I apologize for my terrible interview skills.

-Heath Ledger

I did a radio interview last week on Live at 5 with Aaron on 1240 KSUE in Northern California. Aaron had me on his show to talk about my book, Rachel and the Mighty Arm that Built Egypt. I was excited to learn Aaron was reading my book. Every time I hear someone is reading my book I can’t help but be pleasantly surprised. I guess there’s a part of me that still doesn’t fully comprehend folks are reading something I created. I’m sure I’ll get over that eventually. Hopefully.

It was nice of Aaron to invite me to appear on his show. I only hesitated for a second before agreeing to it. Knowing that appearing on the radio is excellent free advertising for my book, it would have been foolish to turn him down. But still there are both definite advantages and disadvantages to doing a radio interview.

Advantages to doing a radio interview:

• No one can see you and your pointy heard (wait, am I the only one with a pointy head?)
• Or see how when you’re excited about something your eyebrows shoot up so high drag queens might get jealous (wait, is that also just me?)
• It doesn’t matter what you wear
• The radio doesn’t add 10 lbs

Disadvantages to doing a radio interview:

• You must completely keep people’s attention with your voice
• You can’t distract folks with your charming smile
• How much you say “uh” and “um” becomes painfully obvious
• If you don’t like your voice, then it sucks to be you

Most people don’t like the sound of their own voice recorded. They’re usually surprised by how high pitched it sounds. I actually don’t mind mine. But, that’s probably because I’m not at all surprised by how high pitched my voice sounds. I have a very high pitch voice (I got it from my mom. Thanks, mom!). And having had a speech impediment as a kid and having gone through speech therapy to correct that, combined with my background in theatre I have a very crisp exact voice, as well. So I sound like a cartoon character. Quite literally. I might have missed my calling. Oh well. (Disney, if you’re reading this… Call me!)

Despite not hating my voice I was absurdly nervous about doing a radio interview. We drove up to Susanville (where the radio station is) and my little bird heart was beating a million miles a minute during the entirety of our journey. While sitting in the studio my palms were sweating so bad I had to wipe them on my jeans more than once. Despite the nerves I was feeling, my family members who listened to the interview assured me I only sounded nervous at the very beginning of the interview. They said they could tell I relaxed part way through. The truth is I never relaxed. I’m not too good at relaxing in general. Put me in a position where I have to answer questions about my book and I’m also super aware of how long I’m pausing and how often I’m saying “uh” and “um” and yeah… there is no relaxing.

I think it still went well though. But don’t trust me… you be the judge. You can check out my entire interview on YouTube. Regardless of whether or not it went well, it was another learning experience. I’ve been stepping out of my comfort zone a lot since publishing Rachel and the Mighty Arm that Built Egypt. Perhaps eventually all these things that feel so uncomfortable—like radio appearances and self-promotion—will feel like normal non scary things. Maybe. Hopefully. Probably not. Like I said, I tend to be a nervous person.