This week is passing by in a blur, and it’s difficult to keep up with the blogging. It’s now Saturday afternoon, and this entry is about Wednesday morning: the morning after the book launch, when I was interviewed for Radio New Zealand.
You might expect that, compared to speaking to rows and rows of people at the launch, it might be easier for me to speak into a microphone in a room that was empty (apart from me and my husband Matt, sitting on the other side of the table, wearing a second pair of headphones). But in truth, despite all the Radio New Zealand staff being absolutely fantastic, it was still a kind of scary experience.
Embarrassing too. There were some issues organising a link up between the Auckland studios and Wellington, where the interviewer, Lynn Freeman, is based. So we were sitting there with the headphones on, and there was just buzzing on the line, and Matt asks me if Lynn will have read my book, and I say something like, “Yeah, I think so. I’m pretty sure that Chris sent her a copy.” A minute or so later, Lynn’s on the line, and she’s lovely and friendly, and one of the first things she does is reassure me that she has read the book. Not sure whether she’d heard me or not, but the microphones were probably already on… and either way, embarrassing!
Most of the interviews I’ve done so far have been about the writing process: about studying at the IIML, about things I’ve written before this, about how I turned the short story into a novel. Lynn asked those things too, but there were also a lot of questions about the book itself – the themes and the characters, such as the father and Greg. I guess I should’ve been expecting this (after all, the characters are hopefully more interesting than me talking about how I write). Oh well, something to think about for next time. I read the ‘Lean on Me’ section again – I’d practised that and also read it at the launch the night before, so hopefully that bit sounded okay.
I’ve been told that the piece will be on sometime tomorrow (Sunday) between 2 and 3pm. For those of you in New Zealand who want to listen, there’s a list of Radio New Zealand frequencies here. For those overseas or those not by a radio tomorrow, the audio will be available for download for a month from the Arts on Sunday section of the Radio New Zealand website.
