If you live anywhere near the metro Atlanta area, I’d love to invite you to come hear me speak.

Yes, that’s right! I’m going to have to overcome my speaking jitters and tell you all about … something. I’m not sure what yet — it’s a secret that I’m working on. The Secret of the Scared Writer.

I thought becoming a writer meant that you could squirrel away with your keyboard like a hermit. But publishers aren’t too crazy about books that don’t sell. So they expect authors to do scary things — like speak in front of people! And invite people to come buy your books — even when you write your name in them.

The truth is, I’m kind of excited about this, and I’d love to meet you. I’ll be here — speaking at the Friends of the Smyrna Public Library’s Third Thursday Program. I’ll work up something fun to present — I promise. I do have a teacher’s bag somewhere — full of props and tricks. I’m pretty good at 3-year-old show and tell.

If you’re reading my blog and you’re an old friend, new friend, red friend, blue friend … or just a generally nice person who likes the smell of books, I’d love to see you. (please come, OK? somebody?)

I’ll be speaking on Thursday, August 17 at 7:30 p.m. somewhere in the Smyrna Public Library. If you think my talk is boring, at least you can visit this beautiful building and maybe browse through their collection of over 100,000 books! If you want to see what I’ve been up to, I’ll have copies of my book, From a Daughter’s Heart to Her Mom: 50 Reflections on Living Well.

I had a nice surprise last week — book critic Joyce Handzo from Christian Book Previews wrote a very thoughtful review of my book — which you can read here. You can also read a couple of excerpts from the book here.