You’ve heard me debate this with myself a lot lately. Should I keep doing interviews? I love the interaction, and interviews have earned me some wonderful connections in the writing world. I often discover something fascinating about a person in the process of composing the questions and reading the answers. More than once I’ve wanted to do a follow-up interview, but as a general policy I only interview each person once.

If interviews were as easy as 1) pick someone who agrees to an interview 2) look at their websites and other online info 3) compose questions 4) format the answers into a blog post, this would be easy. But, like everything in life, glitches happen. Almost everyone I interview can interact in a courteous, professional manner, but there are always a few who make me pull my hair out. Some people exist in a virtual shadow, with no information about them online at all. Often, I end up scrapping those interviews altogether.

Some bloggers simplify their interview process down to “Here, fill out this generic form that everyone else fills out and answer questions that have absolutely nothing to do with you at all.” I won’t do that. If I interview someone, it’s because I believe they are an interesting person about whom my readers would like to know more.

Now that I have a contract and I’m working on a schedule to publish a story every full moon, I’m not as free to play around with other aspects of the writing life.  I’m not doing the flash fiction and blog hops nearly as often as I used to. I’m not likely to send a story off to a publication that pays little to zilch unless it is a project I’m very enthusiastic about. Having a blog is important because it helps me to stay in touch with my readers (and you lurkers, you know who you are 🙂 ) but I can keep active with a weekly update and the occasional extra post. I’m also updating the Cities of Luna blog every week.

I have two interviews in the hopper, waiting for the right time to work with the author’s schedule. A third interview is postponed until January or February, to coincide with a friend’s new release. I attempted to put together some group interviews, but no one bit the bait I dangled.

Next month is NaNoWriMo. I am returning to Victoria Pontifex for this, writing the fifth book in the series before I go back and finish the first four. Of course, November is also a busy month in itself with my daughter’s birthday, Thanksgiving, and the launch of the holidays. I will not be doing interviews during November.

Come to think of it, I might make interviews a ‘summer thing.’ I’ll still gladly do one anytime of the year that one of my friends has something they want to talk about, but I won’t push myself to make it a weekly feature.