Book Talks

I would be happy to meet with your book or writer’s group—large or small—to share experiences about research, writing and speaking. Contact me at Judy.Ikels@gmail.com.

 Since 2023, my book talks have included a wide variety of venues, including in-person, via Zoom™, and on podcasts. 

Examples include: 

• Presenting a book talk with Tea 4 Soul, a Chinese writing and social organization in Montgomery County, MD.

• Appearing in conversation with Dr. Timothy Keck, retired Historian of the Air Force.  We spoke together on September 8, 2022, at the beautiful DACOR House in DC. It was a beautiful evening, a seated dinner for 50, and a very validating experience for me.  I am not a historian, and so it was extremely important to me that THE historian of the U.S. Air Force read my book and found it worthwhile.

• The Asia American Forum in DC had long been one I wanted to interact with. The book presentation held at the Unitarian Church on Cedar Lane in Bethesda, MD, drew 96 in-person participants with another dozen online. This audience, in particular, included many with personal experience in Asia. Many were visibly moved by the story. They asked timely and pertinent questions. 

• A joint book talk at the Promenade Apartments in Bethesda, MD, with Peter Kissel, an author who wrote “Three Patriots: The Hopes and Trials of My Immigrant Ancestors in the Civil War America.” We compared family wartime experiences, separated by 80 years in U.S. history, and found common ground.

• The Chinese American Museum of  Washinton invited me for a book talk on April 25, 2026, to coincide with a special exhibit on the Flying Tigers entitled Soaring for Freedom: The Flying Tigers Legacy. 

• Multiple appearances with the Author's Panel with the Foreign Service Institute's Job Search and Transition Program for retiring employees

• DACOR House seated dinner for 50, in conversation with Dr. Timothy Keck, retired historian of the U.S. Air Force

• Video interview with Gary Cheng in preparation for Chinese Book Club, “Tea 4 Soul”

• An open mic reading at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda

• A Serendipity Talk  with  American University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. (View here)

• Presentation at the Mary Riley Styles Library in Falls Church, VA

• Zoom interview with Department  of State Civil Service Association

• Zoom interview with the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW) at the Department of State

• Presentation at a neighborhood book club in Arlington, VA

• The Wednesday Morning Club at the Unitarian Church on River Road, Bethesda, MD

• The Asian American Forum presentation at the Unitarian Church on Cedar Lane in Bethesda, MD

• Discovering a Legacy was published in the April, 2016 issue of State Magazine, the official U.S. Department of State publication.

• The Washington Post’s well regarded columnist John Kelly used “Death in Wartime China: A Daughter’s Discovery” for his 2023 Memorial Day Column.

• The November 2022 edition of the Foreign Service Journal included my book as part of the annual “In Their Own Write,” a collection of publications by Foreign Service authors.