A couple of months ago, having lamented at my inability to get anything done book-review wise so made it known I was open to other avenues to get the word out, I sat down with Matt Bone and recorded an episode of his popular The Damcasters podcast.
While it was originally supposed to be 'just' a vehicle for me to talk about some books I'd not had the chance to write about at length yet, Matt was also curious about the editing work I do. What I do is quite straightforward in the great scheme of things; it all makes sense in my head but trying to explain the process somewhat lucidly, to the extent it could be used as podcast content, was quite the challenge. I found it refreshing, however, as, beyond prospective clients, I don't usually explain what I do or how I go about doing it. Every project is different, so the approach varies, but there are some general rules and procedures I apply and Matt was able to tease these out.
Being interviewed is not something I've done much of and it's been several years since I last 'broadcast' something about books. While that comes across more in the Youtube video of the interview, Matt's judicious editing makes the sound file almost seamless and me almost well spoken!
We had talked about doing another episode on books, perhaps even making it a regular thing, but I am conscious of listeners of The Damcasters having a much-wider interest base than RAF and Commonwealth aircrew of the Second World War. I don't want to spread my wings too far away from spreading the word on these stories far and wide, but it's only fair that I somehow cover books beyond the usual 'sphere'. Editing books that aren't Second World War-centric helps; believe it or not, the majority of my editing work isn't actually set in the 1940s! Perhaps there's hope for me yet.
