{"id":7360,"date":"2016-04-17T21:24:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T21:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=7360"},"modified":"2016-04-25T00:17:58","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T00:17:58","slug":"a-lovely-authors-luncheon-with-the-poughkeepsie-junior-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/a-lovely-authors-luncheon-with-the-poughkeepsie-junior-league\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lovely Authors\u2019 Luncheon with the Junior League of Poughkeepsie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I attend\u00aded an Authors\u2019 Lun\u00adcheon host\u00aded by the Junior League of Pough\u00adkeep\u00adsie. The lun\u00adcheon was a ben\u00ade\u00adfit to raise mon\u00adey for a JLP\u2013Dutchess Com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty Col\u00adlege scholarship\u2014a cause I was hon\u00adored to be a part of.<\/p>\n

I was one of three authors, the oth\u00ader two being his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal fic\u00adtion authors Alyson Rich\u00adman and Kathy Leonard Czepiel. We signed copies of our books, read from our works, did a Q&A (dur\u00ading which I got to wax poet\u00adic about my favorite authors), and con\u00adversed with the women at our respec\u00adtive tables.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve done sev\u00ader\u00adal of these events, and I have to say this was the best one\u2014the best planned, best coor\u00addi\u00adnat\u00aded, best exe\u00adcut\u00aded, best food, best con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion, best fel\u00adlow authors\u2014the best all around lit\u00ader\u00adary event I\u2019ve attend\u00aded. My thanks go out to Susan and Mary Beth, as well as the oth\u00ader mas\u00adter\u00adful orga\u00adniz\u00aders of the event, for mak\u00ading the expe\u00adri\u00adence so pleas\u00adant and seam\u00adless. I thor\u00adough\u00adly enjoyed myself.<\/p>\n

\"OHMFM_Cover_1600pxh_300dpi\"<\/a>At one point, after I had done my read\u00ading from One Hun\u00addred Miles from Man\u00adhat\u00adtan<\/em> (to a rapt and delight\u00adful audi\u00adence, I might add), I stood on the side of the room observ\u00ading the entire scene: all of these love\u00adly, accom\u00adplished women who were there to hear from me, to buy my books and to bask in what I loved to do more than any\u00adthing: to tell sto\u00adries, to be my nat\u00adur\u00adal racon\u00adteur self.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tough job, but some\u00adbody\u2019s got to do it.<\/p>\n

One of the women from my table, Wendy, saw me observ\u00ading the scene from the side\u00adlines and came over to talk to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u2026Chris,\u201d she said with a twin\u00adkle in her eye, \u201cwhat are you doing? Think\u00ading how lucky you are to be sur\u00adround\u00aded by so many beau\u00adti\u00adful, accom\u00adplished women?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a mat\u00adter of fact,\u201d I said, \u201cthat\u2019s exact\u00adly what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughed, arch\u00ading her back, cradling her glass of lemon\u00adade in both hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeri\u00adous\u00adly,\u201d I said. \u201cI was just think\u00ading of how much I wish I could go back in time, to when I was thir\u00adteen years old and knew I want\u00aded to be a writer, and say to my 13-year-old self, \u2018Don\u2019t wor\u00adry, bud\u00addy. Hang in there, it\u2019s going to work out. One day you\u2019ll be sign\u00ading your book and speak\u00ading in front of a room of love\u00adly, accom\u00adplished women. Just keep writ\u00ading, bud\u00addy.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

She laughed again, so hard this time that she was on the verge of tears.<\/p>\n

Not a bad way to spend an after\u00adnoon. :)<\/p>\n

Thank you, Junior League of Pough\u00adkeep\u00adsie<\/a>, for the oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adty to help you with your excel\u00adlent cause.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I attend\u00aded an Authors\u2019 Lun\u00adcheon host\u00aded by the Junior League of Pough\u00adkeep\u00adsie. The lun\u00adcheon was a ben\u00ade\u00adfit to raise mon\u00adey for a JLP\u2013Dutchess Com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,30,116,117,19,77,78,118,1,13,14,233],"tags":[277,272,279,229,274,278,273,276,275,280,93],"class_list":["post-7360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-signings","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-events","category-festivals","category-fiction","category-novels","category-one-hundred-miles-from-manhattan","category-readings","category-uncategorized","category-writers","category-writingexperiences","category-writing-life","tag-100-miles-from-manhattan","tag-authors-luncheon","tag-book-club","tag-books","tag-jlp","tag-junior-league","tag-junior-league-of-poughkeepsie","tag-one-hundred-miles-from-manhattan","tag-reading","tag-volunteerism","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7360"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7370,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7360\/revisions\/7370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}