New Position as Interviews Editor at Hobart

Something strange happened.

In September I sent a column pitch to Hobart. I had created an interview series called Chaos Questions for the now defunct CCM's Enclave and had several of those interviews published there. This was years ago. I love the series, so when I learned that a friend of mine, the author Frank Reardon, had a column at Hobart I figured it couldn't hurt to see if they would be amicable to allowing me to continue Chaos Questions there.

Months passed. I forgot I sent the pitch.

Then Elizabeth emailed back about a week ago and said she'd like the series. I felt really good about it. Hobart has been a solid indie lit journal for two decades, has a wide readership, and has published so many great writers over the years.

So she emailed back, including in the message the journal's managing editor Andrea Taylor, and introduced me to Andrea as the new interviews editor, saying it was great that Hobart would have one again. 

I walked around the house for five minutes or so and then old instincts from my days as a journalist battling deadlines and searching for leads on new stories kicked in and I sat down and emailed Ben Loory. Loory is one of my favorite writers and the idea of his imagination answering the wild questions I send out with Chaos Questions was one I'd had in the back of my mind for years. 

I don't if it was because he knew it would be an interview that would appear in Hobart (what I suspect, to be perfectly candid, and obviously is clearly understandable) or if he liked one of the old interviews I sent to give him an idea of what to expect, but he wrote back so so much more quickly than I could have predicted; it was about two hours later when I got a return email from Loory with enthusiasm, agreeing to take part.

I walked around the house for another five minutes or so.

There was a lot on my mind about then.

But I got it together and wrote Elizabeth to let her know I had a first interview lined up. It was really cool that she was excited about having Loory for the interview.

And that's where I'm at, present day. But I'm still walking around a bit, though it is settling in. I'm thinking of who to write to next and what kind of questions I'll write to play with their minds.