Inaugural Author Talk

by
Scott D. Parker

When you’re an author, there’s a list of things you know you want to do: have a book you wrote actually published; have folks tell you they liked the book; be interviewed; and give a talk as a professional author. Well, I can cross off that last one.

About a month ago, the men’s group at my church asked me to speak as a professional author. The man who asked me I’ve known for a long time. Long time. In fact, he taught my Sunday School class back in the day. He and I now attend the same church. He bought Wading Into War, enjoyed it, and asked me to talk to his group. It was an honor to say yes and, this past Tuesday, at 7am, I was there as a guest.

It’s an odd feeling to be the guest of honor. This counts as my first time anywhere, anytime. It meant I got to get my breakfast first. Large scoop of eggs, bacon, biscuits, and pancakes fill me up ahead of my talk.

I brought some items for show-and-tell. I told the story of how I went from being only a reader to a published author who now runs his own publishing company. It’s a fun tale, full of twists and turns, a lot of rejections, but ultimate getting to the first finish line. I have no issues with public speaking. I find I can get quite comfortable in front of a microphone and people. I’ll admit, however, that the first couple of minutes were a little tense.

Afterwards, many of the guys came up to me to thank me for talking and how much they enjoyed the event. A musician particularly enjoyed me talking process and how my process and his process for practicing guitar kinda matched. Of all the nice accolades, one gentleman made my day: without any prompting by me during the speech to indicate I enjoyed CASTLE, this nice man said that when he looked up at me talking on the stage, it was like watching Richard Castle from the TV show. Awesome!

The talk was a great pleasure. I know my fellow DSDers have delivered talks, and I have finally joined their ranks. It was a blast and I’m looking forward to the next one.