Behind the scenes of a 10-minute talk

If you could address high school you, what would you say?

I had the opportunity to address students at Mississinawa Valley High School (from which I graduated in 1997) at their National Honor Society ceremony. I was never in NHS, but I’ve talked at two of their ceremonies. I think I’m a few decades away from wisdom, I much prefer to tell stories that teach students to see the world in a different light. But all I had was 10 minutes to talk, so there wasn’t a lot of room for stories, so I took a swing at a few life lessons.

I though it might be interesting to talk about my process of preparing a talk.

Step 1: Rough draft / outline

I free write what I want to say, writing my…

Where Am I Speaking in November?

Want me to visit your high school, university, or group? Let’s make it happen. 

Falls really zip by for me. November wraps up a busy few months of speaking at high schools, universities, culinary schools, and libraries.

Here’s where I’ll be speaking in November:

11/7: Lock Haven University / International Education Week: 7PM at Price Hall (free and open to the public)

11/8 5:30 PM – South Bend, Indiana: Facing Project event: Voices of Teenage Girls

11/9 7:30 Michigan City Public Library – Writing Out Loud (free and open to the public)

11/11 Private High School

11/11 Purdue N. Central Westville, Indiana

11/16 Writers Center of Indiana: 2013 Gathering of Writers / Teaching a nonfiction workshop at 12:45

Truth, Justice, and the Creative Nonfiction Way
Works of creative nonfiction…

Why I do what I do

Just received this in an email: “your book really has inspired me to work in Human Rights, hopefully in the Department of Labor. I want to work in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs to make known the rights that workers deserve in the workplace.”

I hate when writers write that something is beyond words or indescribable, (you’re a writer dammit! Describe it!) but I seriously have no words for how emails like this make me feel. I suppose the immortal words of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come the closest:

Bodacious!

Radical!

Cowabunga, dude!

There are times when I’m on some death bus in some forgotten country, far from my family, homesick, dirty, tired, and sick that I ask myself, “Why the hell do you do this, Kelsey?”

This email,…

Indiana Authors Award

“Dude, why do you live in Indiana?”

I’m repeatedly asked that question, and this week I answered it over at the Indiana Authors Award Blog.

I’m honored to be one of three finalists for this year’s Emerging Author Award. The banquet is sold out, but the award-winning and nominated authors will participate in a book signing and Q&A event at the Indianapolis Central Library on October 26.

Here are the details:

Meet the Authors
Central Library’s Clowes Auditorium
10:30 a.m. – 12 noon
Sit down with the winners and finalists of the 2013 Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award as they discuss their writing and connections to Indiana. Book sales and signings will follow. Featured will be National Award winner Michael Martone, Regional Award winner James H. Madison, and Emerging Author finalists…

Most awkward hotel check in ever

I had been in airport world for 12 hours and then had to drive two hours in a beat up rental car to a hotel in wine country in California. Back home I would’ve been in bed for a few hours already.

I was tired and in need of a shower.

I almost told the young woman behind the front desk, “Good morning,” when I pushed my way in through the front door. I hoped she would just throw me the key to my room and I could go and collapse on the bed.

Instead she was chipper.The kind of chipper that exhaustion doesn’t like. The kind that just reminds you of how tired you are. We went through the motions–the credit card for incidentals, the complimentary breakfast…

CrossFit looked like something I would pay NOT to do

CrossFit looked like something I would pay NOT to do, yet I’ve been doing it, and paying for it, for four months now.

Why? Because my buddy BJ McKay opened a CrossFit gym (aka “a box”), The Arsenal, here in Muncie, and the guy hasn’t heard a NO in his life that he believed. So that’s what got me in the gym, but what hooked me was the community that I saw.

I’ve been sharing my CrossFit journey over at The Arsenal’s blog.

Please check out my first post: How I got roped into CrossFit.

Here’s an excerpt…

We support our friends.

We buy their kids’ overpriced chocolate bars and popcorn for school fundraisers. We host their Tupperware parties.

But what if our friend is opening a gym, and not just…