Talking to Myself
October 6, 2014
Sometimes life is strange. I've had the privilege of being interviewed several times lately. They've all been internet interviews. Okay, so the Alfie Dog ones were questionnaires and by no means exclusive to me, but it's the same principle. The questions were emailed to me, so I had time to consider my replies. Not only did I have a chance to try to come up with interesting answers, but I had the opportunity to review what I put. Hopefully, I haven't said anything that might come back to haunt me.
In a face-to-face interview, it's all too easy to stumble over words or go blank, and what seemed witty at the time, after reflection appears pretentious or stupid. I learned this to my cost with a bio an editor requested to go with a short story. He asked for it to contain several fictitious statements and one true one. All well and good in the publication itself, where this was explained, but in the extract that appears in the Google search, guess which part appears. I made myself look like a complete idiot.
That situation was a little odd, but the most bizarre interview I've experienced was when I freelanced for a lifestyle magazine, which wanted to publish an extract from my story, 'The Butterfly Effect', when it won the Writers' Forum contest, along with a piece about me. As I wrote all their features, I had to interview myself. I tried to put myself in the readers' shoes and come up with questions that they wanted to know about and not shirk any that might be difficult. At least, the interviewer couldn't misquote me!
Another interview is now online at Twiction Addiction where I am the author of the month. @TwictionAddict will be featuring my twiction throughout October. It's running a competition too, so I recommend taking a look. You can also find my short story, 'Horse Sense' at http://www.hay-net.co.uk/equestrianshortstories.
In a face-to-face interview, it's all too easy to stumble over words or go blank, and what seemed witty at the time, after reflection appears pretentious or stupid. I learned this to my cost with a bio an editor requested to go with a short story. He asked for it to contain several fictitious statements and one true one. All well and good in the publication itself, where this was explained, but in the extract that appears in the Google search, guess which part appears. I made myself look like a complete idiot.
That situation was a little odd, but the most bizarre interview I've experienced was when I freelanced for a lifestyle magazine, which wanted to publish an extract from my story, 'The Butterfly Effect', when it won the Writers' Forum contest, along with a piece about me. As I wrote all their features, I had to interview myself. I tried to put myself in the readers' shoes and come up with questions that they wanted to know about and not shirk any that might be difficult. At least, the interviewer couldn't misquote me!
Another interview is now online at Twiction Addiction where I am the author of the month. @TwictionAddict will be featuring my twiction throughout October. It's running a competition too, so I recommend taking a look. You can also find my short story, 'Horse Sense' at http://www.hay-net.co.uk/equestrianshortstories.
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
