Last Thoughts on Radio Time

I’m amazed at how used to video I’ve become during the pandemic. At one point in my RADIO interview with Don Wooten for WVIK, he asked a question about the cover of Shadows Over Bishop Hill and I held up the book cover. It was a head-slapping dumb moment. He was asking about the blood. Again, I should have my regained my composure and used the moment to say the blood was more symbolic than an actual representation of action within the novel. Cozy mysteries don’t deal with huge amounts of violence and, therefore, what bloody scenes there are, tend to be described in minimal detail, they are not dwelt upon.

If holding up a book that couldn’t be seen by the audience wasn’t bad enough, then I had to go on and mention the background with the obsolete currency of Bishop Hill that my cover artist, Kaitlea Toohie, had partially obscured and toned down. But I must excuse myself because I was so happy with how close the cover art came to meeting all my expectations. I wanted to use the blood-red trail on the book cover to draw attention, make it eye-catching.

This radio-time faux pas made me think about my relationship with audio books. When I’m listening to an audio book, I often find myself wishing I could see the words. I’d like to read along and take in how the author crafted the sentence. Linger over the experience for longer than the mere moment of each spoken word.

I think that goes to the difference between a “magazine read” and “reading like a writer” as explained to me in a past novel writing workshop I took back when the Midwest Writing Center had its office in the Bucktown Center for the Arts in Davenport. Our instructor, Amy Parker from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, told us you do the first type of reading for pleasure, while the second helped build an awareness for the craft of writing. Studying how other writers solve the problems of constructing sentences and such will build confidence and strength in refining one’s own skills.

Something I continue to pursue daily. 

*Scribble is a weekly radio feature hosted by Don Wooten and Rebecca Wee at noon Saturdays on WVIK 90.3 FM Quad Cities and 95.9 Dubuque. The hosts “muse about writing, poetry and the craft.” All books are fair game for lively commentary. Book reviews are welcome. Contact information: contactscribble.1014@gmail.com

*Midwest Writing Center is “the only organization in the Quad Cities dedicated solely to the literary arts.” Writing is often a solitary task, it’s good to find kindred spirits and help along the way. For more information go to: https://www.mwcqc.org/