Talking on the Radio

I was travelling to a Buddhist meeting with a friend the other day and she was asking what I was up to. I said I had an interview with the LGBT community radio station in Bristol coming up.

“Wow,” she said. “I think you’re really brave to talk on the radio. That must be scary.”

Well that got me thinking. Because, actually, it is scary. And here’s why: you don’t know what they are going to ask, and you will be live on air and will have to deliver an answer.

You can’t very well refuse. Dead air is not good. Radio silence does not serve anyone. And you’ll sound like a prat who has something to hide, or nothing to say.

The first trick to radio success is research. No surprise there – but it needs to be done. Check out the station, listen to what they do. Google the presenters! Know what you are getting into.

The best interviews work if you have had a chat with the presenter on the phone, or had some e-mail correspondence beforehand. You get a feel for them, and them for you.

The next bit is preparation. Once you have a sense of your audience, and your station (on air, not in life) you can hone your thoughts on your book/ subject in a relevant manner. After that – you have to let it go, and go with the flow. Because once you are in that studio, it’s about listening and responding. You have built your scaffold –now kick it away and engage. And if you’ve done the work, here comes the magic.

I’ve loved every radio interview I’ve done. (In fact I’m sure I have a deep yearning to be a radio presenter). You can listen to some on my website. Each has been a different experience. And last night’s had me laughing.

So there I am with Shout Out Radio in Bristol, but we’ve been ousted from the studio while they do the election, and Pirate Nation have stepped in to rescue us with their studio: aboard the MVEmily. Excellent – the actor in me is totally engaged as I’m briefed about our location, and the pirate/ship/water/swimming jokes abound.

Now maybe someone else would have been thrown by that. In fact the team initially apologised a lot about our environment, telling me they had a lovely studio usually. It didn’t matter. I thought it was great. Take everyone out of their comfort zone, have a laugh, and still have a great interview. 

Thanks Shout Out and Pirate Nation and their affiliates for a great evening –and for being a fabulous bunch of people doing a great job. And yes, I did get my cocktails and Japanese food afterwards!  

What's your point?

A substantial radio interview yesterday, with Drive 105.3 FM’s Eileen Walsh, got me thinking about audience again. It’s always fascinating to talk about my work –obviously. I think I know what it’s about, after all, I wrote it.

But every time I talk to a reader, I’m forced to think again.

A novel is not a lecture, thank goodness. Although I recall the odd one that headed that way and made me a tad annoyed: if I can hear the author ‘lecturing’ me, then someone has come out of character. Having spent years lecturing in a range of subjects I know that a lecture is all about the point: making it clear, accurate, supported by facts and worthy opinions.

As the author, of course I have a point to my work, and I hope I manage to make it somewhere appropriately in my stories but it’s not something to get hung up about.

Readers find the point. And as people resonate with different things for different reasons, that ‘point’ may be something you hadn’t realised you were saying –a subtle sub-point, if you like, or (scary) some subconscious stuff that leaked into your work.

I get diverse reactions to …but I love you. One reader focussed on the depiction of student life, and the engaging psychotherapy. Another considered the same-sex relationship a sideline, seeing the whole picture of relationships generally. Another took comfort and acknowledgement from the exploration of sexual identity. Yesterday’s interview became a discussion on erotica (the imminent film release of Fifty Shades colouring that a little). 

When the novel was first published I wanted people to ‘hear’ the story exactly as I meant it. It took me some months, and much feedback to realise that once it’s out there, you cannot control how people read it. It’s not yours anymore.

Relax. 

The fun is when more people read it, and interpret it, and share it.

Then you have an audience – hopefully a wide one.

I’m telling myself this as I work through book two…don’t get hung up on the ‘point’, Sinéad, relax and enjoy writing it, the readers will do their thing.

www.sineadgillespie.co.uk  @SineadGBoys

Beyond expectations: Derry does it all.

Last week I went home to the town where I grew up, Derry, Northern Ireland. I was a bit nervous. My childhood experiences were of a heavily Catholic bias, so I worried that bringing my novel home was going to be a challenge, what with its mistaken identity as ‘lesbian erotica’. (Yes, there are lesbians in it, and apparently I ‘write good sex’, but that is secondary to the plot).

Luckily, Derry Central Library had more sense and were only too happy to organise a promotional

event which we timed to coincide with Derry’s 21^st Pride march.

I did work my butt off on social media, making lots of contacts and associated plans in the weeks before. But I did not foresee how beautifully things would pan out.

We flew in early on Tuesday, filling the morning with a Game of Thrones location hunt, which was a lovely way to see some beautiful parts of the Antrim Coast and keeping Beloved Aspie very happy. The afternoon was about confirming appointments and chilling with my sister.

Wednesday was a bit manic: an interview with the Derry Journal by the insightful Ellen Barr, then on to a radio interview with Radio Foyle’s Mark Patterson (you can have a wee listen to that on my website www.sineadgillespie.co.uk). While there, I sat in on the interviewee before me, a lady I hadn’t met or spoken to, who now lives in Morocco and was on her annual trip to Ireland. About an hour later is where the magic began to happen…

We’d gone into town and were having a wander around the Craft Village and the wee gift shop, and who was there but this same lady, Rachel. We had a chat and she asked why I had been at the Radio Station as she hadn’t heard it as she was leaving. I told her about the book and she said, “You must go up to Bedlam and talk to Jenni in the bookshop there. Tell her I sent you.”

Well, nothing ventured…Bedlam is an indoor market of vintagey, crafty stuff, with Little Acorns Bookstore at the back. I found Jenni, introduced myself, and within moments she took books for stock and invited me to come back and do a chair signing. She has two very old wooden chairs: one for visiting and local authors, the other for actors. And they are scribbled all over with famous names! (check out Little Acorns Bookstore on Facebook).

That evening we went to see a play called ‘Pits and Perverts’, based on the true story of the Gay and Lesbian groups in London who rallied to raise funds for the Welsh Miners striking against Thatcher’s harsh moves in the 80s. It’s a brilliant tale of overcoming prejudice: touching and funny in equal measure. While there, I met other Derry writers, the cast, Jenni again, and a woman I’d only communicated with via twitter and email, Shá Gillespie, who organises Foyle Pride. Quite a night!

Next evening was the biggie: the launch talk at the library, followed by a reading as part of the Pride event at Café Soul. I’d be lying if I said I had a crowd at the library. Tough thing is people say they will come and, for a million reasons, they don’t. I always recall the director I worked with on my one-woman show, when I asked, how small an audience before I don’t go on? He said, if there is one person in that room, you will perform. The point being, touching one life is worth more than touching none.

There was more than one! It was a lovely event, and I met up with women in Derry who think like me, and I’d lost track of that (there’s a novel about that in the long pipeline). And the Pride event was funny as I got to read some of the naughty bits to an appreciative audience. Nuff said. (Muff said? Donegal joke). 

So, skipping to Saturday and the Pride event itself –what a joy to see the 80ft rainbow banner carried through the centre of a city whose history is worn rife with prejudice, and even the policemen were smiling. 

And on this day, two bookstores took my book; I signed the chair and went home laughing.

Before we left, and after an interesting visit to Belfast which would be a blog in itself if I could work out how not to offend some, a third bookstore took me on.

What a turn-around. From my sad and low expectations that I would simply be rejected because I anticipated my subject matter to unacceptable: Derry did this this girl of hers proud. Big time. For the first time in too many years – I can’t wait to go back.