Hello my Freaky Darlings,

On Saturday afternoon I had my very first Author talk and reading at Indulgence Coffee Shop in Johannesburg to promote Shadows.

Anybody who knows me knows that public speaking is one of my worst nightmares and will probably be something that I base a horror novel on in the future, but I have to say that my appearance at Indulgence Coffee Shop was actually rather pleasant, thanks to Mandi, who owns the place and organises these talks for South African Authors, and the amazing crowd of people who belong to her club of book lovers.

I didn’t write down all the amazing talking points that I had swimming around in my head. The moment I sat down in front of everybody, all the important things I wanted to say just evaporated into thin air, so I think for future reference I shall have to take a few notes with me. I won’t write a whole speech out because I think that robs the event of spontaneity and could run the risk of making me sound a little too stiff. Oh! And just because something sounds good in my head doesn’t mean it sounds good once it’s been verbalised. I discovered that when all else fails, reading a few pages from the book is a good way to go. In fact, in future I’ll be starting off with the reading thing. It calmed me right down and gave the audience a better idea of the book and of who I was.  I also do far better with an interview type of situation, once people started asking me questions I started to sound like I actually had half a brain.

I also have to say thank you to Jacki from Women 24’s book club for popping in and being so supportive.

What are your survival tips for a solo Author event? What tips would you, as a reader, give an Author for these types of events? And if you’re one of the wonderful people in Jozi or Pretoria who organise these sorts of events give me a shout. I need to do these more often.