For years, Courtenay Hameister had a job that just about anyone would envy. As the host and head writer of “Livewire!” a syndicated public radio program recorded before a live audience in Portland, Oregon, her words were heard by listeners across the country through essays, skits and interviews with hundreds of fascinating, and often famous, people.

She did it all with stage fright and often-times crippling anxiety. After a two-day anxiety attack, Hameister decided to re-evaluate her life and quit the job that had come to define her.

In her first book, “Okay Fine Whatever: The Year I Went From Being Afraid of Everything to Only Being Afraid of Most Things,” Hameister decides to face her fears head on by actually doing the things that scared her most. She will speak before the Bee Book Club at 6 p.m. Thursday at The Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I Street, Sacramento.