Before we get into a description of what this program was about allow me to take you behind the scenes to explain some of the things that have to happen before we can interview an author. There's a lot of preparation involved. First of all I have to be aware that a certain book exists. Fortunately there are lots of people around who are publicizing books. Many of them are publicists for publishing houses. Then there are the publicists for PR firms who have been hired to promote certain books. Of course in some instances the authors themselves are trying to generate interest in their work. Every day my email box is filled with pitches from people who are working on getting the word out about certain books.
If I am interested in looking at a particular book then I'll try to obtain a copy of it. I always read the books I feature on the program. Once I have the book and and have gotten a chance to check it out I can decide if I might want to talk to the author about it. Some books are no-brainers because I'm familiar with the author and want to talk to them about almost any book they write. When the publicist for the New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast pitched me her latest book project, "I Must Be Dreaming," about six months before the book was set to be released I said, of course, please send me an advance copy of it. After I saw it I asked that when a finished book was available I would like to see that, too. Bear in mind that advance copies of books are usually different from finished books. For example, a book of cartoons might be in black and white in the advanced version and then in color for the finished book. It makes a difference.
Her publicist is a pro-over the next few months she sent me the different versions of the book. I told her I really hoped I could interview Roz Chast again. I had Roz on the program almost a decade ago for her wonderful book "Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?" That book was a best-seller. Now ten years later the author was in big demand for interviews. I kept having a back and forth email exchange with her publicist; yes, I would love to talk to Roz again, how can we make this happen? Finally Roz Chast had wrapped up her publicity tour for this new book and was back home in Connecticut. One morning I received an email from her publicist stating that I could interview Roz. The email was sent at 9am and if I could do the interview it would be taking place at 2 o'clock that very same day. Now this is unusual, it is a rare thing to book an interview with just a few hours to arrange it. I always try to give Peter Hayes, who does all of our sound on the show, at least 24 hours advance notice that we might have an interview. I have to ask Peter if he's available, if a studio is available, etc. That's normal. This wasn't normal. I have been doing this for a long time and I understood that it was very likely that if I did not agree to do this interview on such short notice that it was highly unlikely I would get another chance, the holidays were coming on fast and I recognized this as probably my only shot. Of course, I wasn't going to miss out on this opportunity if I could help it!
I contacted Peter Hayes and essentially begged him to agree to do this program in just a few hours. Peter is the best, he got it, and said fine, let's do it. So we did. The main problem this created for me was that my usual preparation time was non-existent. Believe it or not, I do a lot of preparation for every interview. I read the book. I go on-line and do research. If I have interviewed the author before I might revisit any archived conversations. I informed her publicist that we would call Roz that afternoon to tape a show. I thanked her publicist for making it happen. It was all arranged. Then I began to scramble. First, I had to read her book again. Fortunately this is a book of cartoons and I was able to re-read it in about an hour. The clock kept ticking. I wasn't able to prepare like I normally would. By 1 o'clock I was on my bicycle pedaling the five miles along country roads that I needed to traverse to get to the radio station by 1:45 to get with Peter and set up to do the interview.
We called Roz at 2 o'clock. She answered right away and sounded a bit tired. She had just finished her publicity tour-I was really feeling appreciative that her publicist had persuaded her to do one more interview with me. Before we started taping Roz warned us 'I'll be boring." She wasn't. As we began the interview I had an opening in mind, something about how if I had her on the phone right now certainly "I MUST BE DREAMING!" playing off her book's title. After I said that to her she said: "what, I didn't hear that? My phone cut out!" Darned cell phones, not an auspicious beginning. But things did get better. We talked about her book, her career as a cartoonist, and we got into talking about our nocturnal dreams, recurring dreams, flying dreams, lucid dreams. What fun!
After the interview ended I realized that I had forgotten to ask her one question that I really wanted to ask her. I had been in such a rush to prepare that morning I had completely forgotten about my question. Here's what I wanted to ask her: Roz drew a cover recently for the New Yorker. If you looked down at the bottom left hand corner of her cartoon for that cover there was a square that she designated as a book filled space with this caption: "Book Nook." I wanted to ask her, did you do that as an homage to this program? Funny, right? Of course she didn't. But then she was on the program a decade ago and perhaps something in her subconscious had lingered from our previous conversation; maybe me having stated that my guest in the Book Nook today is Roz Chast. Highly unlikely I know. But a guy can dream!
The Book Nook on WYSO is presented by the Greene County Public Library with additional support from Washington-Centerville Public Library, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, Wright Memorial Public Library, and Tipp City Public.
