Since I began interviewing authors on WYSO in 1994 I have kept a list of people I would really like to have on the program. Now and then I'll get to check a name off my list but it doesn't happen that often. Some names I simply have to cross off without ever having done an interview. Obviously when authors die that forces me to remove them from my list. Then there are the writers who are simply so famous that I do not realistically have a chance of ever interviewing them. Stephen King would be a good example of an author like that. He doesn't do many interviews and at this point in his career he's so well known that my chances of ever speaking to him are virtually nil.
Earlier this year I got to speak with the disgraced baseball star Pete Rose. I never dreamed I could ever get him on the program. He wrote a book and he was doing an appearance in Cincinnati. So you never really know for sure. He wasn't actually on my list. But he deserved to be. I loved talking to him!
Authors who do not live in the US present their own versions of being unavailable. I never thought I could get an interview with Ann Cleeves. She lives in the United Kingdom. She is the author of the hugely successful Vera crime series and the equally impressive Shetland series. These books have been adapted into enormously popular television programs. She had been on my list for quite a while.
Ann recently published "The Long Call," the first book in a new series that features the police detective Matthew Venn. I heard a rumor Ann would be in the US for some events. I immediately contacted her publicist and arranged an interview.
Miracles do happen. Ann Cleeves writes lovely books and she gives a great interview. This new series is already being considered for a television adaptation. I was delighted to check her name off of my list.
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 Microsun Lamps.
