I didn’t feel nervous, I was fully prepared, I had rehearsed my words and even published them HERE.
Although I have in the past successfully delivered talks without using notes, this time, just in case, I jotted down key words on a piece of paper which I enclosed in my hand. It was to a be a persuasive talk – Number 9 in the Eastbourne Speakers Club Competent Communicator Manual. For the first time, I did’t even pass it through my mentor, who has become a good friend over the past eighteen months. I really must try and do this all by myself, I thought. I wasn’t at all nervous.
Our respected Toastmaster introduced me with the usual fanfare and welcomed me on stage. I stood in the spotlight, the title of my talk filling my head.
I stood there, before thirteen fellow speakers who had become friends, and my mind froze. I took a deep breath and caught the eye of a person in the audience who smiled in anticipation. And still my mind was blank. I didn’t even think to glance at the paper clasped in my left hand.
“Fellow Toastmasters…”
Forgetting my carefully prepared strong opening, I started and gradually warmed to my subject as the sentences came out in a disordered jumble – until I remembered to seek refuge in my notes. I left the stage.
Now for the feedback – the most valuable and encouraging part of the evening. My neighbour handed me her evaluation, scribbled on a piece of paper. “I want to order three signed copies of your book,” she said. I gasped. I was not expecting to sell any copies this evening.
But this was the penultimate speech before qualification of my competency as a speaker and my official evaluator did not let me off lightly. She missed the initial purpose of my speech, where was the strong beginning? And it would be better to have my notes openly on the rostrum than hide them furtively in my hand. She offered a few tips and said I had a good way with words and my sincerity came over well. She strongly recommended I take on board her suggestions and do this speech again.
I felt as if I were back at school – but I had come here to learn, I told myself. Afterwards, I went to her.
“Are you okay with what I said?” she asked in her familiar, blunt manner.
I thanked her, my mind already planning some changes for next time. The most important lesson I’d learned was to beware of over confidence.
“I want to buy your book,” she said. “How much is it?”
Wow!
You can read more about my book on my website: http://janebwye.com/mybooks/breath-of-africa
I was very grateful when he decided to creep in on a Quakers’ Meeting one Sunday morning when I was there with my Aunt who is an Elder. Dagda is a Native American and training to be a medicine man so I suppose he felt right at home there. As I sat like everyone else, opening up to Spirit with my eyes closed, I had two whole pages dictated to me in my head. Unfortunately that means that Book 4 will also need to be written but will be a humdinger of an adventure featuring Navajo magic both good and bad. So I can dust off my paws, finish Book 3 and then leap into Book 4…for which I already know the opening scene.
Thank you, Jane, for hosting me on your blog today! My new book, Eve: A Christmas Ghost Story is the prequel to the popular Psychic Surveys series. Featuring two of the Psychic Surveys team – Theo Lawson and Vanessa Patterson – it’s set between 1899 and 1999 and is loosely inspired by a true event.
someone – something – was rushing at her, as fleetingly as whatever had been in Adelaide’s house. Refusing to let fear get a stranglehold, she turned back, her aim to confront it. A black wisp of a shape, like wood smoke, sideswiped her, before fading into nothing. Staring after it, wondering what it was, something else caught her attention. At the far end of the second room was something more substantial: a little girl, staring at her.
All this and more in The 9th Hour, released November 17, 2015 by Crooked Cat Publishing.
Jane Bwye 