Anything out of the ordinary leads to its own bit of nervousness and even anxiety.
Most of the time my presentations are down pat, almost scripted. I’ve designed them so that they carry their own story arc and involve a range of emotions, tragedy and humour, not necessarily in equal proportions, but each offsetting the other. [...]

Early last Friday morning I took a taxi to the train station to catch the train to Bologne.
What an adventure that was! Imagine trying to figure out a train billboard with platforms and schedules in another language.
I found the number of my train and then there was this perplexing phrase after it 1CL testa. It [...]

I can’t help thinking about that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Yosemite Sam lured Bugs into swabbing his desks by offering him a world cruise. After the tables have been turned and Yosemite Sam is thoroughly defeated, Bugs is leaning back against a beach umbrella sighing, “Oh the places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen!”
Well, [...]

Tomorrow I’m off to Italy!
And I’m actually getting more excited than nervous!
Maybe I won’t trip on the way to the podium.
Maybe I won’t fall off the podium (like I did in Denmark!).
Maybe I’ll be able to remember which faces go with which names.
I certainly hope so.
I’m doing my Wanting Mor presentation in two different places. [...]

Everyone should watch a movie in a cramped airline seat, with a six or four inch monitor, however big it is, and with lousy ear plugs. That way, they can really tell if a movie is any good.
I always tend to watch movies after the hype has died down somewhat.
I wasn’t very curious about Avatar. [...]

Yikes!
That’s about as much Italian as I know! But I’m assured there’ll be a translator.
At least I’ve worked with one before. It was in Mexico, and his name was Pepe. The best thing about him was that not only did he translate simultaneously as I spoke, he was able to infuse emotion into it.
I hope [...]

I’m staying back at my parent’s house, ‘home’, the house I grew up in and yet it doesn’t feel like ‘home’ to me at all.
This last month has been crazy, living out of a suitcase, hardly seeing my own family.
My mom’s doing better. Today she forgot her walker behind a couple of times and hobbled [...]

What an experience!
I’m glad I didn’t know that I could have become a librarian when I was a kid, because if I’d become a librarian, I never would have bothered being a writer, I think.
I’d have been having too much fun just reading all those fantastic books!
It wasn’t the first library convention I’d been to, [...]

Fitna is an Islamic term that I think roughly translates into trial, but it’s more like a test of faith, I think. Don’t quote me on it though. I’m no Islamic scholar.
I’ve just heard the term bandied about all my life and figure that’s what it means.
These last few weeks have been a great trial [...]

On Wednesday, I had the most difficult presentation situation I’ve ever encountered, and it was at a school I thought would be easy.
Yes, it was an inner city school, but I’ve done loads of inner city schools before!
I’ve even presented to downright scary kids, kids that had made other presenters cry.
The fact that it was scorching [...]