When Gremlins Attack!

Gah. Very broken sleep and feeling a bit wan and wussy. Began the day by fiddling with some poems, but mostly breaking them.  Went for a walk this morning, in perfect walking weather bright and cool. Pesky golfers have returned to their links now. 

On the way home passed Raven's bakery and bought a bag of hot cross buns. Quips about my nice buns and understanding why people were Raven about them largely under appreciated. 

Nice to have Jade and Sam about the place to chat to, both de-stressing quietly after the move.

Two bits of good news... Matthew has taken my story Doctor Spotlight for Horla. Very complimentary about it bless him. Also a lovely email sent to Robin but addressed to Robin and me from Kathryn Maris, she is very kind in it about the podcast which she thinks is very professional. Very good to hear. 

Spent most of the day prepping for the two big interviews, LeAnne Howe and then in the evening Yang Lian.  

LeAnne over in Georgia USA then at four. She had not followed the joining instructions properly, but after 35 minutes of increasingly irate emails, and me sending a link to chrome, we connected. She was understandably a bit tetchy but we laughed about it. I then noticed I was getting an echo, so I had to drop out of the session slide a button and rejoin. When I slid this button, however, the whole session crashed. Eventually we were able to complete the interview. LeAnne it turns out was really lovely and warm, and it was a pleasure to talk to her about her Choctaw heritage, Native Nations and poetry, and hear her read one of her own longer poems.

Somewhat nervous about interviewing in the evening, as although I had researched him, I am not familiar with his work, other than half a dozen poems from his latest collection. They are dense and multilayered and quite difficult to discuss. After the afternoon's shenanigans imagine my delight when a nice and smily Yang Lian was there a minute early.  

Terrible echo on the line though, so I got him to put on his headphones and decided to turn on the anti echo button, came out of the session slid this slider, and of course the session crashed. I had cunningly explained before I did it if anything were to happen just click again on the link I had sent him. 

Something went wrong, so for the next 50 minutes, interspersed with emails via another person in the UK, and a phone number (which went to a dead line) I sent him a zoom link, so fifty minutes in we were able to talk just in time for us to agree that it would be better if we tried again tomorrow. I found this whole business extremely stressful, and having to apologise profusely for all the technology stuff.  

Gradually relaxed on the gold sofa with Lorraine afterwards, aided by a cold beer, and episode of Antiques Roadshow.