Due to the sad fact that Tony Hillerman said that his health is too poor for travel, I’ve been asked to do the keynote speech for the Hardboiled Heroes and Cozy Cats conference in Dallas in June. I’ve met Mr. Hillerman before, at the Malice when he won our shared category of best non-fiction.

This is a new experience for me. I’ve never done a keynote. As was pointed out to me by others, I teach, and as a result, I should be used to speaking in front of large groups of people. That’s true, but in middle school, most of them don’t pay attention! Not exactly true, but most of them don’t sit back and listen for inspiration on the process of writing.

It is a bit nerve-wracking to speak in front of large groups of people. I don’t like imagining them in their underwear. I prefer to focus on 1-2 people and just pretend to be carrying on a conversation with them. But it will be different to be carrying on a 1 way conversation with the audience.

So now I’m trying to come up with ideas for the speech. I’m leaning towards talking about how all writers are marketing people and how the process evolves from aspiring author to seasoned professional. It’s a nice tie-in with what I’ll be speaking on in the panel and my work with MurderMustAdvertise.

I’m always up to listening to suggestion on the talk though. I’d love to hear from you on your favorite and least favorite keynote speeches.

Currently reading — 3 books at once for the Best Novel Edgar. I now understand why Anthony Boucher became a speed-reader — it was merely self-preservation.