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.
05-16-12: Commentary : Mark Sundeen Pays Out 'The Man Who Quit Money' : Over the Edges
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Mark Sundeen and Daniel Suelo : "What would happen if we actually practiced this stuff?"-Daniel Suelo
05-15-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War' : Impure Life
05-08-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat' : Reading in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Mark Sundeen : "...over the years, I had heard through my friends that he had stopped using money and was living in a cave..."
04-30-12: Commentary : Christopher Moore Follows 'Sacré Bleu' : A Story in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Christopher Moore : "...it often isn't efficient to tell a story in chronological order..."
04-27-12: Commentary : Lisa Lutz on 'Trail of the Spellmans' : Meta-Fiction is Fun
Agony Column Podcast News Report: SF in SF from February 11, 2012 : Panel Discussion Moderated by Terry Bisson and Interviews with Rudy Rucker, K. W. Jeter, and Jay Lake
04-26-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Emmanuel Carrere 'The Adversary' : The Enemy Within
04-23-12: Commentary : T. M. Luhrman Listens 'When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God' : Science and the Supernaturaly
04-18-12: Commentary : Gregg Jones Stirs Through 'Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dreams' : A Dream Of Today From Yesterday
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Gregg Jones : "The Philippinos would welcome us with open arms and greet us as liberators."
04-17-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Caleb Carr 'The Alienist' : Subterranean History
04-16-12: Commentary : Richard Zacks Visits 'Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York' :The Wild, Wild East
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Richard Zacks : "Roosevelt and Riis were out looking, and if they did find a cop, he was talking to a streetwalker."
