While planning a weekend presentation, it occurred to me that my audience might like to hear more than a synopsis or a reading of the book. I know I do when I attend an author event. Don't read me a page from your book. I can do that myself, later. Tell me something not in the book, something I learned from being at your presentation.
Things like: Where the idea came from and what inspired you to pursue it? How long it took to write? Did you have to do research? Are the characters based on someone you know? What was the hardest part of the story to write? How many times did you rewrite it? Where did the title come from? Sprinkle in your personal writing experience too; Is this your first book? Did you always want to write? Who is your favorite author? Who is your biggest supporter? Where do your other ideas come from? Do you have a critique group? And so on and so on.
This weekend I will be speaking to group of adults and young adults at a local library about my newest work of historical fiction, She Started It All. But rather than talk about the story as written, I am sharing my secrets about how I turned a nonfiction story into the historical fiction they came to hear about. As interesting as I think the story itself is, I believe it's more interesting to share how I determined what facts from the nonfiction needed to be in the historical fiction. What pitfalls I faced? If I use real character names? Why or why not? Stuff like that. In my humble opinion, this will be much more interesting than merely telling the story.
The flyer for my presentation reads like this: From A Bomber Story to She Started It All: Creating Historical Fiction From Nonfiction.
If you're out and about near Morganton, North Carolina around 2:00 pm on Saturday the 9th, stop by and critique my presentation. I'd love to see you!
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