London Day 5 Addendum: Amazon Interview
How did I forget to mention the interview? Ugh. My brain is rotting.
After we stumbled back from Charing Cross, I had time for a quick shower and a bout of nerves. Alice, the young and alluring publicist from Harper Collins, was coming over to my hotel room with a camera crew to film a video interview for Amazon.co.uk. I’d managed to put off thinking about it all day, but after I got back to my room, the anxiety hit. They had sent me the questions in advance, but as a writer, I am used to having all the time I need to craft answers to questions to my liking, trimming out unnecessary rambling and things that sound downright stupid. There are no such luxuries in front of a camera and audience.
Plus, what if my hair looked bad?
Dani sent me a bottle of champagne from room service on my first day in London, and this seemed as good a time as any to pop the cork and have a glass of courage. Ensign Cole and webmaster Wenk came over, and we polished off most of the bottle before the Harper team arrived.
The team consisted of Peter, the cameraman, who also works for the BBC, publicist Alice, and the lovely Keira, who assisted in setup and did the actual interview. I confessed to some nerves, but they did a good job of calming me down, telling me we had all the time we needed, and that no one expects writers to be comfortable in front of a camera. I also wouldn’t have to look right in the camera; Keira would ask the questions, and though her parts would be edited out of the final interview, I could look at her as I responded.
Because talking to beautiful women doesn’t make me nervous at all…
But for all that, I think the interview went pretty well. Keira asked a variety of questions regarding my writing process, inspirations, the themes I was addressing in the book, and my plans for the sequel. Despite my fears, I can’t think of any time when I said anything stupid, and there were a few moments when I think I sounded downright smart. We did most of the questions in one take, and when we needed a second, it was usually because Pete said, “Okay, say what you just said, but make it a little shorter.”
They shot about 25-30 minutes of footage, and the final interview is set to be edited down to 4 minutes, so I expect I will come off pretty well in it (so long as my hair looks okay). When the interview is done, it will be available on the amazon page for The Painted Man, and on the Harper Collins website. It will be an open source interview, which means I will also be able to post it as a YouTube link here on the Peephole, and my international publishers will be able to use it, as well.
Still, it was very weird having people want to film me and listen to what I have to say. A lifetime huddled in my room reading comics and fantasy novels did not prepare me well for that.
Dude. Your hair looked awesome.