(Definitely wrote this after I pulled a muscle or stubbed a toe. It got me thinking about how humans are supposed to be the superior species of Earth. Yet, we are so easily injured and broken that I start to question that opinion. I mean, many people will be bedridden after a violent sneeze while some animals continue surviving with chunks taken out of their bodies.)
I came up with this post and the one on Friday while I was a TA in an ELA class last school year. The students had to interview a person, so they were learning about how to ask questions to get deep answers. This got me thinking about when I did some author interviews and similar projects while I was a student. I didn’t think about job interviews though, so these tips might not work there. Then again, what do I know?
Go into an interview with some level of background knowledge. If you are talking to an author, learn about their books, inspirations, and whatever else you can find. Check out their blog if they have one. This information will allow you to come up with questions beyond the basics and create better follow-up questions.
Try to avoid ‘yes/no’ and other types of questions that can be answered with a single word or sentence. This is why planning might be necessary. Authors might enjoy rambling at length, but you can’t be sure of that. Some authors can be fairly shy if questions go beyond the book. Ask about inspirations, concepts that got cut, most difficult of the process, and anything else that might get a conversation.
Speaking of conversations, try to treat the interview like one. A solid conversation is one with back-and-forth, but also depth. If you’re simply throwing out a question and receiving a simple answer, you aren’t getting the most out of your time. This is where spontaneous follow-up questions can expand on things. It might result in other questions getting dropped for time, but you get a more natural flow.
LISTEN TO YOUR INTERVIEWEE!
Don’t set out to embarrass your interviewee or make them uncomfortable. There is an audience for ‘gotcha’ questions, but they’re not interested in the author or their book. They want the type of entertainment that comes from the tearing down of another human being. Send them to Twitter for that. You, hopefully, chose to interview this person because you were curious about them, respected them, and wanted to help them get some exposure. Not to bring them to tears.
Do what you can to make your interviewee comfortable. This can be a relaxing setting, a drink, snacks, or anything that will put them at ease. You can even ask beforehand if there is anything they would like to feel comfortable. This will help the interview flow and prevent the event from starting with tension.
Pay attention to body language. This will be a clearer sign that you heading in a comfortable or uncomfortable direction. Avoiding eye contact, tense muscles, twitching, and many other signs will show if you are heading to an early end to the interview. You can also figure this out if the answers become more limited and restrained.
Where to even begin with Trinity? Over the course of Legends of Windemere, she has worn the mask of a villain, hero, savior, tormentor, victim, friend, rival, and a few others. I think she’s the most diverse one of the whole cast because I had to move her from one spot to another. It wasn’t really supposed to be this way either.
Trinity is the ruler of a species called ‘Chaos Elves’. These are a species of elf that maintain some of the demon taint that was thrown into the mix of the original model, which nearly destroyed Windemere. They live on the shadowy continent of Shayd and are known for being deadly assassins. Although, they used to be known as annoying pranksters before the Great Cataclysm happened. Very few people know that Baron Kernaghan’s prison cracked enough that he managed to enslave the chaos elves and turn them into his personal army. He’s gone through many puppet rulers to keep them under his thumb, but now he has Trinity. This might not be a positive for him.
Originally, Trinity was a deal-loving caster who debuted in Prodigy of Rainbow Tower to counter the power of Nyx. She was actually stronger at first because she had more experience. While Nyx trained for most of her life in Rainbow Tower, Trinity took the throne and became an agent of the Baron at a very young age. By the time she appears in the books, she’s had a lot of kills and misery under her belt. Plenty of suffering too because she’s done what no other ruler has done before. She accepts the punishments of her people, which has kept many of them alive because the Baron would never dare to kill her. This upbringing always made me think of Trinity as a mirror image of Nyx and that either one could have become the other under different circumstances. In fact, this is a plot point for one of the books when Trinity confronts Nyx . . . This is also where I began having problems.
I always expected Trinity and Nyx to be bitter rivals who would push each other to the highest levels of skill. Then, they’d settle their feud once and for all with all of the hatred coming out at once. Unfortunately, I could never maintain their hate because I would see how they’d respect each other. Nyx wouldn’t hate Trinity who does evil to protect her people. Trinity wouldn’t hate Nyx for following her destiny. This would result in them being forced to team-up at times, especially since both of them despised Stephen Kernaghan. I did manage to create a few scenarios where I could have them really throw down with each other, including their final encounter. Yet, it never had the emotions that I wanted. Instead, there was an odd amount of pain and anguish that they felt when doing battle. It came alongside a sense of pleasure and excitement since nobody else could challenge them in the same fashion. So, my bitter rivalry became a friendly one that made me change a lot of stuff later on in the books.
For those that made it far into the series, you probably know more about the Trinity/Stephen stuff. This is probably the darkest I got and it’s a big reason I hated the guy. I was never sure if I should be overt with the fact that he had raped her and probably threatened to kill her people if she said no. Before anyone freaks out, I’ve made it clear many times that Stephen is the irredeemable monster of the series and I had to take a shower whenever I wrote a scene where he wasn’t getting his ass kicked. I think Trinity helped to flush out the horror that he was and it strengthened her a bit because she got to fight back at times. There’s a big scene that touches on this and Nyx is involved too, but it’s kind of a spoiler. I didn’t let this part of Trinity’s history define her either. It was another scar for her to have among so many others, but this is the one I think about the most.
