You’ve been invited to give an interview. How exciting! Let’s get you ready, my little Key Lime Pie!

Besides being a children’s book author, I’m also a PR specialist. (15 years and counting!) Allow me to pass along the tips I share with the people I schedule for interviews.

Practice and apply these basic tips and you’ll become more polished, poised and professional with each experience. Why, you’ll feel cooler than a watermelon slice on ice. Your audience will think you’re cool too. This may be crazy talk, but hey, you may even learn to enjoy being in the hot seat!

TV interview

• Watch prior interviews the host has conducted, if possible. Take note of their style, tempo, the types of questions they typically ask, and their sense of humor (or lack thereof!). Now, imagine yourself chatting with them.
• Unless directed otherwise, look at the interviewer, not the camera.
• Avoid wearing checks or stripes. Simple, solids are your best option.
• To give yourself a chance to make any necessary wardrobe adjustments, practice sitting/standing in the clothes you plan to wear.
• Arrive 10 – 15 minutes early to give the station crew time to attach your mic and run through anything they’d like you to know or expect before it’s your turn.
• Speak up if you have concerns or nagging questions before the interview so that you can feel confident, and both you and the interviewer you can have a positive, upbeat experience.
• See tips for radio interviews.

Call-in radio interview

• Use a landline, if available, to avoid being dropped mid-conversation.
• Smile as you speak, if appropriate to the topic.
• Have a mirror in front of you so you’ll have “someone” visible to talk to. It will remind you to smile.
• Ask how long the interview will be so you can pace yourself. Note, if an interview is very brief (e.g. 2 minutes or less), don’t let that pressure you into speaking too fast.
• Prepare a cheat sheet of answer prompts to anticipated questions, but not a word-for-word script. You’ll be too tempted to read it and you’ll come off sounding stiff or rehearsed.
• Have a glass of water handy. (A bottle takes too much time to open.)

Zoom/Skype/Web interview

• Make sure you have the technology loaded to your device prior to the interview.
• Set up a professional, clutter-free background.
• Position your device so that the interviewer can see you square on, as if you are seated across a table from one another. Avoid looking down at the screen.
• Adjust the screen so the interviewer sees more of you and less of the background.
• Have your notes, pen, phone, etc. within easy reach.
• Look into the camera when you are speaking. You can look at the screen otherwise.
• Speak slowly and clearly.
• Pay attention to the mute button.

For any interview

• Thank the interviewer at the top of the interview and at the close.
• Be your authentic, wonderful self. If you misspeak, quickly correct yourself, and move on.
• Prepare a “cheat sheet” with basic information for easy reference, such as:
  • Street address/date/hours/details – for an upcoming book signing, workshop or event you’re promoting. It’s better to have the information ready and ignore it than to have your memory go POOF! mid-sentence.
  • Your web site URL, social media handles and/or how to contact you. (Who knows. Someone listening may want to invite you to your next interview!)
• Provide your interviewer with a synopsis of your book, your headshot and image of your book cover to use for pre-interview promotion.
• Offer the interviewer a signed copy of your book to use a giveaway to their audience.
• Practice with a friend.
  • Give your friend/interviewer a list of the questions you’re likely to asked, then give them the okay to throw in a few unexpected questions.
  • Record your interview. Count on not liking the sound of your voice. It’s a hang up we all have.
  • Ask your friend for honest feedback and record that too.

You’re going to be fabulous!

I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying. ~ Oscar Wilde

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

When your work-in-progress refuses to, well, progress, give yourself permission to call a TIME OUT. Sure, for some, a physical activity (e.g., taking a quick walk) can do the trick. I guess I’m a little different. I find much-needed mental refreshment from letting my brain go out to play (so long as its well supervised!). For example, engaging in a simple writing exercise can (re)invigorate my imagination and remind me how fun writing can be.

Recently, I challenged myself to play with the lyrics of a famous song, syllable by syllable. It felt like real exercise for my gooey gray matter dipped in a sweet sugar coating of zero-pressure pleasure. Why not give it a try, my little pumpkin spice biscuit. If you dare, please share the results.

Sound of Silence Night

(Apologies to Mr. Simon)

Hello Feedback, my old friend–

You’ve come to toy with me again

Words of derision swiftly heaping

Grow like weeds while I am sleeping

And the revisions that are ranting in my brain

Still complain–

With this next round, try silence.

***

In ripped up jeans I walk alone

To buy a bar of Toblerone

‘Neath the beam of a gooseneck lamp

I scroll the pages till my fingers cramp

When my eyes are stabbed by a plot so flat and trite

A wasted night

Even my muse is silent.

***

And in my lava lamp I saw

Ten thousand people I may bore

People banning without reading

Critics speaking without thinking

Authors writing books that agents never share

No one dares

Curb the sound of silence.

***

“Dudes,” say I, “You do not know

Silence like my word count grows

Hear my words through this blue kazoo

Read my texts that I might reach you!”

But my work like sweaty high tops smells

Say geckoes in the wells of silence.

***

And the writers bow and pray

Over critiques for which they pay

Spellcheck flashes out its warning

After words they are misforming.

***

And agents say, “The words of this novel

Should be written on subway walls

And bathroom stalls

And whispered—no, drowned!—in silence.”

Stepping out of a normal routine, finding novelty, being open to serendipity, enjoying the unexpected, embracing a little risk, and finding pleasure in the heightened vividness of life. These are all qualities of a state of play. ~ Stuart Brown, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul

And now, for a short and sweet cinnamon sugar, pumpkin spice announcement!

Congratulations to the winner of the So Long to Summer Open House prize drawing–Meline Scheidel. Thank you to Meline and everyone who stopped by to leave a kind comment (or 2 or 3!) It’s always delightful to hear from you! Really. Really.

Meline, a special prize package will be winding your way soon. I hope it helps to make your autumn awesome!

I look forward to baking up fresh blog posts to fill everyone with encouragement. But first, I need to gather more chestnuts, share a snack with the squirrels (will they ever say thank you?) and sip another cup of tea.

More soon!

I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. ~ Henry David Thoreau

My little polka dot bumper shoots, it’s finally spring! There’s no better time of year to remind you of the payoff for your perseverance.

What a joy to see shy green leaves, long stemmed tulips and curlicued ferns burst into life like nature’s popcorn–seemingly overnight. But we know that fresh explosion is only possible after months of rest, coupled with preparation and determination. The same is true for you and me.

You may be reflecting on your progress (or lack thereof) as a creative person and feel frustrated or discouraged today. It’s possible you let yourself be victimized by the “Comparison Game” (again). Everyone else is so far ahead of me. (You know that’s a lie, right?) Phooey on those energy drainers. Don’t let those thoughts or feelings drag you down for too long. Keep working, experimenting, growing . . . all that behind the scenes struggle may be preparing you for an opportunity or a break through beyond your imaging. YOU will be spring!

Please know this is the voice of experience talking, not a hollow motivational speech. Your magnificent, obsessive perseverance will prove its worth. Watch for signs of green, my little peepers!

The trumpet of a prophesy! O Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley