One year ago, I made my first podcast appearance on The Funky Writer Show and my cat Bertie nearly sabotaged the whole thing with his ridiculously loud meowing. Today, I made my second appearance.
This time Bertie behaved himself. But my other cat?
Not so much.
And I haven’t even mentioned my family yet…
Preparations
For the mid-show reading, I chose a passage from my novella Change of Lifestyle that fitted of the topics Rob wanted to discuss (teacher burn-out). I even recorded myself reading it and listened to the recording.
I do podcast recordings and video calls in our kitchen, where the cats come and go through the cat flap. I was lucky, though: Nutmeg, the sleepy one, was upstairs, and Bertie was in the living room. I closed the kitchen door to prevent him from interrupting the recording.
The last time I was on a podcast, I spilled a bottle of water over my shirt when I opened the lid, so this time I poured water into a glass.
I was ready.
An Early Cat-astrophe
Rob has a lovely, enthusiastic manner that puts you at your ease. After a preliminary chat, he gave me time to have a quick swig of water, which I promptly spilled. Then he counted down to the start of the recording: “5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And welcome back to the The Funky Writers Show…. I’m your host Robert Batista!”
He then read out Change of Lifestyle’s blurb and said, “This is from a captivating book by today’s guest author Anthony Addis. Anthony, welcome back to The Funky Writer Show!”
At this point Nutmeg, the cat I thought was asleep upstairs, came through the catflap and starting rubbing her head against my legs.
On the recording, my first words to Robert are slightly faint because while I was saying them, I stood up and shepherded Nutmeg into the living room.
Angel of the South
I knew Rob was interested mainly in Change of Lifestyle’s exploration of teacher burnout, but he still asked several questions about Angel of the South, my thriller series set in London and the Isle of Man.
Hopefully, I sold my enthusiasm for Billie Brindley, the main character, with all her complexities and the light and dark she carries through the books.
Fumbles, Word choices and Knocking
Nutmeg had thrown me off my game. For the first two minutes, I ummed and erred until I hit my stride. In terms of word choices, I made two mistakes.
The first was when I explained that in Change of Lifestyle, the protaganist Gabe Shaw is “Flatsitting for his friend’s…flat,” a sentence that landed, for want of a better word, flatly.
The second came later on when Rob brought up whether there are enough readers who want to buy books anymore. I meant to say there’s been a resurgance in book reading, but instead I said renaissance. Not as bad as the flat repetition, but for the next thirty seconds or so, I battled the urge to say “I meant resurgence!”
At one point, someone knocked on the front door. I figured my daughter had forgotten her keys. The knocking soon stopped, so I presumed Jane, my wife, had answered and carrried on talking to Rob.
Not quite, as I discovered later…
Three Stars and a Wish
Some schools have a penchant for marking children’s writing with three stars and a wish – three things that went well and one to aim for next time. Here are mine for my second appearance on The Funky Writer Show.
STAR 1: I enjoyed the conversation Robert and I had during the show. We covered a wide range of topics, including AI, teacher burnout, marketing and living in Indonesia. We also covered writer influences. I mentioned David Morrell and Gerald Seymour and also cited Joss Whedon’s quote, “Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke.”
STAR 2: The reading of the passage from Change of Lifestyle went well. I sounded clear and expressive and didn’t make any fumbles, so the way I practised earlier obviously paid off.
STAR 3: I remembered that I’m not really appearing as me, I’m Anthony Addis – Author (as it says on my Facebook page). I’m representing my work. I talked enthusiastically about No Way To Live and Change of Lifestyle, and reflected honestly about my writing journey.
WISH: In my excitement or nerves, I answered Rob’s questions a bit too quickly, anxious not to leave any dead space. Next time, I’ll try to slow my responses to make sure I have key words (EG, resurgence) in my head before I start.
LOCKED OUT DURING THE RECORDING
When the recording ended, I went into the living room, expecting to see my wife and daughter. Nope. they’d gone out, apparently in my daughter’s car, which wasn’t in the drive.
Then I realised that Jane was sitting in our car. It turned out she’d been locked out. The knocking I’d heard earlier had been her. She hadn’t wanted to disturb the recording so sat in the car for about twenty minutes!
I think I owe her a meal out.
Links
Listen to the episode of The Funky Writer Show on PodBean and Spotify.
Listen to my previous appearance on the show.
Read about my first appearance
BUY
No Way To Live, Angel of the South Book 1
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