Jason F Wright ~Keynote Speaker at SU's Leadership Conference in Orlando

Just prior to packing to attend our annual Leadership the latter part of January in Orlando, I noticed that we would be having a keynote speaker at the event. I Googled his name to discover that he is an author ~ not only that but by sheer coincidence, he is the author of the book I had been reading at the time, having started it just before Christmas! A book called Christmas Jars Reunion.

I read a bit of the endorsements of him as a speaker and was really looking forward to hearing his talk.  His earlier books are about letter writing, so I knew he would be a perfect fit for the assembled group of cardmakers. Indeed, he was engaging and validated our art of card making. He gave examples from his own life experiences and others, of how letters touch the heart, renewing our belief that sending a note in a card is a powerful thing!

So my funny part of the story comes in here...I had decided that I would bring along the book I had borrowed from the library, not really having time to go buy another one of his books, yet. I was still reading it, and as a active patron of the Library, I thought, it might be kind of neat to return a signed copy to the Library here in town...

After the morning session, it didn't seem likely that he was doing a meet and greet,so I went on with the day, attending a breakout session and then having lunch. But later, down in the Product Playground area, I noticed him being escorted around by Donna Griffith. I scooched over and fished out my library book. He was thrilled to see I had his book, and beckoned me forward! I had it open, forgetting of course, that authors sign on the page that has the title and themselves, as the author, a few pages in, so as he searched for his marker and turned pages to get there I gushed about his wonderful talk. Then he saw the large stamp exactly where he should be signing his name of the Rocky Public Library. I think he was pretty surprised, but made a quick recovery as he exclaimed, "this is a Library book,... you've stolen this book...she's stolen this book." he announced to Donna. I hastily assured him, I hadn't, that I was a big patron of the libraries and figured they'd love to have an autographed book in their system by him!

this is him not quite believing me, I think! (I should assure you that he was taking this all in good humour! He is quite a joker and uses comedy to relate to his audiences!)

I flipped  a page back and said, "there, just sign there" He was laughing then and said "who should I make it to?" and then  "wait, others will want to steal this book!" so he proceeded to print on top of the page he'd signed, "don't steal this book!" and drew a happy face! 

thanks to Donna for capturing a few fun shots of the encounter! : D

smiles,

Laurie