Thursday, January 5, 2017

Totally meet your heroes

I've had the honor of being involved in three interviews with authors I admire. I was an active participant in two of them and a live audience in one. These interviews meant something to me as a podcaster but moreso as a reader. I was afforded these opportunities all because of Nerdgasm Noire Network. I love being a part of that podcast seems odd I haven't brought that up yet.

The first one happened at WisCon 14 and it was with Daniel José Older. We had all read Half Resurrection Blues prior to the interview and reviewed it for the podcast.  It feels odd to include the first one because I didn't actually conduct the interview. I was just in the room when it happened. Still, I watched transfixed as my friends recorded with a man whose work I had been reading earlier that day on tor.com. Amazing.

Nerdgasm Noire Network Interview with Daniel José Older at Wiscon

Next up was my interview with Tananarive Due. I practiced for this one. I have a talent for fucking up words and names so I practiced. I have a tendency to lean towards long silences so I practiced. I may have also done a little dance. Unlike the other two authors I'm mentioning here, I knew about Due before this podcast. I read Blood Colony and fell into an Octavia Butler type love. No really. I believe I did really well considering I'm a fangirl. And we got a shout out from her husband Stephen Barnes at the end. He is also a writer and they just seemed so cool. She was friendly and funny. We had technical difficulties at first and were able to make jokes about it. I still get giddy when I think about it.


Finally, my most recent interview was with Olivia Cole. We'd all read her books  (Panther in the Hive and The Rooster's Garden) but we figured this interview would go better as a one on one. I think I was the first to finish the latest book so I volunteered. It was my first recording alone on Zencaster so I had nerves about that. I was also in charge of the questions which didn't freak me out the way I thought it would. I had my gentleman caller (shut up, I'm old) over that weekend so this interview was also going be done with a sort of audience. He made sure to be supportive but out of the way. In the end, I found out that I had a lot in common with her and tangents ensued. This is quite possibly my favorite because it felt more like a conversation with a new friend.



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