Keeping It Fresh

I’ve been promoting Mad Dog House lately. This involves podcasts, radio interviews, and TV interviews. The slots have been time-limited to at most, seven minutes. That’s not much time to discuss something as complex and rich as a novel—at least not Mad Dog House, which has different levels and raises questions about love, loyalty, violence, right and wrong, family, commitment, and about escaping the past.

I’ve been asked to prepare a list of questions about the novel since usually, the interviewers haven’t read it. So I prepared a roster of stimulating questions.

It was clear however, that the time allotted would permit me to speak only in sound bites. After all, how much can one say if seven questions are asked in six minutes? I realized that if I stuck with a “script” it would soon grow stale and sound canned. So, what could I do?

It seemed clear that keeping the interviews fresh could be as important as making an interesting presentation. So, before each one, I’d think up a new question to put a different slant on the novel. Otherwise, a rehearsed and rote quality could permeate my words, even my tone. These things can happen without our even being aware of them.

A strange thing happened. By thinking up new angles, I began seeing more layers of meaning in the novel; things I hadn’t realized before. The novel took on new depth for me, and the interviews became more interesting for me--and more important, for the audience. They became more of an exploration. And I avoided the ennui I’ve often heard permeating the voices of authors being interviewed for the twentieth time about their novels.

So the bottom line is: keep it fresh—for yourself and the audience. Don’t take the easy way out and answer the same canned questions again and again.

Mark Rubinstein
Author, Mad Dog House (October 23rd)