[blparent] OT: Question About Public Appearances

Wed Dec 16 14:39:57 UTC 2015

It's funny how sometimes people just naturally see us as ordinary people and other times all they can think about is blindness. It's as if when the blindness takes over, the rational part of their brains just switches off. Sometimes, and you have to choose your moments to pull this off, I'll say "It's normal for you to be confused about blindness. After all, people are scared of the dark. It's a natural fear, but I'm sure you can get past it. Now, can we talk about "XYZ." This is the strategy I used with my doctor to get her back on track so she could function effectively as a physician.

The odd thing is you can go for long periods and not encounter the CLDP (clueless light-dependent person). I never get this at work, the very place where I might expect people to be skeptical. I'll bet the next time you do a signing, people will be interested in you as a writer, at least I hope they will. If not, maybe the ideas offered on the list will help you put the conversation back on track.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Bose [mailto:jen10514 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 9:59 PM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] OT: Question About Public Appearances

JoElizabeth, thanks for post. it doesn't seem entirely off-topic to me because here we are on this list, trying to present ourselves to the world as we see ourselves: Parents, professionals, homemakers or whatever else we might be, with the blindness just being one of many facets of ourselves. But we probably all, at one time or another, encounter people who just can't imagine what they would do as blind people and can't seem to see past that. Depending on whether you seem to have some time to engage with the people, I wonder if you could try just directing the conversation toward them and asking them about themselves, what they want to find at the event, what kind of books they typically like, if they've ever thought of writing about their lives. I realize you're there to talk about your book, and maybe some of the people will actually ask you about it and be genuinely interested in it, which would be refreshing. But for those people who are really caught up in their amazement over how you can live with blindness, it could help you connect with them in a deeper way. Or maybe you could just generally talk about how adaptable people really can be when they need to be, and that they would find ways to meet challenges if they ever needed to. Now I'm intrigued to read your novel, too. Congratulations for creating it! You're probably not the only author who has to deal with this kind of stuff. Maybe other authors on authors' lists or in writers' groups would have some thoughts for you.

All the best. Keep at it! 

Jen

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 15, 2015, at 7:32 PM, Jo Elizabeth Pinto via BlParent <blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> I’m sorry for the off topic post, but I not sure where else I can ask this question, and I know a lot of you have had experience with public speaking in various settings over the years.  I’m hoping to pick your collective brains and learn from your hard-won wisdom.  *Smile.*  I had a  book signing on Saturday for the novel I published last summer.  The novel has done reasonably well in Kindle, audio, and paperback formats, selling locally and online, but the book signing was a bust.  Part of the problem was the snowy, windy weather, and part of it was the fact that the bookstore that was hosting the event didn’t advertise well and the location was out of the way.  The event was a book fair with over sixty authors present, so my table was only one of many.  I had done a local book signing in my home town that went very well.  I advertised it in the local paper, passed out  fliers, the whole bit.  It was a fun event, and I talked to a lot of people.  So I thought I knew what to expect.  I was wrong.
> Once I got out of my home town where people were at least somewhat familiar with me as a whole person and not a blind person, nobody could get past my disability.  Practically everyone who came up to my table asked me how I could write a book.  Not about the creative process, not about the story, but how I could type as a blind person, or how I could use a computer, or even how I got to the book signing.  I found myself explaining that I had learned to type when I was in the fourth grade, and that my computer was equipped with text-to-speech (screen-reading) software, and that my dad had brought me to the book signing, and we had gone out to breakfast on the way there—I barely managed not to add that I had even found my mouth with my fork and put the scrambled eggs in and chewed them up all by myself.  Sorry for the sarcasm, but I felt frustrated and humiliated by the end of the day.  My dad, who I had brought along because he would usually be very outgoing and good at working the crowd and steering people to my table, either didn’t notice what was going on or wanted no part of it because he disengaged and wandered around talking to other authors about their books.  When the friend who had agreed to do the afternoon shift with me got there, she was better than my dad had been about directing people to my table, but I still couldn’t get them past their amazement over the mundane so they would chat with me about what I was really there for.  So my question is, if public appearances are going to be worthwhile, I need to think of a way to redirect the conversation toward where it needs to go.  Maybe a humorous one-liner?  Since I can’t scream at people, you know.  I realize they mean well and it’s a matter of education, I suppose, but man, does it get old!  It wasn’t that I didn’t have a nice display.  I had visuals for the sighted people to look at with printed copies of the book reviews, I had copies of the book, I had bookmarks and business cards for them to take away.  I have assurances from people that my display looked professional, so that isn’t the issue.
> 
> To be fair, it wasn’t all in vain.  I met some interesting authors and found out about some good resources.  But overall, as with  most ventures, there are hurdles to overcome.
> 
> Thanks for letting me pick your brains!
> Jo Elizabeth
> 
> "The Bright Side of Darkness"
> is my newly published novel,
> available in Kindle, audio, and paperback formats at Amazon.com. 
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