Ten minute speeches. In just ten minutes how much can you tell someone about your book? While judging Original Oratory for the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association I got some great examples of a person can present a lot of material in a short period of time. In less than a month I will be at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference participating in fifteen minute meetings with publishers and agents. These students demonstrated how much information can be presented in few minutes. If any of the young speakers had said they had a non-fiction book, I would have purchased it.

One young lady from the state of Washington talked about her campaign against physician-assisted suicide as it was on the ballot for last November. I learned how much a high school student, who can’t even vote, can do in support of a cause. Her speech included how to deal with the disappointment of watching your cause be defeated on Election Day. She could have sold a book on working for a cause, losing, and moving on to fight again. Another young lady spoke on the importance of improving life by paying attention to the little things. She used Thumper, from the movie Bambi, as an example of exploring and being joyful in everything – another good idea for a book. So what did I learn at this competition? The number one lesson was a reminder that wonderful things happen when you’re willing to put in a lot of hard work. Which means I have a lot of work to do before CCWC starts on May 13, 2009.