Saturday, January 14, 2012

I've been busy writing for the past month or so, but not on a book. However, it is book-related, and I'm very excited about it.

Twice in the past few years I've given my "Nevada's Ranching History" slideshow presentation at the Nevada Reading Week Conference in Reno (http://www.nevadareadingweek.com). Most of the attendees are northern Nevada teachers and librarians. This year (February 10-11) I will be giving two presentations: the ranch history, and one for aspiring writers called "The Path to Publishing."

I'm expanding the ranch workshop to fit a longer timeslot, so I can fit in things I had to leave out to fit the other shorter timeslot. Then I have to tweak my slideshow to match. The handout includes an abstract and several ag-related pages from the Curriculum Unit of my book, The Orange Slipknot.

The writing workshop will focus on how your life experiences prepare you to be a writer and give you the raw material to get started. There is a short slideshow about how I came to write my book. Then we will discuss marketing and publishing your book, with the information summarized in a handout.

The biggest challenge is the clock--practicing and timing myself, while factoring in the possibility that things will move quicker or slower than I have estimated. I hope to get people talking; they may talk longer than I intend, or not as much, so I need to be able to adjust my presentation accordingly.

I always take my cowboy gear display--saddle, bridles, etc., and I wear my boots, chaps, spurs, hat and wildrag. My book, The Orange Slipknot, and the accompanying Curriculum Unit, will be available for sale, and I get to talk about the upcoming sequel, Starting the Colt--targeted for early 2013.