2023 Addition– You know, I don’t really know what to say about Trinity. Like Kira, she evolved rapidly and without much concentration. She went from the sole female flunkie of Baron Kernaghan and Nyx’s rival to an eventual anti-hero. Part of it might have been that I slowly realized that I didn’t want the chaos elves to remain on the side of evil since they weren’t monsters. They were clearly being manipulated and having them abruptly revealed as such near the end didn’t feel right. Trinity gave me a way to demonstrate that her and her people weren’t just villains. There was situational nuance to them, which enhanced her purpose and symbolism. She became a savior and martyr for her people even though she was standing with Baron Kernaghan. I think the way she changed also led to me altering how evil he was too. That’s why Stephen Kernaghan really stands out as the only ‘evil for the sake of being evil’ type.
The Day of Atonement is upon the Jewish people. Another day of not eating from sundown last night to sundown today. That means, I’ll be tackling a video game to distract myself from my hunger. My choice is from the N64 collection the Switch. I missed playing ‘Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’. Had a lot of good memories playing this game in college. Anyway, enjoy the funnies.
My hay fever has been brutalizing me all month. It got really bad a little over a week ago and reached a point where I got myself covid tested. As if this time of year wasn’t bad enough without a disease that mimics allergies. Doesn’t help that the only parking space I have is under an oak tree (lungs are not a fan) and ragweed appears to be the flavor of the year. I’m waiting for this to be like autumn 2010 when my allergies were so bad that I ended up getting a severe upper respiratory infection. So much mucus and such a disturbing shade of green.
Anyway, here are some funnies. I’m off to eat enough to survive Yom Kippur tomorrow.
This week didn’t go as planned, which I’m sure will be written on my tombstone. I had glorious intentions, but life decided to intervene. Specifically, my ragweed allergies and mild bronchitis made it difficult to do complicated things like sleeping, breathing, and exercising. So, what did I accomplish?
Writing-wise, I didn’t get the two chapters done that I wanted. Darwin & the Beast Collector only made it a chapter ahead. A big part of this was because I only wrote one section a day and ended up junking the 4th section due to it not fitting. It was another talking one, which didn’t make sense. I was aiming to do some writing after the ominous life event on Monday, but that left me too emotionally drained. By the time I got my head together, it was time to pick my son up from school. The torrential downpour setting off my sinuses didn’t help. Maybe I’ll have better luck this coming week . . . Which starts with Yom Kippur the Jewish day of fasting.
I couldn’t do any writing during the week due to appointments and my son needing a lot of help with school. Not just with the work, but rewards for when he finished. This was typically a Pokemon Go outing, so I was doing a lot of walking. This is on top of biking 4-5 miles whenever I could. There was also ‘Meet the Teacher Night’, which I was on the teacher side. I only had the mental capacity for November blog posts on Tuesday and Wednesday was about errands. Just so much going on, but I guess I accomplished small things.
Going back to my son with school, he’s doing pretty good. Grades are high and his anxiety is low. Clubs start next week, so we’re going to see how things keep up. It might be a challenge to get all of his work done in time to get cartoons at night, which might end up being an issue. Those help him relax for bed. I can’t let him stay up too late, so we’re going to have to adjust. I refuse to tell him to quit clubs, especially if he’s having fun with them. Kids need socializing after all.
As I said, Yom Kippur is this week, so I won’t be eating from sundown on Sunday until sundown on Monday. My plan is to play ‘Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’ on the Switch, but I need to pay $35 for a special membership. Trying to decide on how badly I want to play one of my favorite games. It’s for a yearly and the package comes with other games like Mario 64, Star Fox 64, and Goldeneye. All of that might be worth the money as long as I don’t let it renew automatically. It will definitely kept me distracted from the fact that I’m hungry.
Let’s see . . . I took my home sleep apnea test last Friday night. It wasn’t that hard to set up beyond a picture that didn’t really explain things. Took me a few tries to get the nose tubes set up. The issue was that I didn’t feel comfortable sleeping even though it was possible to roll onto my side. I think I spent the whole night in one position, which was on my back. I was out for the required 6-7 hours as far as I can tell, so I’ll get to discuss my results eventually. This was probably another reason I had trouble writing last weekend because I started with a rough night’s sleep. Then, my breathing issues gave me another tough night, so there was a domino effect. It took all of my energy to make it through the work day.
This week is going to be wild and crazy, but next weekend doesn’t look that bad. My son has appointments, but nothing that will cost me more than a single evening. So, I should be able to write. Maybe I’ll even get through 2 chapters. Kind of harping on that, but the loss of my writing stamina is agonizing. Used to be able to write 3 sections in a day without mentally feeling it. Now, I do 1-2 sections and my brain is about to drip out of my ears. Been that way ever since I had Covid last summer, which has me wondering about what’s going on in my skull. Could I have some kind of brain damage that would cause me to wear down quickly when I push my imagination or brain in general?
Really isn’t anything else going on that I can think of talking about. Got my niece’s 3rd birthday today, so it’s a celebration. Tomorrow is the promised day of Pokemon Go since I’ll be out of commission on Monday. Come to think of it, Septembers are always pretty crazy and Octobers aren’t much better. It isn’t until November that things begin to settle down a bit. I should just accept this and not get my hopes up in terms of having writing time and energy.
Goals of the week:
Family time!
Help son with school.
Enjoy another week of job sites with students.
Start watching ‘Castlevania: Nocturne’ when it comes out on the 28th.
Play ‘Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’ to survive fasting.
Pokemon Go outings.
Write more Darwin & the Beast Collector before next weekend if time and brain permits.
Finish November blog posts and start December posts.
Legends of Windemere 