Since I retired from pastoral ministry just over two years ago, I haven’t done much public speaking. A few things here and there, but nothing compared to the weekly Sunday sermons I preached and the almost weekly Bible classes and ministry meetings (did these things for 25 years).

Mostly, I’ve been busy writing. Speaking with my hands, you could say.

But over the next several weeks that’s going to change. I have four different speaking engagements: two book clubs, a writer’s conference and an historical museum event. I’m genuinely looking forward to all of these. Interacting with people and public speaking are the two things I miss most since leaving pastoral ministry. But really, I don’t regret the decision. It really was time, and God has opened this door for me to write novels and I’m so thankful he has.

I’ll mention the 4 upcoming events, just in case anyone reading this lives nearby and would like to join us:

• Saturday, October 20th – Perry, FL – Book signing at a local restaurant and meeting with the Christian Ladies Book Club to discuss The Reunion. Here’s something interesting…it was during a visit with this same book club just over a year ago where I got the idea to locate a major subplot of this book. I actually mention Perry and folks who live in the area should easily recognize some of the places I described.
• Sunday, October 28th – Caroll, IA – I’ll be meeting with a book club to chat about The Reunion at 2:30 PM, CST (3:30pm, EST) by speakerphone. If any other book club coordinators are reading this, and you’d like me to meet with your group in a similar way, just click on the Contact link to the left and send me an email.
• Wed – Sat, October 31st – Nov 3rd – I’ll be teaching a fiction track at the CLASS writers conference in New Mexico, just about an hour north of Santa Fe. The title of my class is “Writing Fiction Readers Really Care About.” The conference will be held at a ghost Ranch amidst some of the prettiest scenery out West. Here’s a link to find out more: http://www.classeminars.org/page-writing.php?pageid=41 
• Saturday, November 17th at 10am – I’ll be speaking locally in downtown Daytona Beach at the Halifax Historical Museum about writing an American novel, and describing how I go about uncovering all the historical facts and background in my books (particularly the ones set in Florida).

And one last speaking engagement I’m real excited about, which has just been confirmed, but it’s way off in March 2013. I’ll be teaching a fiction mentoring track at the Florida Christian Writers Conference, as well as delivering one of the keynote messages. I’ll be sharing the keynote responsibilities with best-selling authors Steven James and Alton Gansky. So excited about this event. More details to follow.