Wild and Wacky Interviews (Part 3)

I had just left the magical swiveling chair where my hair and make-up were overhauled in preparation for my appearance on an Orlando Christian TV network. 

Funny how you arrive at those places looking like you and leave looking like a country western singer.

As I took a chair in the waiting room to bide my time until the producer called me to the set for my interview, I noticed a 20-something man seated against the wall with a rather large rectangular case at his feet. He must be waiting his turn for an interview as well.

Hmm. Didn’t look like a trombone case. Could it be a tuba?

“What instrument do you play?” I asked, ever curious and always up for a good musical conversation.  

His sly grin should have warned me of the big surprise to come. “It’s not an instrument. And I don’t play him … he plays me.”

“Um, excuse me?”

At that moment, I noticed the sides of the black case move. Move. As in … move.

“Is there a puppy in there?” The words were no sooner out of my mouth than the whole case jumped about an inch off the floor, shimmied and contorted. Whoa! That was no puppy. Unless it was a hippo puppy.  

“Not exactly,” the man with the look of a mischievous 10-year-old replied. “Would you like to see?”

“Well, sure.” I was never one to turn down an adventure.

So that’s how I – all gussied up in my best suit, stage make-up, and poufy hair - came to make friends with a four-foot alligator named Ralph in the waiting room of a TV studio. Ralph was just one of the critters this gentleman used in his ministry to introduce school children to some of God’s more mysterious yet magnificent creations.  

At least he’d left the tarantula at home.  

“What would happen if you took that duct tape off his snout?” I ventured to ask.

“You’d be driving home with one sleeve pinned up,” he said with a lopsided grin.

Ah, yes – adventures. Just one of the fun perks authors have to look forward to when making the rounds of interviews after a book release.  Every author I know has a handful of hair-raising and often hilarious stories about book promo. What's yours?