Queens Historical Society

KLAATU and Keynote at the Historical Society

Reading at The Queens Historical Society on Thursday evening. We were supposed to start at 6:30 and it was 7pm and no one was there. Well… there were three people there but two worked there and one was a boyfriend of one of the women who worked there. The young man and I were talking about fencing so intently neither one of us had noticed that it was after 7pm and no one had shown up for the reading. Don’t get me started talking about fencing.

I let a sigh out and said, “No one’s coming this evening.”

The young man nodded, looking down.

“Shall I present to the three of you?”

A woman appeared at the front door.

All three of my audience members smiled at me. We had a fourth and someone not related in any way to the three who were already present.

I talked for a while about how I got the idea for Open Wounds, then read from it – answered questions for even longer – took a tour of the museum, and headed home. There were only four but they were totally present. I enjoyed myself immensely. Back when I used to perform improv with KLAATU we would perform in front of one or two people all the time. Sometimes we even just performed in front of ourselves. But as Greg Sullivan, our troupe leader always used to say, “You have to perform as if the audience is full and it’s your first time doing it.”

That’s exactly what I did.

I also used my iPad to present with using Keynote for the first time. It worked very well mechanically – very efficient and it looked great. What a cool presentation tool – even better than my Macbook Air…

October 8, 2011 | Categories: Blog, Events, improv, Public Speaking, Queens Historical Society, Reading | Leave a comment

Of Grant Monsters and Historical Societies

I’m presenting/lecturing/reading at the Queens Historical Society tomorrow evening. This is cool. I wrote a historical novel that takes place in Queens and Manhattan and the Queens Historical Society asks me to come speak at their author lecture/reading series. I’m pretty excited about it. I better get drressed up.

But first I have to finish my grant application for my day job. It’s due this afternoon at 12pm which means it must be finished by 10 so it can go out at 11 to be hand delivered. I have one more line to cut. It’s a different kind of writing, grant writing. It’s not very pleasant but it’s a skill that helps my fiction writing so I do it. Oh yeah, and it helps me keep my day job. And I can’t give it up yet. So I cut one line. Sounds easy until you see you’ve cut everywhere else after reading it over and over the day before into the night. But I digress a bit.

I’ve never been to the Queens Historical Society. I don’t know who will be there or what kinds of questions I’ll get but it will be different. I’m going to speak about the creation of Cid, the protagonist of Open Wounds, and how he came into being. He’s from Sunnyside, only two towns – about 30 minutes walk – from where I live in Jackson Heights. The 7 train takes you there in five minutes. The 7 also takes Cid in to Manhattan to see Captain Blood on his first day of freedom.

The reading runs from 6:30-8pm. Here’s the address of the Society:

Weeping Beech Park

143-135 37th Avenue
Flushing, NY 11354

October 5, 2011 | Categories: Blog, Events, Grant Proposals, Open Wounds, Public Speaking, Queens Historical Society, Reading | 2 Comments