about a mystery writer and the author presented a lot of feelings about being a writer including the mixed feelings about doing events.  I assume he based it on his own feelings.  In any case I found it reassuring that it wasn't just me.

There were at least 150 people looking up at me when my turn to speak came, after a really nice introduction which thankfully didn't have what I was going to say. I'd like to take Bea with me everywhere.  She made me sound like super woman.  I had brought some books from each of my series to show and a large granny square I planned to use as a visual aid, along with the aforementioned cards I thought I'd use as reference.  There was no table to put them on, so I left the bag with everything on the floor.  I'm not great with microphones.  Maybe one of those headset things would work okay, but this was an old fashioned one that you hold.  And I talk with my hands, which meant the microphone kept moving with my gestures until I'd remember to stick it back in front of me.

The cards would probably have been useless anyway with all my arrows and numbers, but they were stuck in the bag.  Of course, I strayed from my planned agenda and forgot to give a blurb for each of the three series until I was onto something else.  But I just said that I'd forgot and gave the blurbs. I remembered to show the books and the granny square. The first author had written serious books about serious subjects and I like to think of my books as being just for entertainment, so she was a hard act to follow.  But somehow it worked.  They all seemed interested.  They laughed and when I was done gave me a lot of compliments.

The crowd couldn't have been nicer or more friendly.  Everybody at my table was great.  I signed a lot of books and even met somebody from my Chicago neighborhood who I share a common friend with.

The event raised money to send middle grade girls to camp.  The organization has been around since the late 1800s when they were working on getting the vote for women.  Now, their mission to help women who need a boost.   All sounded great to me. Oh, and I didn't have to wear a mask when I was speaking.