Updates

• Remember a few days ago I told you about that book Flying Drunk? See http://twurl.cc/1am0 for WBIR’s interview with Joe Balzer, the pilot who made the biggest mistake of his life, journeyed through the long and winding path to redemption, and wrote a book about it.

Today, we all gathered around Veronica’s computer and watched the WBIR interview, Joe’s first tv appearance. I treated it as I would any other television news show, but when it was over, I realized I was the only one to have done so. Apparently, everyone else had scrutinized every question and how it was phrased, Joe’s answers and the time it took him to answer each question, and Joe’s body language throughout the interview, including every movement and blink. When it was over, they immediately launched into a recap, highlighting what he had done well (there was a lot) and how he could improve (a few minor points). When they all turned to me to ask me what I thought, I was at a loss for words.

The general consensus, though, was that Joe had done exceptionally well, but that he could have made eye contact with the camera and interviewer a couple more times, and given some more specific examples from his book.

And I thought I was interning at a publishing company, but I guess a lot comes with the territory.

• As of today, July 17, there are 2,954,540 (English) articles on wikepedia. I found out that Alex is working on a project to add Savas Beatie to the ranks of the omniscient online encyclopedia. She’s been working on coding and a bunch of other technical stuff that I don’t understand to get the page set up and links working properly.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savas_beatie to see our new Wikepedia page.

• I put together a press release (you know, those things that Apple sends to all the big newspapers every time they come out with a new iPod) about a book-signing event. No wonder the media is able to report events so quickly. They get press releases hand-delivered to their doors.

They don’t exactly spoon-feed you at this type of small company. Sarah gave me an example of a past Savas Beatie press release, and told me to look up information on how to write one on the Internet. I didn’t have much to go on, but luckily it turned out that writing press releases is very similar to writing news articles. Ideally, you want the media to be able to copy and paste what you wrote without any edits (although they often take the information and write their own article). This is where my high school journalism experiences became handy.
Here’s some information on the event that I wrote about:

On Friday August 7, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., author James A. Hessler will be signing Sickles at Gettysburg: The Controversial Civil War General Who Committed Murder, Abandoned Little Round Top, and Declared Himself the Hero of Gettysburg at Gallery 30 in Gettysburg PA (30 York Street).
Well, that’s all I have to say today. Come back Wednesday to read another interesting Savas Beatie staff interview.