Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

TELLING STORIES

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
Photo courtesy of Mike Griffin
     Long time buddy, Mike Griffin was on hand and with his camera and captured "action" shots as I addressed the Cambria Newcomers Club.  It has been a while since I appeared to a SRO group, but the crowd was attentive and kind.
Photo courtesy of Mike Griffin
     We covered a long path from being a stringer and copyboy in a Pulitzer winning metropolitan daily, the early days as a cub reporter, being bound and firebombed as an investigative reporter, high light reporting assignments-major votes in congress, the White House, presidential campaigns, inaugurals, Africa, Nicaragua during the Contra War, Israel, 
the Caribbean, being spider bit in the jungles of the Dominican Republic, experiences in Cuba, Turkey, standing on the rim of volcanos, six weeks of following US Army Snipers in training, following the 16 week training program of FBI agents, hours and thousands of miles in the air, plus the days of being a CEO of a television company including a dozen trips to Cannes and the south of France to sell program ideas to world networks. Looking back I am lucky to have had decades of experiences to jam into a short set of remarks.  I'm pleased to note, no one one fell asleep.
Photo Courtesy of Mike Griffin
    We spent a few minutes talking about moving from Fact to Fiction, making the transition from journalism to writing novels. I spoke of the two historical mystery/thrillers  THE SANIBEL ARCANUM  and THE SANIBEL CAYMAN-DISC featuring the exploits of Tim Calvin. 
Photo Courtesy of Mike Griffin
       Afterwards, the club was kind enough to permit us a book signing.  Though I've done a lot of public speaking over the years, this was the first to a "hometown" crowd since our move to the Central Coast.  I've heard a quite a few "Well, I never knew that about you..." comments.  Guess I need to go back to work on my "false modesty eh?"


3 comments:

  1. Congratz, pal. I might point out, though, that a good public speaker keeps his hands out of his pockets (first photo)! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Have you considered putting them up for sale as E-Books on Amazon Kindle?

    ReplyDelete
  3. All of those years of Media Training coming in to play too-- hee hee
    CONGRATS!

    ReplyDelete