Becoming a Voice, On the Road

Something we didn't expect when our book was published was all the time we'd be spending away from home. We thought we'd be counting money, not miles! However, a real plus about being authors has been taking our show on the road to visit bookstores, book clubs, organizations, and other events.

The first book club that invited us to visit was Read and Feed, whose members are all staff at the Glidden-Ralston school, a one-building district in northwest Iowa. We didn't know what to expect at the dinner meeting except the "feed" part and the "read" part (all of the members had read our book, thanks to the recommendation of the school secretary). That night, club attendance swelled fromt he usual 10 members to 23, including teachers from other districst.

The group asked us questions, told us what they thought about the book, shared favorite parts of the book, and welcomed us wholeheartedly. Perhaps the most memorable comment came from a second-grade teacher. "I didn't realize that a large district would have the same problems as a small one." Bingo! She got it! for her, the story that we created was her own.

So far we've visited over 20 book clubs in Iowa, Minnesota, and Texas. The membership has been an interesting mix of all teachers, some teachers, no teachers, all women, and couples. We really enjoy listening to the discussions of our book. While the topics are usually the same, each group heads off in a different direction. At one club in Des Moines, for instance, a book editor with no children told us she'd voted for the first time in a school board election just because of our book. At a businesswomen's breakfast club, a public relations consultant told us that she thought the book was the perfect mouthpiece for disenfranchised workers.

We'd really love to just listen to groups talk about our book in case our presence changes the direction of the discussions. But we really don't think it does because the readers ask us questions about character motivations and plot devices. The even suggest alternate endings or ideas for the sequel. They tell us what they didn't like or did like about the book. And every time we meet with a new group, we experience with them their excitement about our book.

We enjoy discussing the process of writing and publishing the book. We've focused on this for various large organizations in the Des Moines area and in Minnesota. We've spoken to a graduate fiction writing class at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. And we gave a keynote speech at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall to the master's degree candidates in education. We're giving another one in July to the Iowa Choral Directors Association members.

We also enjoy book signings. Both chains and independent stores in Iowa and Minnesota have invited us to visit for an afternoon or evening of signing and discussion. Neither of us had any idea that a signature in a book was such a prize! But we don't mind inscribing our books at all. In fact, book signings are a great way to have individual conversations with readers about the book.

For both of us, the title "author" is still a little strange. One woman at a teachers' book club dinner meeting sat between us and said she'd never met one author before, let alone two! That's a little humbling because we're really just teachers, too; we just wrote a book.

Watch for our next posting: Paul Ruffin Adds His Voice.