I almost flew to New York. The only things stopping me, other than total lack of funds and time was the thought that I should save the live interview for my next trip to London. I do hope to fly again someday. And besides, I thought I could do an ISDN interview, which would give me sterling sound.
With the help of an intrepid publicist, I booked studio time in New York and here in Santa Cruz, which proved to be amazingly difficult. I could get the Baroness into NY, but no way could I be permitted to use my funky Santa Cruz NPR-affiliate studio at 6:00 AM on a Thursday morning.
But I did manage to get some time set aside, but sat helplessly while we tried to make ISDN work. It didn't. Oh, the folks on both ends of the transaction were highly skilled and very helpful. But in the end, I spent an hour with Baroness Ruth Rendell ssaying mostly, "Can you hear me?"
And that was to be that. Her schedule thereafter was full.
Then, said intrepid and extremely helpful publicist, helped me set up a phone interview, pretty much on the fly, later in the week. All the machinations though the has not been for nought. I managed to get Ruth Rendell on the phone, and we had an utterly delightful conversation abouther work in general, which I've been reading her work since the 1980's, and her newest novel, 'The Vault,' which you can hear by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
10-04-11 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read, Episode 12: Neal Stephenson, 'REAMDE'
Here's the twelfth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The twelfth episode is a look at the work of Neal Stephenson and his latest novel, 'REAMDE.'
When I met Erin Morgensgtern at KQED, I could tell that I was speaking with someone whose work went far beyond prose. She had the bearing of not just a writer, but a visual artist, or perhaps an actress.
Both talents would come in handy were she to be hired by Le Cirque des Rêves, and indeed, she did at times seem like a refugee from her own creation. She'd have been perfectly happy were we to be conducting the interview a century ago, under gaslight.
The genesis of 'The Night Circus' is itself a story worthy of the novel and circus. It's certainly not a straightforward tale, even though Morgenstern admitted to using a spreadsheet to keep track of the varying time-streams in the story. For all the delicate artistry on display, what keeps a book like this hanging together are the nuts and bolts of making sure that everyone is the right age in the right scene.
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Mary Robinette Kowal Reads "Evil Robot Monkey" at SF in SF on April 20, 2013 : "...not that there's anything remotely Regency about evil robot monkeys..."
05-06-13: Commentary : Glennon Doyle Melton Suggests 'Carry On, Warrior' : Fighting for Life in the Too Much Information Age
05-04-13: Commentary : Reasons Not to Leave the House, Reality Check : The Truth Hurts Edition: 'Down the Up Escalator' by Barbara Garson, 'The Wolf and the Watchman' by Scott C. Johnson,'The Book of Woe' by Gary Greenberg, 'Confessions of a Sociopath' by M. E. Thomas
05-01-13: Commentary : Mario Guslandi Reviews An Emporium of Automata by DP Watt : "...from the bizarre to the grotesque, from the baroque to the uncanny..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : : Rick Klaw Reads at SF in SF on April 20, 2013 : "...those are the kind of people that don't get work anymore..."
04-29-13: Commentary : Ben Katchor Catalogues 'Hand Drying in America' : Subversive Cities of the Heart
04-27-13: Commentary : Mark Morris Introduces 'Toady' : A New World of Horror
Agony Column Podcast News Report : : Thomas Frank from The Easy Chair and Harper's Magazine: TV's DC Fantasies : "... basically, everyone is corrupt ..."
04-22-13: Commentary : Danielle Trussoni Maps 'Angelopolis' : The Afterlife of Angels
04-17-13: Commentary : How Not to Leave the House : Reach for the Recycling
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Matt Richtel, Sophie Littlefield and Terry Bisson at SF in SF on February 9, 2013 : "You cannot do this all day long." Sophie Littlefield
04-16-13: Commentary : Stephen Kessler 'Scratch Pegasus' : Lens of Language
04-08-13: Commentary : Ruth Ozeki Clocks 'A Tale for the Time Being' : Reading is the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2013 Interview with Ruth Ozeki : "...through the act of writing, she would somehow conjure the reader into being..."
