My TV Debut - Kathryn Knight

Last week was a pleasant (and sometimes stressful) whirlwind for me.  On Tuesday, my second novel Gull Harbor began its 5 Free Days as part of the Kindle Select Program.  The promotion before and during those days was intense (more on that in the future), and the excitement as I watched my title climb to #1 in Fantasy Romance (#4 in Paranormal) was surreal.

In the midst of this, I drove to another town on Friday for my first television interview.  I've done 2 radio interviews so far, and those were nerve-wracking enough.  This was a whole different experience.  Once I saw the set, with the lights and cameras, panic started to set in.  I kept reminding myself that as an aerobic instructor, I get up in front of a crowd of people every day.  But then the self-doubt would chime in, reminding me that I (usually) always know what I'm going to do during a class.  I had no idea what might come my way during an interview.



My first glimpse of the set



I did get a chance to discuss a few things beforehand with the interviewer, Madeline.  She was extremely well-prepared: she'd read my novel Silver Lake twice, printed out my editorial reviews, and visited my blog and Facebook page.  But of course we did not go over all the topics we would discuss during the 30 minute show, and Madeline stressed that she wanted it to be more conversational than just direct Q&A.  Once we were had our mics on and did a sound check, they did the count down and we were on the air.

The hardest part was the beginning: sitting quietly, looking at Madeline, while the intoductory music played.  I was told to look at Madeline during the interview, but the part of me trained to make eye contact with an audience took over a few times and looked toward the camera.  Unfortunately there were 2 cameras, so most of the time I suddenly saw myself on the viewing screen, looking at the wrong one! 

As a former librarian, Madeline had great questions for me.  There were none of the tired "who would play Rain and Jason in a movie?" inquiries.  And that's a good thing, because my characters are so well-defined in my imagination, I truly have trouble associating them with actors.  (But I did try on my Pinterest story board for Silver Lake if anyone is interested!)

The discussion covered things like the funny, sarcastic dialog between the reunited friends--I explained that I was lucky enough to have a similar group of friends from high school with whom I still maintain a close connection.  Madeline asked about Brandy's past and the events leading to her disappearance, and I got to discuss her character's backstory.  The aspects of the haunting came up as well, and my research into the paranormal. 

We talked straight for over 30 minutes, with no breaks.  Most of the time I answered the questions well (I think!), although I did invent a new word at one point ("fictitional" - that wonderful hybrid of fictional and fictitious).  A cup of water sat on the table, taunting me, but I was sure any attempt to take a sip would result in either a) shaky hands spilling it all over myself or b) some sort of awkward reach-and-sip that might go viral, similar to Senator Rubio's "Waterbottlegate" lunge.

I haven't seen the show yet - before it airs, it will go through editing.  And because the show is on a local access cable channel in another area, I won't even see it in my town.  But I'll be receiving a DVD in the mail, and then I'll have to decide if I'm brave enough to put it on youtube.  Assuming I can figure out how to do that, of course.

Now that I think of it, maybe I should have lunged for the water.  There are probably worse things than having a video go viral, and they say any publicity is good publicity.  Maybe "fictitional" will be enough!

Madeline and me, and some very bright lights