With Covid restrictions lifting in Australia, we got to entertain!
The wonderful Sarah (below, right), from the Rainbow Literary Society, contacted me and fellow author, Rebecca Langham, to read at the Stonewall (the one in Sydney). Rebecca had read at one of their events in 2019, and they were ready to follow up with another author reading in 2020. But like everything, it got bumped.
In the online promotion, Rebecca and I were promoted as ‘successful international authors’ (see below), which is a nice way to introduce us. Let’s just hope it’s true one day. Hello best seller, looking forward to getting acquainted.
It’s not easy to get a large audience.
Both of us are with the same small queer publisher, NineStar Press, and we often see our fellow authors back in the US attend events where there are plenty of potential readers.
That’s a harder thing to do here in Australia, unless you’re with a large local publisher. So, our audience were the people we invited, and a few groups we had to convince to stay.
My husband complained I wasn’t addressing our friends, but there were drinkers out of his line of site who we were working on. Many left. Author readings weren’t part of their Saturday afternoon plan. But a few moved closer to hear what we had to read.
A Q&A session followed.
Someone asked “What was the weirdest thing you’ve had to research?” Rebecca admitted she once had to read up on what happens to a vagina after extended periods of horse riding.
And even with the limitation of audience numbers, this was a successful event in my eyes. The friends we brought were genuinely interested in our books, and bought plenty.
Thank you Sarah.
You gave us a chance to play author again!
kevin klehr - author 