Murder One: Robert's 7th Novel.
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Dugoni today.
He’s a Seattle writer who has come to the Surrey International Writers’ Conference to teach a few master classes, inspire some writers, and maybe blow a few minds along the way.
Earlier in the morning I had checked out his website while battling a vintage brew of instant coffee in my hotel room. I had read that he was giving the key note address to the conference in a few short hours and I wanted to do a little research to give myself some context for his speech.
The first thing that I see when I land on his site is a reference to Scott Turow and Basic Instinct.
And while I will reserve public comment on Mr Turow’s occasional pronouncements on behalf of the American Author’s Guild I certainly enjoyed Presumed Innocent when it came out and I liked the notion of mixing it with something as ballsy as Basic Instinct.
So, he had my attention.
A little later he sat beside me at breakfast and we chatted about this and that with Robert Wiersema, and some of the great people who organize this conference.
I asked Mr Dugoni if he’d mind if I recorded his key note on my audio recorder and he told me that he didn’t mind at all.
Soon I sat at the front of the grand ballroom at the Surrey Sheraton. Near the stage where Bob would soon speak.
The rest of the room was packed with writers and agents. Aspiring writers, well published writers, people with novels in their heads, stuffed into their backpacks, saved on hard drives and tucked under their arms.
Bob Dugoni was sitting to my left. We were jabbering about Jim Harbaugh and Jerry Rice, Bernie Williams and Jim Kelly. Just bullshitting away. A couple of sports fans passing the time.
Then Ian Weir sat down with us at the table. Always good to see Ian. Such a talented writer and wonderful person.
After the opening speeches and a few preliminaries were attended to Bob was introduced.
He delivered this incredible and inspiring speech.
Listen to: This Day We Write! by Bob Dugoni
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
.
Thanks so much for posting this. I heard his rousing speech last year, and would’ve loved to be there again this year. But wonderful to be able to listen now. Thank you!
I’m so *very* glad you were able to record this for us. I heard Robert Dugoni’s closing address at last year’s conference and will never forget it. I couldn’t attend this year, so this is welcome compensation. Thank you! I’m settling in to listen right now.
Love this! As soon as it’s available for download this will be going into my collection of inspiring speeches that make me want to write. Also, when I get home and write a blogpost about this weekend I’ll have to link here so that all of my readers can hear it! Everyone needs to!
Sean, thanks for your great Social Media Strategies workshop at SIWC on Saturday. Would love it if you could post Bob Dugoni’s keynote for downloading.
THANK YOU for posting this, Sean! I wasn’t at last year’s conference, and through a stupid miscalculation I missed Bob’s keynote on Friday; I arrived just in time to see the standing O. I know someone else who’s going to be glad you’ve posted this, too.
Thanks for posting this. Now I can listen to it any time I need inspiration to get my butt in chair and pen on paper (yes I do writer freehand! How old fashioned!)
Thank you for this… as January starts to creep along it is good to be transported back to Surrey at a time when all seemed possible. Once more Robert’s words have brought tears to my eye’s and hope to my heart.