I am consistently doing interviews with authors I know and love as well as some I'm new too. For example, today I received Austin thriller author Jeff Abbott's latest book and am excited to write about his latest action adventure.
But some interviews are more special than others. For example, I count the one I did with Michael Morton as extra special as he and his life (he spent almost 25 years in prison in Williamson County for killing his wife before being exonerated and released in 2011) demonstrated both how messed up our justice system is that an innocent man could spend decades behind bars for something he didnt do and that Morton had in himself to forgive all of the players involved.
Which brings me to a very special interview i'm going to do with Sarah Barnes of Austin, whose life changed when at
seven months a doctor told Sarah and her husband that their daughter, Meredith, has an imperfect brain. As the book
cover says,"happily-ever-after became differently-ever-after. Although they faced many obstacles, their determined
daughter helped them find hope and humor in the face of unthinkable challenge."
Sarah and I were both newspaper reporter but then we both veered in different directions yet we ended up now as interviewer and subject. While we met for the first time tonight I expect we're going to find some interesting intersections.
In columns for the Austin Statesman, Sarah has for years been chronicling her life with Meredith and challenges and successes and frustrations and
everything in between. This memoir is about those experiences and that journey.
I left journalism after 15 years when I didn't feel I was positively impacting the world in the way I wanted. I veered from education reporter to educator and quickly found my niche in special education and working with families with special needs.... some of them with families and children not unlike that of Sarah and Meredith.
There's also a nice small world moment here. The book has a nice plug on back from Sarah Bird (who i have heard great things of but have not yet read), who is the sister of a man, John Bird, who is part of the Austin Backgammon
Club I help run every week.
After seeing an article in the Statesman about Sarah writing this book all I had to do was mention her name to one of my employers, who I didn't even know knew her let alone was was friends with her... and then we connected.
Sarah has told her friend, and told me herself today when I picked up the book, how "honored" she is to be interviewed.
But I'm the one who feels honored, blessed that people let me enter their lives be it through interviews like this or through work I do and through other avenues. I just hope I honor them back with the resulting works.
seven months a doctor told Sarah and her husband that their daughter, Meredith, has an imperfect brain. As the book
cover says,"happily-ever-after became differently-ever-after. Although they faced many obstacles, their determined
daughter helped them find hope and humor in the face of unthinkable challenge."
Sarah and I were both newspaper reporter but then we both veered in different directions yet we ended up now as interviewer and subject. While we met for the first time tonight I expect we're going to find some interesting intersections.
In columns for the Austin Statesman, Sarah has for years been chronicling her life with Meredith and challenges and successes and frustrations and
everything in between. This memoir is about those experiences and that journey.
I left journalism after 15 years when I didn't feel I was positively impacting the world in the way I wanted. I veered from education reporter to educator and quickly found my niche in special education and working with families with special needs.... some of them with families and children not unlike that of Sarah and Meredith.
There's also a nice small world moment here. The book has a nice plug on back from Sarah Bird (who i have heard great things of but have not yet read), who is the sister of a man, John Bird, who is part of the Austin Backgammon
Club I help run every week.
After seeing an article in the Statesman about Sarah writing this book all I had to do was mention her name to one of my employers, who I didn't even know knew her let alone was was friends with her... and then we connected.
Sarah has told her friend, and told me herself today when I picked up the book, how "honored" she is to be interviewed.
But I'm the one who feels honored, blessed that people let me enter their lives be it through interviews like this or through work I do and through other avenues. I just hope I honor them back with the resulting works.
No comments:
Post a Comment