David Allen

In November, 2010, I gave a podcast interview about writing — the craft in general, how I do it, some of my stories.  You can listen to the podcast at:  https://answer20q.com/writers-20q-podcast-13-john-oehler/

Now the background, an example of serendipity.

My wife and I were vacationing in Spain and spent the first few days with friends who live two hours north of Barcelona.  One of our friends wanted to buy some geologic maps from a government bookstore in Girona and suggested we all take the bus.  On the ride back, a woman overheard me talking about writing and asked if I’d be interested in doing a podcast interview with her husband.  I politely took her card, not really intending to follow up.

Fast forward a few weeks, and we’re home again, going through the maps, brochures, receipts, and miscellaneous pieces of paper we typically accumulate on a vacation.  I come across the woman’s card.  My wife says, “Why not?”  So I check out the fellow’s website.  Impressive.  Moreover, he’s a Mac guy, like me.  I contact him by email, we set up a time for an interview via Skype, and the result is what you’ll hear if you click on the link above and press the “Play” button.

By the way, this man does have a name, David Allen.  He’s a British expatriate living in the same Spanish town as our friends, and he turns out to be a superb editor (which you can only appreciate if you know what I actually said versus the parts he stitched together for the podcast).  He has a page dedicated to writing (https://answer20q.com/category/writers20q/) on which you can listen to interviews with other authors.  I’ve listened to several and found them interesting.

One more word about David.  He made the interview painless.  Not only painless, but actually fun, like two pals just shooting the breeze.  I thank him for the opportunity and thank his wife, Victoria, for “accosting” me on the bus.