Saturday, August 30, 2008

Yes, I'm still alive.


Blowing away the dust, brushing off the cobwebs in my little corner of blogger.com, I'm back. You may be wondering what happened to me. The school summer holidays is what happened. The weeks flew by in the blur of a themepark rollercoaster. No time for blogging, certainly. A few stolen hours for reading and a bit of writing. I will be getting back into the routine from Wednesday, when the kids are back to school.

If I'd had the presence of mind, and time, I would have given advance notice of my appearance on the Phoenix FM book club, last night. The show is hosted by Muthamma Prasad (above), who did a wonderful job of putting me at my ease. Reading between the lines, I get the impression that I may well have been the most nervous guest she's had, though I did relax into it and the hour long show flew by. I really enjoyed myself, though I had been incredibly stressed about it in anticipation. My first ever LIVE radio broadcast. Well, actually, my first ever radio broadcast of any kind, alive or dead.

Muthamma is great - how refreshing to have an interviewer who actually reads her guests' books! - as is her show. It's broadcast from 7-8 pm Firdays, out of Brentwood on 98 fm, but is available worldwide via the internet. Give it a listen, if you get the chance.

My one regret is that I didn't get a chance to do the 60-second pitch for a must-read book, which is part of the show's format. We just ran out of time. The book I was going to recommend was Sally Hinchcliffe's Out of A Clear Sky, which I hear is going to be Radio 4's Book at Bedtime next month. Some of you may remember I interviewed Sally for Vulpes Libris a while back.

So I guess I'm back in action.

4 comments:

Rachael King said...

Live radio is my favourite kind of interview - nobody can misquote you or take your comments out of context, or edit you down to a pointless 'soundbite'.

Dr Ian Hocking said...

Good to have you back in action, Roger. Is there no 'listen again' link for this? Shame to have it evaporate into the dusty airs of history...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the plug on your plog! And thanks for updating - every time I checked your blog for updates I was compelled to go and check my Amazon rankings as well. Hmm. Wonder how it's doing now...

Roger Morris said...

Hi Rachael, that's a very good point about the editing etc. The downside of live radio is that if you say something stupid, there's nothing you can do about it. I did lose the thread of what I was trying to say at one point, but that's all part of my bumbling charm. I think. I mean, hope.

Hi Dr Ian, nice to be back. No listen again on their website. They don't have an archiving facility yet, though they are going to introduce it, apparently. However, Muthamma is going to send me a copy of the show. I don't know if I will be able to make it available in any way - I mean whether I will be able technically or legally.

Hi Sally, my pleasure. I couldn't believe it when Muthamma told me there wouldn't be time to do the pitch. Ah well...