On the radio, whoa-oh-oh-oh

Does anyone else remember that groovy disco song by Donna Summer? Circa 1979? If so, I hereby apologize for the earworm. If not, here’s a link so you can join in the repetitive dance magic.

Why are we talking about the radio??

Well, today was quite an unexpected frolic in the world of self-published bookdom. I was interviewed about my book by a local radio station! Say what?!? I gotta admit, that was NOT on my “let’s write a book” bingo card. And it sort of came out of nowhere. I remain amazed. And grateful.

A couple months ago, I was minding my own business on my heating pad when an email appeared in my book’s dedicated account. The email address appears in I’m FINE.’s final paragraph, inviting people to reach out and know they have a friend if they want to talk about the messiness of life with chronic pain. Much to my delight, I have actually heard from a handful of folks! Including Susan.

Susan has scoliosis. Her husband read an article about my book, bought her a copy, and she’s now an enthusiastic fan. God bless her!

Susan also has a demanding job. She is the president of a non-profit community radio station in the Portland, Oregon metro. The station has a Book Talk show hosted by Patty. Without me having a clue, Susan lobbied Patty to interview me for her show. So that’s how this happened at about 2:00 this afternoon.

Apparently I was animated?

I tried really hard not to be nervous. I prayed in my car in the station’s parking lot before going in. I focused on being authentic, acknowledging my newbiness to the associate program director (Connor) and unabashedly snapping a few photos as proof and social media fodder.

Having spent trillions of hours (ok, fine, about 60) recording my audiobook, the headphones and fancy microphone thankfully didn’t freak me out. I was calmly sipping water and focusing on my steady breathing when suddenly, Connor counted down with his fingers and indicated to Patty that we were now recording.

Have you ever seen that Brady Bunch episode where Cindy is on a kids' television quiz show? And she’s all confident and self-assured until the red light illuminates on the TV camera, at which point she freezes? Yeah. The sense of “YOU’RE ON!!” is pretty freaky! Although my incapacitation wasn’t nearly as bad as Cindy’s, I did have a fleeting moment of wondering if Rob was telepathically yelling “BATON ROUGE! BATON ROUGE!” from the other side of town.

Fortunately, I had listened to several of Patty’s prior interviews so when she started her introduction, I was calmed by the familiarity and settled down, unlike Cindy.

How did the interview go? I have no idea.

Patty asked about my book, why I wrote it, the writing process, feedback I’ve received, unintended audiences, coping mechanisms for living with pain, the emotions of chronic pain, silverware. Yes, we covered a lot of ground in just 26 minutes!

But I can’t tell you much else. It was a blur. A blur of excitement, gratitude, anxiety, wonder, and focus. With each question, I had to quickly decide how far and deep and wide to go with my answer, knowing we had limited time and wanting to get to the point quickly but thoroughly. Predictably, I had much better answers when I returned to my car after saying goodbye to Patty and Connor.

The interview was recorded, so it will air later with a link provided on the station’s website. So for better or worse, at some point soonish, I will get to hear how it really went. I’m both excited and terrified.

Patty said it was good interview and was “super fun” so that’s encouraging. And Connor was inspired afterward to share his own chronic pain story – one that involves footballs and mountain slopes (not at the same time but still a much more impressive story than “I coughed.”). I consider it a gift that my conversation with Patty made Connor feel comfortable enough to reveal he, too, wears a mask.

I gave Connor my card – with my email address – and invited him to please reach out if he wants to commiserate about living with chronic pain. I really hope he does. Because that’s the whole point.