Friday, February 19, 2016

My problem with most author interviews / Happenings In The Outhouse 19-Feb-2016

Over the past number of years, I've listened to my fair share of podcasts geared towards interviewing authors.  Mostly indie (self-published), but with a sprinkling of traditionally- or hybrid-published authors on top.  They were very interesting, until something odd happened.  I started hearing the same thing over and over again.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't want to come off as arrogant, that I know everything, because I don't.  I'm constantly learning.  And if I listen to a 45-60 minute interview and pick up one nugget I hadn't thought of before, I consider it time well spent.

Here's my problem with most of these interviews though.  I don't connect with them.  The authors, not the interviewers.

Give me an author who has a day job (or multiple jobs), a spouse, and kids, and how they deal with the day-to-day minutia, you have my attention.  Or take it one step further: an author who is juggling housework while being a caregiver to either a spouse or parent, something extremely demanding of their time.

I would connect with those.

Now, most of these authors may have a demanding day job, a house full of kids, and a number of other commitments.  They just never tell anyone.

In all of the interviews I've listened to, only one comes to mind and I haven't the slightest clue as to who it was.  This author was a stay-at-home dad who did all of the housework and had a handful of kids.  He said he only had time to write very early in the morning.  Sorry, I can't remember who it was, but it's the only one I can think of.

So my new purpose is to be that author, the one who writes while raising three kids, caregiving for my wife, housework, and the like.  I find the time to write because I'm deliberate about it.  Are there times I don't feel like it?  Of course.

But I keep writing.

Because it's what I do.

I love it.

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