skyring

I'll never be as polished as Netstation, but i can stand up in front of a crowd now and talk BookCrossing. Must have been 30 or 40 people at the Monday Club, a weekly afternoon gathering for elderly folk at a local church hall. They play a trivia comp, have a guest speaker, then afternoon tea and home.

Ages from 60 up, including the organisers.

A very organised lady running the show, and she called me in January, giving me the details, and again a few days ago, just in case I'd forgot.

I turned up for the tail end of trivia - and there were some very tough questions! - and jean the organiser helped me set up my table and clip on a mike for the hard of hearing. I spoke for about 45 minutes, answering questions along the way, and had a fine old time. Not too sure how entertaining I was, but I tried to cover all the basics and add a bit of colour and get the audience involved. Put a smile in your voice and the audience smiles along.

Really, they were lovely old folk. Mostly women, but that's the demographics at that end of the market, I'm afraid. I had a few books to give away, including a Patrick O'Brian biography from Unbalanced, which went to a PO'B fan who was on his third run through. Bookmarks and stuff to hand out.

Afterwards, they presented me with a plate of shortbread and flowers - marigolds arranged with birch leaves - as a thank you, and then we all sat down and had afternoon tea. Jean steered me to a table with a couple of lonely women and we had a fine old natter.

I don't think too many of them have access to the Internet, but not to worry.

Things to do next time.
* Make time to do release notes before the talk
* have ABEbooks bookmarks for people who ask me about my online bookshop
* Print out some handouts with the salient facts
* Have a big brightly coloured notice in one of those stand-up plastic things
* A recent list of "Go hunting" locations.

And on that note, here's my response to the weekly book-release states for Australia:

> "In The Wild": Towns with the most books released in the last 30 days
> which have not yet been found:
> Brisbane QLD 163
> Canberra ACT 135
> Queanbeyan NSW 132
> Civic ACT 124
> Noarlunga SA 120
> Mayfield NSW 117
> Goolwa SA 101
> Sydney NSW 82
> Adelaide SA 78
> Mandurah WA 71

This week's encouragement award goes to the township of Sydney. Number
8 in all of Australia! That's pretty impressive.