Tag Archives: blogtalkradio

My Interview with Dorit Sasson on Giving Voice to Your Story!

Well, here it is – my first live interview and my first radio show!

As those of you who saw my post last week already know, last Thursday I had an interview with Dorit Sasson on her BlogTalkRadio program “Giving Voice to Your Story.” Dorit is a freelance writer, coach, and memoirist whose memoir Accidental Soldier: What My Service in the Israel Defense Forces Taught Me about Faith, Courage and Love will be published by She Writes Press in 2016.

I considered myself lucky to have such a good host, and I thought Dorit did a great job of making our talk sound more like a conversation than an interview. I also felt fortunate in being somewhat familiar with the BlogTalkRadio setup, which made me considerably less apprehensive. I knew, for example, that I needed to keep quiet once I heard the “Blog Talk Radio” intro, and also that the program would cut off promptly at the thirty-minute mark, so I was prepared for that. And although I tend to worry about technical issues, it went quite smoothly (on my end, anyway!) as all I had to do was call in at the appointed time and hang up when it was over.

As for the interview itself, I think it went pretty well. It was interesting discussing my memoir with someone who had her own distinct perspective on it. Dorit’s focus tended to be more on the mother-daughter relationship than on the illness, which is something that few people have emphasized, although it is, of course, a vital part of the story, and also a vital part of Dorit’s own forthcoming memoir. I really felt as though I learned something about my own book in the process, and I hope you will, too.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/givingvoicetoyourstory/2015/06/04/giving-voice-to-your-story-with-lori-schafer

Dorit Sasson, host of Giving Voice to Your Story and author of Accidental Soldier: What My Service in the Israel Defense Forces Taught Me About Faith, Courage, and Love

In Which She Talks About Herself in the Third Person

7 Replies

So here it is – two firsts. My very first radio interview, which I’ve announced in my very first press release:

Award-winning memoirist Lori Schafer to appear on BlogTalkRadio show “Giving Voice to Your Story” on Thursday, June 4th

Author Lori Schafer will give her first live interview concerning her award-winning memoir On Hearing of My Mother’s Death Six Years After It Happened on “Giving Voice to Your Story” on Thursday, June 4th at 11 am EDT. Schafer, whose memoir recounts her terrifying adolescent experience of her mother’s psychosis, won a spot on Dorit Sasson’s BlogTalkRadio program through a contest on the popular writer’s blog “The Write Life” earlier this year.

“I’m excited, but also a bit nervous,” Schafer admitted. “Dorit and I only met through the contest, so we don’t know each other at all. I have no idea what she’s going to ask me. It’s like a job interview – I’ll mostly be winging it and hoping to make a good impression on listeners.”

Schafer has high hopes for the interview, however. In fact, it was Sasson’s program that inspired her to begin a BlogTalkRadio show of her own.

“I’m currently looking at a fall start date,” she affirmed. “I had hoped to begin sooner, but my schedule has been so full this year that I had to postpone it.”

Schafer is planning an eclectic program featuring readings from her own work, discussion panels on topics of interest to readers and writers, and interviews like the one Sasson will be conducting with the author.

“I’m truly appreciative of this opportunity to interview with Dorit. Radio is a very different way of interacting with an audience, and I’m really looking forward to experiencing that. But the format feels strange to me – it isn’t like writing, where you get the chance to edit and re-edit your words if they come out wrong the first or second or twentieth time. Live is live – you only get one shot at getting it right.”

Schafer’s memoir has recently been the subject of critical acclaim. It was awarded a Gold Medal in the 2015 eLit Book Awards and was a finalist in both the National Indie Excellence and International Book Awards competitions.

“It’s a fascinating book, not only because of its subject matter, but because of its non-linear narrative structure. It will be interesting to discuss from both a literary and a psychological perspective.”

Listeners can tune in to the thirty-minute program live or listen to the podcast, which will be archived after the show airs at the following link:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/givingvoicetoyourstory/2015/06/04/giving-voice-to-your-story-with-lori-schafer

Listeners are also encouraged to call in with questions and comments.

“I’ve really enjoyed discussing my book with readers on social media,” Schafer says. “But it can be hard to have a real conversation in 140 characters or less!”

Schafer, who originally intended to shy away from requests for live interviews, now welcomes them.

“Reader response to my memoir has been simply amazing. People have been incredibly supportive, but what’s really moved me have been the number of folks who have come forward to share their stories with me. It’s as if they, too, have been keeping this dark family secret and are glad to have someone finally reveal it.”

Schafer’s memoir is available in paperback at retailers worldwide and in eBook exclusively on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N0WYHDQ/). Interested parties may visit her website at https://lorilschafer.com/ for further information.

Portions of Today’s Programming Are Reproduced By Means of Electrical Transcriptions or Tape Recordings…

15 Replies

I had intended to take the week off from blogging. Well, that isn’t entirely true. I had something I wanted to write about and post, but all of yesterday got eaten up with accounting and then today got eaten up by all the stuff I wanted to do yesterday as well as a bunch of stuff I had never planned on doing. So around 4 pm when I was finally sitting down to lunch, I decided to let posting go for this week. But as always, something came up. Something always comes up. For months now I’ve been considering taking an extended break from blogging – perhaps a month or two – but I always put if off. Let me just do this one last post, and then I’ll stop for a while. I suppose we all tell ourselves those pretty white lies.

This is going to be a quickie, however. More of an inquiry than a statement, actually. You see, I’ve decided to launch a BlogTalkRadio show, towards the end of the month, after tax season. I’ve mentioned this to a couple of other authors with whom I happen to be engaged in interviews and it occurred to me that this would be a good time to start gathering info on parties who might be interested in appearing on the show.

I’m calling it “Short Subjects I Feel Like Talking About” and, like my blog, it will be a somewhat random assortment of issues I want to discuss as well as samples of my own work. In fact, I intend to begin the program with a series of readings, which I think will give me a low-pressure opportunity to become accustomed to being on the air. But eventually I’d like to start doing individual author interviews as well as panel shows on a variety of writing-related subjects.

Although the shows will be archived, my intention is to vary the times of the broadcasts in order to make it feasible for residents of other countries to participate. There’s no way to know, of course, how many people might listen in in any given week – if any – but I’m hopeful that it will give all of us a unique opportunity to reach out to readers and the writing community.

So here’s my question – who wants in? Who among you is bold or foolish enough to enter these untested waters and emerge, spluttering and shaken but hopefully not permanently damaged? Comment below, tweet me @LoriLSchafer or email me at lorilschafer(at)outlook(dot)com and let me know what you think. What kinds of programs would you like to hear? Would you be interested in appearing on one? Solo or in a group? What might you want to talk about?

I’m all ears!