Today, Saturday, I went to the Hinsdale Public Library where they were hosting one of the seminars from a series a few libraries are doing called, "Inside Writing & Publishing". The seminar I went to was called, "A Writer's Guide to Tech Tools". This is something I'm deeply interested in so, while I was sad I couldn't make it to the other seminars, I was excited that this one fit into my schedule.
The presenter had a lot of interesting point. Only the seminar should have been called, "The Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing" because that's what it focused on. If I had known that it was going to be about self-publishing, I wouldn't have taken time off work. I am interested in self-publishing, but it isn't what I was hoping to spend my Saturday afternoon on. She did touch on some tech things, but I already knew all of the things she had to say. Then, when asked about some of the tech aspects, she said, "I don't know." (I even knew a few answers to some of the questions she couldn't answer.) But when asked about self-publishing, she gave more info than what the person necessarily wanted.
It was disappointing. But I refuse to let it be a waste... I took from it a deep conviction to always be clear about what I'm teaching or presenting.
In the evening I went to the Tamale Hut for their reading series and Open Mic. There was some good writing! I was especially pleased with the readings of a few very talented writers whose stories just blew me away! Sheila Johnson wrote an eerie story about how the past can rip someone apart. Michael Penkas had me rolling with his reimaged version of the conversation between the christian god and Moses and how that god really wished he could have used more plagues in Egypt. Jenny Seay once again made wrestling interesting through her depiction of young wrestlers finding their place in the wrestling and the world. There was other good writing, but these were the three stories that really grabbed me.
