Wednesday, April 20, 2011

On the air with Josh Mackey.....

On Monday April 11th, I was invited to be a guest on KOGA radio's morning talk show.  I have always enjoyed being interviewed by Josh Mackey.  I feel I'm in good company with Dean Kuntz, Mary Higgins Clark, and Alex Kava.  Plus, Josh is a great interviewer.  I've been on the air and on television for interviews since the early 90's and he is by far the best.

I planned well for the interview.  What should we discuss? What answers I might have for his questions?  I tried to guess what his questions might be.  I chose my outfit two days in advance.  I know, I know, it's radio and no one will see what I'm wearing...but my husband, the photographer, is always taking publicity shots.  So I'm certain my hair would look its best and the lighting would make me look flawless on the days my clothes look the worst, so I have to keep trying to look presentable because you never know when non-photogenic me will actually have a good photo.  Of course, that morning I was having a really bad hair day.

On the way to the studio, I had a little morning tickle in my throat.  I coughed it away, or so I thought.  The coughing irritated it a bit and caused more coughing.  How could I give a good interview if I'm having a cough attack.  So I started to drink the bottle of water I brought along...didn't help.  After we stopped in front of the radio station I popped a Life Saver peppermint into my mouth.  Coughing stopped, everything was going to be just fine.

We started our interview.  The more I talked the more saliva was created by the mint.  My mouth was filling and I had to wait for a break in my speech to swallow.  I wanted to chomp down on it and chew it quickly to get rid of it.  But, then that would come across on the air.  If you listen closely to my interview, posted on my website on the media page, you can hear that my voice isn't quite right, sort of like someone using a retainer for the first day...slurp...slurp...slurp.  

I'd sip water quickly between answering questions.  Do you really know how long those peppermint candies last in your mouth?  At one point when Josh said something funny and I had to laugh, the mint started to fly out of my mouth.  I caught it and shoved it back in before it ricocheted off of the microphone. I know Josh saw that slick move.  


The interview went on, and we had a grand time.  We talked about my first middle grade book SECRET OF DRAGONFLY ISLAND making it to the kindle best seller list...woohoo!!  We talked about the second middle grade book, LEGEND OF ARTERBURN LAKE, having just been released on kindle 10 days before the interview and the sales were doing better than we expected.  We talked about my first suspense thriller, CORNSTALKED being released this month on kindle and 50% of the kindle sales going to domestic abuse programs.  We discussed the short story  A Breath of Hot Air, that Alex Kava and I co-wrote.  


We laughed, we talked, I slurped.  We laughed, we talked, I slurped.  Then the interview was finished and I removed that mint and tossed it in the trash.....wait a minute....I REMOVED the mint????  Why didn't I think to just take it out of my mouth during the entire interview?  It was too early in the morning to think straight?  There were no trashcans in sight?  I didn't want to make my fingers sticky?  I can dream up some of the most intriguing or scary plots but I couldn't think fast enough to simply remove the mint from my mouth.  You pick an answer....I'm too embarrassed.

1 comment:

  1. Ha! That sounds like something I would do. LOL Thanks for sharing so we all know we are not alone when it comes to those embarrassing little moments. I find your blog very entertaining. :-)

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