Woo, hoo! An interview!

Okay, probably not my most professional reaction, but still! I got an email today from VU. They're asking to interview me for the email newsletter that goes out to prospective students, as part of the hooplah surrounding the introduction of creative writing and professional writing majors. They want to talk to me as someone who has been "successful in the writing world." I'm so excited -- one, because it's just another cool opportunity to talk about something I love, writing, and two, because it's doing something, I hope, to help my school.

In case you haven't noticed, I loved my school. I learned so much there, not just about curriculum but also about life. I learned what it was like to have a supportive environment and people who knew who I was personally, instead of student #24344. And I know that's not for everyone, but it made a big difference to me. And the opportunity to share that with people who are considering Valpo as a future home (for four years at least) makes me feel good. I mean, I've been out of school for almost seven years now, and the professors in the English department still remember me. And it's not because the school was that small, but it's because they took/take a personal interest in their students. I can't tell you how often that helped me when I was in school and even once I graduated. When I went to Dr. Uehling a couple of years ago and told him I'd written a book (not The Silver Spoon, but another novel), he didn't laugh. He took me completely seriously, even though I had no idea what I was doing. And that helped me get the courage to believe that I could do it, get a book published, I mean. And it happened!

This interview is such good news that I can almost forget about how my computer seems to have eaten my marketing plan. You know, the one that I've been slaving over? My hard drive crashed last week, not that big of a deal, as I managed to find the copy in my email "sent items" and build from that. But somehow, when the techno-wizards restored my documents, the old one, I think, overwrote (is that even a word?) the new one. So, I lost a whole bunch. But I do have a hard copy (always, always, always print out a hard copy and back up on disk, especially when working on a creative project) and if it disappeared on my home computer as well, I emailed it there last week, then I can always retype. Which I hate, but it doesn't suck nearly as much as losing it completely.

I am nervous about the interview. You never know how you sound to other people, how they will take your words, particularly if you're not face to face. That's one of the reasons I opted to do a phone interview, at least then inflection will count for something. How many times has humor bottomed-out in an email because someone took the words seriously?!? Or vice versa, I suppose. I might ask my dad for some tips. He talks in front of people all the time (he's a pastor) and I know he's even done tv interviews, so other than not talking too fast (which when I gave a presentation last week at work, some people said they were worried I would talk too fast, as I always do, but that I did fine, so maybe I'm getting better), maybe he has some ideas on what else to do to keep myself calm and give good answers.

Sorry for the jumbled nature of this blog. I didn't want to miss another entry, but I have to run to make it home in time for kickboxing--we might do long-hooks tonight and I don't want to miss that!

Any suggestions for interview advice, send them my way sklemstein@msn.com.
Talk to you tomorrow!