Let's Have Some Q & A Time

We Answer Your Questions

Every couple months, we take a day to answer some repeat questions from our readers! As they used to say, Let’s Respond To Viewer Mail!

Question: Is that the original Wiener Mobile?

Answer: Yes. Yes it is! Although our understanding is that there are six official Wiener Mobiles on the road at any time.

Question: Will the fire tower book you’ve been publishing chapter by chapter each Wednesday be released as a physical book we can buy?

Answer: We hope that’s the case at some point, but we have no plans for that yet as we’d have to self-publish it. We’ve batted around the idea of doing a crowd sourcing drive, but nothing certain quite yet. If readers do want a digital copy of the whole thing, we’d be happy to send you a full PDF once it’s all published.

Question: Where do you get enough ideas to write every single day?

Answer: Ideas are easy! I have a whole notebook full of them. The challenge is making them interesting and not writing the same thing every day. (I’m not always successful when it comes to the making them interesting part.) Also, some posts require more research or involvement than I have time for in a single day so they tend to get put off.

Question: How involved in the everyday production is Uma?

Answer: If it involves her, very. If I’m writing about her or using one of her ideas, at the very least we’ll talk about it. Sometimes she wants to read it afterward. Very occasional, like for her music interviews, she’ll want to hear answers to the questions before we publish. If I’m writing silly things about socks or poetry, she’s not interested.

Question: How does she manage to swing interviews with so many bands and musicians?

Answer: As a friend of ours told us, having a music loving rock and roll kid interview professional musicians is a “rad concept!” Plus, if you are an up and coming band, growing a young fan base is pretty important. Couple it with the fact that she asks pretty unique questions AND she has a veteran journalism dad who can organize and proof read, and the idea seems to work for a lot of musicians and bands.

Question: Has anyone said no to interviewing with Uma?

Answer: Bigger names and bands have said no. And by big, I mean big. I tried so hard to snag any kind of an interview / meet up, anything, with ANY band member from AC/DC, but we never heard back - yes or no - on any of our inquires. In one case of a band I won’t mention, the management was downright rude about saying no, though later the musicians themselves, sent a note being more polite about it.

Question: Is your library ok with you writing about it all the time?

Answer: Absolutely! We love our library and our community, and since everything we do here - from our budget to programing - is transparent and open to the public, I’m not giving away any secrets. What I DO try to do is be aware of patron and staff privacy. I never write about any person (besides me) without that person’s express consent. (That goes for all my stories, by the way.)

Question: Will you ever charge subscribers?

Answer: We doubt it. Our subscriptions do continue to rise, though very slowly. Some readers don’t like that we write about a different thing every day. It would be easier to grow our subscriber base if we focused on one theme like music or books. But this makes it more interesting to us. Anyway, we do have a way you can donate. If you like what you’re reading, click here and Buy Us a Coffee or Slushie. Otherwise please keep sharing and liking and leaving comments. That makes a lot of difference!

Question: What’s the next big thing?

Answer: Tomorrow, Friday June 20, we’ll feature an interview that both Uma and I gave to Andrey Borzykin of the Boston-based band Major Moment. They have an album dropping tomorrow! We haven’t seen the band live yet, but we will in August! Meantime, we’ve been waiting for a while to get something into Day By Day about them. The band is creative and hard working, and their music will melt your face off while getting some important messages across through their lyrics. Look for that tomorrow and in the meantime, check out the video for “Victim” one of our favorite songs from Major Moment: