Radio Daze

I just got off the air with a fellow who goes by the moniker of “Crazy Dougie” – a radio personality, of course, who turned out –despite the silly name!-- to be a charming man, an avid reader, and a wonderful interviewer.

His station is WANB AM (Pennsylvania), and he taped the show for a later broadcast. Here's a picture of Crazy Dougie with a country music artist:

Crazy Dougie paid me a wonderful compliment: apparently his wife snatched his copy of Shooting Gallery off the nightstand when she wasn’t looking, and then wouldn’t give it back. Now she’s hinting broadly for him to buy her a copy of Feint of Art, and wondered if there were more to come in the series (of course there are! Brush with Death is in production and will be released this summer; Book 4 is currently being written).

Stories like that just warm my heart!

I think the interview went well, though I may have been a bit over-caffeinated because I awakened at 4 am for a live 5 am (8 am in New York) interview on the Frank Truatt Morning show on

As many of you may know, I try to get up at 4 most mornings to write, but last night I wound up staying up until midnight so the pre-dawn wake-up came right in the middle of a REM cycle. Frank Truatt had more than one person asking me questions…I had a sense that there were several people in the recording booth with him, but I couldn’t be sure. Might have been that I was half-asleep.

Last month I spoke with Baron Ron Herron from KZSB, Santa Barbara, and had a nice long half-hour chat with Megan Willingham on the satellite station, AdviceRadio.com Writers, Authors, n' More. I am working on linking the interview here so you can listen in.

And next Thursday, December 7, I’ll be taping The Two O'Clock Show with host Ken Johannessen on KPQ radio. I’m told KPQ is broadcast in parts of Washington state, including much of Seattle and Spokane.


It’s always tough to decide what to talk about on the air. Sometimes there are only a few minutes to get the ideas across. Mostly I try to give people a sense that art doesn’t have to be boring—I can’t tell you how many people’s eyes glaze over as if I were talking about history, for heaven’s sake—and give them a little tease about the books. Then I try to mention my website address a few times, , and invite them to enter the free drawing for a portrait, to be painted by Yours Truly….by the way, the deadline is coming up! December 8 is the last day! Enter today!!! It only takes a minute to send me your information.

Anyone out there have any advice for what to talk about on the radio or (gasp!) TV?