Saturdays are usually the days when I get new books, but this Saturday I tried something different. Sense I have plans of epic scale formulating in my brain I decided to take the first steps and do a little homework this weekend. So I headed down the local Half Price Books and got a little be of time in with the store manager.
The First Interview
Before I begin on how things played out, I should admit something. I have never interviewed anyone seriously. I also guarantee that I have also never interviewed a total stranger. I have no kind of journalism experience, and though I would've joined the high school news show, I had no idea where to go. So consider me level one at this job class.
So my tale begins with an innocent enough question. "By chance would the store manager happen to be in?" Now in my head I am praying to the fates that the reply comes back no, but I wasn't that fortunate. Actually I was on a strong of bad luck actually. Prior to this I lead a fruitless search all over the store for a copy of a book I wanted to send to my friend,
House of Leaves
by Mark Z. Danielewski. Her reply after a short bit of doubt was affirmative. Actually it was more like "I'll go grab him. Stay right there." It's like how did she know I planned on flaking out and fleeing? Lol J/k
So while I awaited my slow painful death by embarrassment, I started to prepare myself. I opened a little notebook I take around with me so that I can jot down ideas for future stories to write, and then I reached for my pen. My luck is just failing me now. My favorite pen broke in my pocket. It also was my only pen because I just happened to put the other pen I grabbed back thinking I wouldn’t need it.
A few minutes pass and there I am doing my interview with the store manager of one of my favorite stores. He was such a nice guy and really knew his stuff, but the trouble is I didn't. Normally when I engage in any sort of public speaking I do not prepare what I plan to say. I usually ad lib everything, because making things up is something I am good at. Remembering things however is something I am not so good at. Actually add in reading out loud as well. Yes, I dyslexia. Now because I did not prepare questions, I must have misphrased my first question because the interview went WAAAAYYY off my topic. It was close but, it revolved around things that were over my head, however since it was so interesting I just went with it. I got a lot of good stuff, but I still needed something for an article I was planning. So at the end I bought the questions back into context somehow. I still do not know how I pulled that off.
So with my first interview out of the way, I am well on my way to bringing my readers quality content from some of their favorite authors and possibly celebs. I have learned a lot from this experience. First, if you do live interviews, use an audio or video recorder. Second, prepare extensively for not only the subject matter but the interviewee as well. Third have backups, anything bad that can happen will, and you need to be ready for it if only to ease your nerves.
Oh at the end of the interview, I did ask about
House of Leaves. Come to find out he was quite familiar with it, and pretty much explained that it'll be long shot of me ever getting a copy from there. People love this book. Actually they love it so much that he told me he had a copy in his hand once that he was about to put on the shelf, and someone ripped it right out of his hand and ran it to the counter. Hopefully this means that next Saturday I will start reading
House of Leaves for the book club.
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