Last March I had the pleasure of sitting down with Archway Publishing’s Emma Creekbaum for an interview for a special segment under The Book Connection called Author RoundUp that she was hosting. My book, Nonstop Oslo, had been recommended by the social media person at Archway Publishing (Thank you, whoever you are!), and Emma thought she’d reach out to me.
When I first got the email, I was super excited! I had been looking forward to an opportunity to talk about the book ever since Eric Saxon, Marketing Consultant at Archway, told me, at the end of a lengthy phone conversation back in August 2022, that I would do well in interviews because my passion for the book comes right through. As someone that has always dreamed of becoming a renowned published author, my imagination always ran wild. I would picture myself having these conversations with my editor about my current book and with the marketing people about the next strategy for getting my book on the Bestsellers’ list. As I was talking to Eric that day, I thought to myself, “Oh, my God!” this is what I’ve always wanted and it’s happening now…to me!” I couldn’t contain myself.
I had images of myself proudly holding my book on a graphic that said “Oprah’s Book Club”, and, in my head, I was proudly walking onto Oprah’s set for her special interview with an upcoming and very promising first-time published author who had just taken the romance world by storm. That would be me. I pictured my book getting all sorts of accolades and I would be quoting my favorite line from 20th-century American poet Edwin Markham, “Ah, great it is to believe the dream as we stand in youth by the starry stream; but a greater thing is to fight life through and say at the end, ‘the dream is true!'” And I knew that I would be thankful to God because I had asked him for all of this. And my Father always delivers…
Shortly after that, I was assigned a publicist for a few weeks to teach me a few things about promoting my book using social media, and I eventually came down from my dream cloud when I realized that there was a ton of work to be done when promoting a book and that once her assignment with me was over and done with, I would be pretty much left on my own to navigate these new, and sometimes murky, waters. That was such a daunting thought. Especially with scammers, preying on your desire to be validated as a writer, lurking in every corner. So, I did my best to assimilate these little lessons and to apply them as soon as I could, and as best as I could, so I wouldn’t forget them.
At my age, it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks!
I have to admit, though, that I never really liked social media. I thought it was one of those things that sucked up all your energy and at the end of the day, none of the important things that needed to be done was done because you were vegged out, mindlessly reading all kinds of posts on a bunch of people that you didn’t know and were probably never going to meet, and who, for the most part, would never be interested in you, other than for your “like”. But that’s the world we live in today, isn’t it? We’ll take the good with the bad.
This blog is certainly one of the good things that I gladly take and embrace, for it has given me a platform to talk about what is close to my heart. Again, thank you, Archway Publishing.
So, here I was sitting on Zoom with Emma and she’s asking me all these fun questions about the book and I was in heaven. I got to talk about my experience with creativity and tell a lot of stories about my friends and their encouragement. I’ve said it before in earlier blogs that if it weren’t for my friends, Nonstop Oslo would probably still be sitting in a file in a folder under the name “Creative Works” on my computer. It would be one among that endless list of files containing other works that I’ve created over the years and that still have not seen the light of day. One of my favorite questions of the interview, though, was, “What would you do if [because of the book] you met Morten Harket (the lead singer of A-ha, who inspired the entire story)? My heart fluttered like a butterfly at the thought. And my imagination went wild again for a brief second. I saw myself on the Ellen DeGeneres Show being surprised by Morten Harket during my interview with the hilarious comedian. I came back to earth quickly to answer that question. How calm and composed I was! I impressed myself!
Yesterday, I finally received the links from Emma for that wonderful interview, one link for the video and one for the Book Connection podcast. What a treat! I immediately dispatched those to all my friends so they could celebrate with me. And I thought I would share the video interview with my readers, hoping that you would get to know me a little better and that Emma helped me to present the book in a way that would make you eager to buy and read it. But chances are if you’re reading this blog, you might have already purchased a copy for yourself. And, in that case, thank you for your support!
