OC BOOK LAUNCH: LAGUNA ART MUSEUM

Thanks to all at Laguna Art Museum for hosting and organizing a wonderfully successful Orange County book launch for The Pilgrim's Staff.

PC and Sandie Ward
Photo credit: Sandie Ward Photography, TheFoodStalker

We brought in a good crowd--many old friends, and a good number of new friends--and the response to the reading from the book was enthusiastic.  Best of all, the discussion that followed my talk and reading was lively and thoroughly entertaining.  It lasted a good half hour, and could have gone on for another hour if I hadn't stopped it.  Time for people to enjoy what was left of their Sunday afternoon.

Gregg Chadwick, who made the painting for the cover.  Find him at  Speed of Life
Photo credit: Sandie Ward Photography.

This actually gets better--or rather, I keep getting a better sense of how to do it.  I read shorter selections from the book, and spend more time between passages on introduction and elaboration.  And allow much more time for discussion.  After a half hour of me, people are eager to jump in themselves and speak from their own experience.

It's really a pleasure to know that the ideas I was working with in The Pilgrim's Staff strike a chord with such a wide variety of people.  Misunderstood, unconscious and misused masculine energy is capable of causing so much harm, not only in personal relationships but on the world stage.  It's something that is important to talk about--and people, once triggered, are eager to talk about it.  What I'm lacking at the moment is the know-how, how to reach more venues for these readings and discussions.  In the coming months, I'm going to be trying for university and college departments dedicated to gender studies.  If readers have any tips for me, I'd be grateful to receive them...