Talking to the Rotary

My boss at the newspaper belongs to the local Rotary Club (I belong to the Optimist Club) and Tuesday was his day to provide the luncheon meeting's program. He asked me a few months ago if I'd be the guest.

He introduced me by saying that when he interviewed me for the job, and we chatted about my hobbies, I was certainly the first editor he ever knew who wrote science fiction.

Having served on dozens of con panels by now, I gave what I feel was a quick but useful overview of the genre, focusing on Texas's role. I brought a few books, and reading some of the blurbs was very entertaining for the crowd.

My texts were the three "Republic of Texas" books by Daniel daCruz (The Ayes of Texas, Texas on the Rocks, and Texas Triumphant), "The Texas Israeli War: 1999", "For Texas and Zed" and "A Spectre is Haunting Texas".

I also mentioned "A Canticle for Liebowitz", pointing out the role Texarkana plays in the story, and that next year is the 50th anniversary of its release.

The talk was well received, and I even had a few people visit with me afterwards.