Last Thursday I got back from a week in Canada. It was very much a pleasure trip, rather than business - I was attending the of an old friend in Toronto, and visiting some other friends in Calgary - but it also involved my first ever television interview, which was a fairly odd experience.
I should point out that I am in no way Big In Canada - one of the friends that I was visiting works for CBC in Calgary, and as a favour to me organised a four-minute interview on a midday news and views-type show, to talk about The Angel Makers (even though a) it's not published in Canada (yet?) and b) they don't normally interview novelists - my friend Kate certainly seems to have some powers of persuasion!). I was very grateful, of course - I'm starting to understand how important publicity is! - but also pretty nervous. Back when I was a child and a teenager dreaming of being a published author one day, I admit that the fame aspect of it appealed to me - I had starry-eyed visions of being scintillating on chat shows - but I've found that now, when it comes to the crunch, I'm a lot more shy and retiring than I ever thought I was. (Anyone who knows me will be guffawing at that, but honestly, it's true!) This whole book-writing malarkey is a rather peculiar thing - the actual process of writing a novel is essentially a very solitary and personal one, and no matter how much a book may be written with publication in mind, it's a strange experience to suddenly be talking to unknown people in the media about characters who previously only existed in your head.
Being an inveterately clumsy person, my greatest fear with regard to the interview was that it would involve walking: I had visions of the traditional chat-show set up, of having to sashay elegantly through some doors, across a soundstage and sit down in a chair without falling up or down a step, tripping over a cable (and possibly plunging the entire studio into darkness), or sitting down too suddenly and overturning the chair. Luckily no element of movement was required - the very nice people at CBC sat me in a (rather wobbly) chair, and I just had to stay still and wait for a camera to land on me (figuratively, not literally) before attempting to sound intelligent for four minutes until - thankfully - they cut to a segment about vegan cooking. The four minutes went very fast; I have no idea what I said (though I do remember provoking a laugh at one point - I hope it was with me, rather than at me) and then it was over. My one and only copy of the DVD has been sent to PaperBooks unwatched, for Keirsten to do with what she will - I can barely stand to listen to my own voice on tape, let alone watch myself on the telly.
Anyway. So this is my blog! I shall try and update this on a semi-regular basis, and hopefully someone out there may find my ramblings of occasional interest. I admit that I'm not new to blogging - while I was in Sudan last year I kept a blog at http://hypermobility.livejournal.com, so if anyone's interested in finding out what I was up to last year, feel free to have a look!
