WKMS interview

I just got off the phone with WKMS program director Mark Welch after an interview that lasted about ten minutes (but which he said will be edited down to five minutes, or so).

Before he called, I’d spent almost half an hour reading and re-reading a Homefront paragraph into my voice recorder to manage speed and inflection, then listened to them before recording more. Some were good. Some were not. I have no idea if the passage I read into the phone while he and I talked sounded like one of the good ones, or one of the bad ones.

“It sounded great!” he said. I’ll take his word for it. I have yet to listen to any recorded interviews I’ve done in the past.

He asked a lot of great questions that were challenging to answer, and some that weren’t even phrased as questions but as comments I was left to respond to.

Welch commented on (character) Jake protecting Mia by not telling her he had access to email. And then he paused.

“Uh, yeah…”  I said. And then, strangely, as I responded to that, I discovered I could actually articulate why Jake kept his email access from Mia – and it wasn’t a one part answer. That happened a few times; I learned why I did some things I did with the book. I can’t be the only one who has “feelings” about things, and doesn’t truly recognize where those feelings come from  until later. Right?

Luckily, the only person who could hear me while I talked to Welch was Welch.  I answered questions while pacing and gesturing outside on the deck. Ian had been gone all day, but somehow managed to come home about a minute after I got on the phone with Welch. I’m not one of those people who likes being listened to/observed, so after Welch told me to hold on while he prepared to record, I whispered to Ian, “Don’t listen and don’t come outside!”

The greatest thing about interviews that take place with stations who have the time and money is that they aren’t live, which means there’s time for editing. Which means I’ll undoubtedly end up sounding a lot less “Gubba-lok?” than I felt. It also meant there was no time cut-off and I was able to slip in mention of @mailourmilitary (www.emailourmilitary.com, as well as @kissmygumbo’s and @carsonjdaly’s efforts toward #militarymon. (Not on Twitter? Well, why not?)

The interview is scheduled to air Friday at around noon, and again on Sunday morning, in WKMS.org’s “Front Page” segment. I’ll provide a link when it’s live.