Tulsa Town Hall 2008-2009 and The Maui Writers Conference in 2007

Recently I attended the first event of the Tulsa Town Hall series at the Performing Arts Center in downtown Tulsa for the 2008-2009 74th Season of this event. Tulsa Town Hall is a non-profit educational cultural organization, which brings speakers into town who are of profound interest.

Mr. John Stossel, co-anchor of ABC's 20/20 program, spoke in regards to the topic: "Pandering to Fear: The Media's Crisis Mentality." Of course, being a reader, I did purchase a signed copy of one of his New York Times Bestsellers, GIVE ME A BREAK, (How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.) He was a wonderful speaker. I already happened to have a hardback copy of one of his other books, entitled MYTHS, LIES AND DOWNRIGHT STUPIDITY, (Get the Shovel--Why Everything You Know Is Wrong).

Mr. Stossel mentioned the three areas where he usually gets to speak at these type of engagements which include places like Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in Ohio, and Pennsylvania. If more people could only take their heads out of the sand and try to discover more about the current events that are going on in our own world and our own country, the knowledge and power it would give us would be invaluable.

The following speakers are on board for the 2008-2009 season, and they include Jeannette Walls (THE GLASS CASTLE), Tina Brown, (THE CULTURE OF CELEBRITY IN THE TABLOID ERA), Rick Steves (EUROPE THROUGH THE BACK DOOR), and David Lampton (CHINESE POWER AND WHAT IT MEANS TO AMERICA). Therefore, I have set a goal to become more aware of current events from both the East Coast and the West Coast, as well as overseas in other countries. It is a small world, and we are not isolated, so it is urgent that people make it a point to gain as much information about other cultures and parts of our own country as possible.

On the Labor Day Weekend of 2007, I was in Maui, Hawaii for the Maui Writers Conference. Even though it looked like paradise, it was a lot of hard work. Each morning, I was up at 4 a.m. making plans for the day, ordering breakfast to have while on the balcony overlooking the waves washing in from the ocean, and taking pictures of the beautiful mountain across the bay. Yes, we did have an ocean front hotel room, and it was wonderful to be right next to the water, but I urge anyone else who makes that trip to be sure and set aside some time to also enjoy the sites of the islands. Since the plane trip itself is a 10-hour flight from the Tulsa area, a 5-day weekend simply is not enough time to be able to really enjoy the islands. When I finally do go back for the next writers conference in a few more years, the plan is to also provide more time for going on a glass bottom boat, and going to see Pearl Harbor. It is a beautiful experience, but also rather lonely and bittersweet and at the same time, it is exciting and exhilarating to know this is a fabulous tropical paradise that one might return to visit again in the future.

The 2008 Writers Conference was held in downtown Honolulu. For anyone who is interested in writing a novel or a screenplay, or making a book proposal to the agents, editors, and publishers who attend this big event, you may look up the web site at www.mauiwriters.com and make your plans for the future. I hope to see you there.

Also the latest findings in the search for good books to read include the following, which I can only recommend because they are on my desk at this time: HONOR THYSELF, by Danielle Steel; FOREIGN BODY by Robin Cook; DUMA KEY by Stephen King; END OF DAYS (Predictions and Prophecies About the End of the World) by Sylvia Browne, and THE LOGIC OF LIFE (The Rational Economics of an Irrational World), by Tim Harford.

Many thanks to those friends who read this Blog.