A few years ago, historian Lucy Worsley gave a talk at the Richmond Theatre, which I had the great good fortune to attend. Early in the program, she spoke of herself as a shy person, but a show-off. This apparently explains her ability to stand on a stage all by herself and give an entertaining talk about her latest book (at the time it was Jane Austen at Home: A Biography). On my list of Favorite Things To Do, this kind of solo holding forth before an audience is somewhere near the bottom.
Still, I do have some show-off in me.
Like so many writers—and readers—I’m an introvert. Otherwise, we might be performing instead of glaring at a screen for hours at a time. But when it comes to talking about writing or research, the shyness and introversion tends to subside. Ask me questions about these topics, and I will answer with wanton abandon. (IOW, just try to shut me up.)
And so I do interviews, Zoom chats, podcasts, as long as they are Q&A in some form. The give and take can be fun. Definitely stimulating. Because one often has no idea what to expect. Oh, yes, there are some standard questions, but interviewers and/or their audience do at times ask questions that make me think hard, and I kind of love that. But the easy ones are also fun, allowing me to share excitement or amusement about this or that topic. At unnecessary length.
I’ve done a couple of these performances recently, and they are now online for your viewing/listening entertainment. That is, I hope you’ll be entertained.
Many of you may remember the Two Nerdy History Girls blog. Though Susan Holloway Scott and I retired from posting a few years ago, the blog remains and still draws readers. And so Meena Jain, of the Ashland Public Library, kindly invited us for a return engagement via Zoom. You can watch The Two Nerdy History Girls Ride Again! on YouTube.
Back in the fall, Hosts Bridget and Shani of the Romance at a Glance Podcast posed some challenging questions. The podcast recently went live, and you can listen to it here.
I retire now to my writer’s cave, until the next time somebody wants to ask a lot of questions.
