HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Remember…events? I gave a TedX talk—maybe two months ago (here it is) in front of 850 people. All side by side, in the same room. It was—current events aside—terrifying. Exhilarating, when it was over. But terrifying at the time, and super stressful in the months of preparation before. But overcoming the apprehension was so much of the battle.
And there were moments when I thought—Toastmasters. Toastmasters. The Toastmaster people know what to do. Why did I never do that? But it was too late.
The wonderful Grace Topping, though, was way WAY ahead of me. Grace—who is so wonderful, and so genuine, and so authentic, and it was such a joy, I remember so well, when she got her first contract, and her first book came out. To such acclaim! And she’s a Toastmaster graduate. Smart Grace!
Well, now she’s a veteran author, and a dear sister Guppy, yay, and hurray, her brand new STAGING WARS is out right now! And we are so thrilled to celebrate her. And I love this story about how she was brave, and nimble and then—trusted herself and succeeded.
Writer and Now Speaker
I was absolutely thrilled when my first book was published. I finally had become a published writer.
The icing on the cake came when my hometown library invited me to attend a meeting of their Friends of the Library group, followed by a meeting of the library’s book club, whose members would be discussing my book. Back-to-back sessions.
Since I had spent years working on the book, I knew it inside and out and would be well prepared to answer any questions I received about my characters and the plot. Did I say that it took me ten years to get published?
On the day of my first public appearance, I sat outside the library’s meeting room and waited for the business portion of their meeting to be over. Excitement bubbled up inside of me, and I wondered what they would say about my book. Book clubs take the selection of the books they discuss seriously and usually select pretty serious books. What would they make of my cozy mystery? What if they didn’t like it?
At the appointed time, the head librarian came out and escorted me into the room and toward a lectern facing about forty people. After she introduced me, she leaned toward me and quietly said, “You have an hour.”
Yikes!
They were all expecting a speech—and for an hour. My heart nearly stopped, and at that point, I wished that it had. Then they could have carried me out of there, and I wouldn’t be facing an audience totally unprepared. No speech, no notes, not one iota of an idea of what I was going to say.
I was a writer, accustomed to spending hours each day in the isolation of my office—not a public speaker. I had conducted training sessions at my job, but at those sessions I had a written presentation or detailed notes. Now I was facing a large room of people who were expecting me to give an informative, entertaining, and perhaps witty speech. Oh, my.
Sadly, my heart kept on beating, so I had to stay. Did I say my two sisters had accompanied me to my first public appearance? I couldn’t let them down. After a space of time that felt like five years but was really only seconds, I grasped the lectern to hold myself up, smiled at the people in front of me, and started to speak.
Early in my career, I had joined a Toastmasters’ group at my place of work—a group whose goal is to help people learn how to speak in public. Because after all, I never knew when I might have to defend myself in court for a speeding ticket or give a eulogy at a funeral. I wanted to be prepared. At the meetings, I delivered my icebreaker speech and survived.
After that I learned to think quickly on my feet by participating in table topics—being asked questions related to a theme and expected to speak for one or two minutes. I learned to make the audience feel comfortable by not stating how nervous I was or apologizing if I flubbed something. I learned to scan all areas of the room, making eye contact with members of the audience. I even learned how to handle a heckler or someone who interrupted my speech. But that had been years ago.
Fortunately, the things I learned from Toastmasters came flooding back quickly, and after a few of the things I said evoked some laughs, I relaxed and the words began to flow. I decided to take a chronological approach and started talking about what prompted me to write a mystery, how I got started, what challenges I faced along the way. The audience was receptive to what I had to say, and before I knew it, an hour was nearly up.
After the applause died down, thankfully there was applause, I looked heavenward and said a silent thank you to whatever had guided me to that first Toastmasters meeting.
Now all I had to do was recover and do the same thing at the book club meeting that followed.
Fortunately, I was prepared. I’d become a public speaker.
Have you ever found yourself in a position where you had to give a speech?
Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for a digital copy of Staging Wars (USA only).
HANK: Great question! Tell us about your speaking moments—best? Or worst? Triumphs? Who have you seen who was fabulous? And Grace, hurray! Tell us more about your book!
Laura Bishop’s new home staging business is growing in popularity, though not with her nemesis. Laura has long suspected established interior designer Monica Heller of sabotaging her fledgling company—and having an affair with her late husband.
When the ultra-chic Monica is caught at the scene of a murder, Laura is plenty happy to imagine her languishing in a prison cell with bedsheets far from her normal 600-thread Egyptian cotton. But her delight is short-lived.
When Laura’s friends land on the police radar, Laura must overcome her dislike of Monica to help solve the crime. Not an easy task since Laura and Monica have been at war since second grade.
Grace Topping is a recovering technical writer and IT project manager, accustomed to writing lean, boring documents. Let loose to write fiction, she is now creating murder mysteries and killing off characters who remind her of some of the people she dealt with during her career. Fictional revenge is sweet. She’s using her experience helping friends stage their homes for sale as inspiration for her Laura Bishop mystery series. The series is about a woman starting a new career midlife as a home stager. The first book in the series, Staging is Murder, is a 2019 Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. Grace is the former vice president of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and a member of the SINC Guppies and Mystery Writers of America. She lives with her husband in Northern Virginia.
Webpage: www.gracetopping.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gtoppingauthor
Purchase Links:
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/staging-wars-grace-topping/1136278009?ean=9781635115918
