My Evening at the PROMM

We have the enormous luxury in Central Pennsylvania of having a few independent bookshops to choose from. I have frequently written about Cupboard Maker Books in Enola since we’ve done some signings there.

We love that place.

But there are other, equally wonderful places! I had the signal pleasure of being asked by Deb Beamer, proprietor of the Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop, to come and speak at the PROMM.

PROMM is a regular feature on the Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop (which I will abbreviate from here on out with MMBS). It stands for Peculiar Random Odd Mysteries and More and takes place on the fourth Wednesday evening of each month, weather permitting.

As you may guess from the acronym, Deb’s not limiting her program to our many and varied mystery writers in the area. She also includes “Peculiar” and “Odd”, thus allowing me to wedge a foot into the door. I also fall under the “Random” category.

I was thrilled, despite not having done any formal presentations since I left the Navy lo those many decades ago.

She wanted me to talk about my book “Fed, Safe, and Sheltered” feeling it might be interesting to her audience since what could be more important than strengthening your own life? It’s not a mystery how you can do this, but it is a mystery why so many of our cultural forces are aligned against you doing exactly this. Looking at it that way, I do fit into the mystery category after all!

I had to talk for half an hour and answer questions afterwards. Talking endlessly is never a problem for me, but talking in some kind of rational order without too much backtracking and throat-clearing is, so I duly wrote out my speech and I practiced.

I practiced multiple times until I was sure I could cover what I wanted to say in half an hour, giving plenty of time to answer questions afterwards from hopefully eager members of the audience. If you ever have the privilege of public speaking, rehearse in front of a mirror behind a closed door with a timer. It makes the final speech ever so much smoother. More importantly, you can be sure you do fill the allotted time without going over by too much.

The topic of my speech was critical. I didn’t want to give the paying customers an extremely cursory rehash of the book. “Fed, Safe, and Sheltered” is 348 pages long. I did want to give them something actionable that they could potentially use right away.

I came up with three takeaways which I’ll share here now:

1) Be aware of the water you swim in. That is, what are the messages constantly being beamed at you and should you follow them? Are they good for you?

2) Pay Attention! Do not sleepwalk through your life. Don’t function on autopilot. When you pay attention, you spend less, eat better, exercise more, do a better job at your job, and connect better with the people around you.

3) You have more control than you think you do. Life offers us a lot of choice; sometimes tiny choices and sometimes life-altering ones and every size in-between. If you understand the culture’s messages and you’re paying attention, you can make the choices that will improve or strengthen your life. You can make the choices that will help you reach your goals.

I also had an addendum:

Embrace the power of NO, so you can say YES when it matters to you.

Everything Bill and I have done since we got married in 1993 allowed us to become full-time writers today. All the lifestyle changes we made (and we made a lot of them) are based on those three takeaways, along with plenty of saying NO to anything that didn’t get us where we wanted to go. I go into great detail in “Fed, Safe, and Sheltered” about all our lifestyle changes.

I’m happy to say the audience seemed to enjoy my speech. Of equal importance, Deb was pleased as well. We sold some books and I want to think that I gave each audience member something to think about.

Remember, this works for everyone, no matter what’s going on with your life.

1) Understand the water you swim in.

2) Pay attention

3) You have more control than you think you do.

Say NO when it doesn’t matter so you can say YES when it does.

And thanks again to you, Deb, for hosting me.

Bill came along to perform in his capacity of “husband of Instagram”. He graciously took pictures and carried heavy boxes of books. Even more, he stepped aside and let me (me!) be the center of attention.

It was fun and I had a terrific time.

If you’re in the area, visit Deb’s shop and you’ll have a terrific time as well. She knows her stuff and she’s got an extensive variety of titles available. She hosts a wide array of events and authors including big names like Craig Johnson and Misty Simon. If you like mysteries, Deb has something for you. If you can’t get to Mechanicsburg, visit her online.