By lmj

August 31, 2009 12:43 PM | Link to this

I rushed to the car and caught it. I said, “Oh, my!” out loud when I heard the monosyllabic reply to an early question (may have been about the humor in the book). I thought you recovered nicely and the rest of the interview sounded better than that initial response.

By vick

August 30, 2009 4:58 PM | Link to this

AL, it sounds like you heard the interview. Here’s the deal: Larry Block was in a state of rage before I ever reached him on the phone. Here’s why: we had scheduled an interview through his publicist. We were to call him at his hotel in Cedar Rapids at a specific time. We called at exactly the correct time, at the top of the hour. When the guy at the hotel front desk answered the phone I said I was calling to speak to a guest. He said: Hello…Hello? Then he hung up the phone. I had been speaking but my recording engineer had not turned up the volume high enough so that the clerk would be able to hear me. We fixed it then called right back. They connected us to Larry Block’s room. The line was busy. We had called back one minute after the hour. I assumed he was on the phone so we called right back. Still busy. We called back 5 more times, always busy. I called his cellphone and got his voicemail so I left a message that I was trying to call him. Then I called his publicist. She couldn’t help us out. After 15 minutes of getting a busy signal on Larry’s room phone I decided to call the front desk and ask them to go to Larry’s room to beg him to please get off the phone so that I could call him. Five minutes later we called and he actually answered. He was clearly agitated and angry. He had been tying up his phone line the entire time trying to call me to complain because I wasn’t calling him. Ridiculous, right? Later that day, when I returned to my office which is miles away from the recording studio I had three messages from Larry Block. He became increasingly enraged in each message. The final message was laced with profanity. He blamed me. And he was the one who was keeping the phone line tied up the entire time because he was so mad because I wasn’t calling him. I finally got through to him after he left the profanity-laced message at my office. It took me 10 minutes to get him to calm down enough to relax and answer questions in a manner that was not so brusque. His response to my comment about the humor I found in his book was typical of his angry responses. I tried to salvage the interview the best that I could. It wasn’t easy. He had zero patience. He should have stayed off the phone. Instead, he whipped himself into a self-righteous lather.

By al

August 30, 2009 3:35 PM | Link to this

i guess he didn’t think he was very funny in his book

By downsized

August 30, 2009 2:02 PM | Link to this

So disappointed to have missed your post about this interview. Is there a link where early morning food preparers who miss announcements can listen. (Just cooking for neighbors who help) Thanks, in advance if possible Vick. Love listening to your interviews.

By vick

August 30, 2009 10:58 AM | Link to this

Did you hear it? Lawrence Block didn’t come across on the radio as being quite as incensed as he sounded on the phone in real time-I’ll post the details later…

By vick

August 30, 2009 10:15 AM | Link to this

Tune in-15 minutes from now-91.3fm…

By vick

August 29, 2009 9:57 PM | Link to this

LMJ, hopefully, WYSO will have an archived audiofile of the interview on their website at a later date…

By lmj

August 29, 2009 8:51 PM | Link to this

Vick! That’s not nice for those of us who have another place to be on Sunday mornings. Do you think Father would notice ear buds in my ears? Is there a podcast or another way to here this at a more convenient time?