Boca Grande and Sarasota, Florida

Wednesday I spoke in Boca Grande and Thursday in Sarasota. Susan Luehrs went with me to Boca, which was a great help as she did a lot of the setting up (and packing up) of the artifacts I always set out for the audience to look at before and after a talk. Harm deBlij, the geographer, had been asked to introduce me there. (He wrote the Foreword to my book.) The Boca Community Center had a huge screen for my PowerPoint presentation, and some good questions from the 30 or so members of the audience.
In Sarasota, the event was at the home of Marcia Lang, a sometime Chautauquan. It was a comfortable affair, with about 10 guests. Several of them had served in the Peace Corps, and some guests had traveled widely.

Dress rehearsal

Am in St. Petersburg (St. Pete Beach, really) with Susan and Dick Luehrs, and am not quite warm yet. Tuesday morning Susan and I went to a Thrift Shop to buy a psuedo-baby doll, for demonstrating how an African woman carries a baby on her back. On the phone I'd been told there were no dolls at the shop, but a stuffed rabbit with green corduroy pants sounded intriguing. Ended up getting a teddy bear.

My talk at Eckerd College was scheduled for 12:15 p.m. On Inauguration Day! Not surprisingly, I had a very small audience: six--and two were Susan and Dick, and two were the organizers, Oz and Cathy Scogna.

But I gave the talk, and as Susan agreed, it was a good dress rehearsal with the new PowerPoint presentation, as I found I must go through the pictures faster. The audience enjoyed it and a few good questions were asked.

This evening we went to a travelog at the college, and by chance met someone who was in my class in high school. Neither of us recognized the other or our names, but she knew all the same people I did, so we must have at least been acquainted. I learned there's an annual reunion of all my high school's alums in Florida!

I'm on my way!

Left Chautauqua Thursday, and that very afternoon I had what sounded like big trouble with my new (to me) 2007 Honda Civic hybrid. Heard a grinding sound, and when I slowed down it sounded like I was dragging something. Turned out to be the plastic "pan" under the car, like a piece of heavy vinyl, that had come loose at its back end and WAS dragging. Not a mechanical problem after all! A nice mechanic fixed it for me, and after paying I gave him a bonus of a copy of my book.

Finally left the snow in West Virginia and had a good remainder of the trip to Myrtle Beach, SC, where my hosts, Bob and Carol Reeder, had a group of friends over this evening who asked good questions and bought some books.

Surprisingly, it's below freezing temp here, but tomorrow morning I leave for Florida and hope to find some warmth at last.

Nancy's "Bagels and Books" went very well, with at least 25 people. Some people brought their books for me to sign, but 18 folks bought them. I spoke about writing the book, and the Alice R. O'Grady Award for Excellence in Science, and, on request, Laura Damon and I demonstrated hilife dancing.

Since then I've been furiously trying to accomplish all the things that need doing before I leave on Thursday. The PowerPoint program is almost ready, and I've just gotten another booking in Florida, making six in that state.

Another friend, Ann Beebe, is hosting a "Bagels and Books" event on Monday morning, Jan. 12, inviting a different crowd from the one at Chautauqua Institution. Last I heard, she had responses from six people who were planning to attend; as she lives out in the country, the weather will make a big difference as to who comes. Today it's snowed all day, adding about a foot to what was already on the ground.

Bagels and Books Event

The first "Bagels and Books" event will take place here at Chautauqua Institution on Wednesday morning, January 7. Nancy and Norman Karp will host the get-together in their home, with the price of admission being $10 for the book, which I of course will sign.

It will be informal; I'll talk a bit about West Africa and my experiences there, answer questions (that's always the most interesting part) and sign copies of the book for each of the guests.

Not sure what Nancy is serving along with the bagels, but it's certain to be something good.

THE NEXT STEP

Of course, planning a book tour involves lots of work: contacting friends and asking them to either host a book party, set one up at a bookstore or library, or send me email addresses of bookstores, libraries, schools, etc. so I can contact them. I have quite a few of the latter, but not enough time to do all the contacting.

Therefore I'm concentrating on Florida and Texas right now, which will take me into mid-February.

The Christmas and Hanukkah holidays happily interfered with my project, but now I'm back on track.

I think today is the day of the run-off presidential election in Ghana; I must find out how it came out.