interviews | steadily skipping stones

Oct 18

The Undead Interview, Part One (with Clay Morgan)

So, on Monday I shared a little pop culture quiz that I did with Clay Morgan. Today I have something bigger to pass along. Literally and figuratively.

Clay was gracious enough to answer a lot of questions, talking to me about himself and his book Undead as I stumbled my way through my first interview ever. (My plan was to ask more questions than I needed and then edit down, but I can’t bring myself to cut anything.) Thank you so much, Mr. Clay Morgan, for indulging me, for being patient, and for being such an interesting person to interview!

Here is part one of the interview; I hope the rest of you enjoy it as much as I did.

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I thought about posting the second half tomorrow, but I don’t like to wait – so I won’t.

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Audio File:

Tune in next week for part two, where we dig into Clay’s awesome new book, Undead!

Just as an aside…

As I’ve been editing these pieces, a lot of things kept running through my mind:

I totally feel like Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove, “Is that my voice? Is that MY voice?”
Is Clay a mind-reader? He keeps answering my next question before I ask my next question.
I really want to put up the Clay and Michelle icons so they can have some fake conversations, basically to let out the running commentary in my head about how awkward I am.
Yeah, so I use about 10 words where 3 would do just fine.

What’s running through my mind right now is, “Only one of those things is about Clay and the actual interview; you’re, like, completely self-centered.” The worst part is that the little Michelle icon is saying it. *sigh* I’m thinking there’s something really not right about that.

Anyway…

Don’t forget to check out Clay’s Undead page at ClayWrites.com/Undead

♦

Oct 15

22 Comments

Pop Quiz, Hotshot!

I always get blog crushes. Some of them go the way of schoolgirl crushes, fading back into the mutual oblivion from which they sprung. But some of them have turned into truly lovely friendships. In that respect, my cup runneth over; I’m so fortunate.

Anyway, a blogger I’m crushing on right now is Clay Morgan. I know, you’re probably so shocked to hear that – but it’s true! I’ve really enjoyed his site, claywrites.com, and I loved his new book. Clay blogs about pop culture, history and the meaning of life, and his posts usually give me a lot to think about. And if you’ve been here a while, then you know I love that.

Clay recently submitted to an interview by me (and let me tell you, I did not know what I was doing). I’ll be posting it in pieces to finish out UNDEAD month, and yes, I squeezed that much material out of him. Poor man. He’s got patience, I’ll give him that.

Today I’m sharing something I had a lot of fun with: a Pop Quiz! Go ahead and play along at home; you know you want to.

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So I think I won, don’t you? Yes, I know that wasn’t a contest. Don’t be silly.

But those voices in my head are totally real. No matter what that picture of Clay said.

♦

ps: My favorite part is when Clay has such a hard time deciding between his beloved historical figures. I almost felt bad for making him choose. But not bad enough to let him out of it.

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Aug 17

2 Comments

Jealous Much?

When I looked up the word “Jealous”, I wasn’t surprised by all of the other troublesome emotions associated with it:

suspicion, fear, resentment, anxiety, hostility, bitterness

Jealousy is an interesting and complex emotion, born of our insecurities and an intense desire to hold on to something we have. Or think we have. Or think we should have.

The tragedy is that the things we do out of jealousy work so hard against us. All of those jealous words and actions only destroy or push away what it is we’re so afraid of losing.

Are you the Jealous kind? Continue reading…

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Jul 25