Neil, over at Citizen of the Month, asks:

i am nobody
who are you
are you nobody too?

concerning blogrolls, blog awards, blog interviews. He creates “The Great Interview Experiment” concluding that ‘we all should be interviewed, at least once’. Within this list of over 60 great interviews… (Hours of excellent reading!)

Herein, is my interview with Pam at Nerd’s Eye View. Her front page states: a camera, a passport, a ukulele. I was nervous. I am an artist. I am a “hope and shoot” photographer. The furthermost I have traveled is across the United States. I flunked tonette in elementary school. What did I know about interviewing… or “innerviewing” as she so cleverly says it?

So hang on everyone; here’s my best attempt, artist to author…:

1) You are very active not only in traveling (Viet Nam, Hawaii, Austria), but also blogging about all things traveling related; a novel on LuLu, proud member of the Trusted Travel Blogs Network, travel related stuff for BlogHer… Which countries border was the most difficult to cross? What items are the least important to pack? how many Nerd Berd t-shirts do you pack?

Just a clarification. It’s not a novel, it’s a selection of travel and other stories. They’re from my first website, Austrian Winter/Rain City Diaries. Okay, now…

I don’t remember any particularly difficult crossings, though I do remember waiting a Very Long Time at the border between Poland and the (then) Soviet Union. It was right after the Berlin Wall came down and I was with a car camping group – they just didn’t know what to make of us.

Unimportant items? Anything you can buy at your destination. That’s pretty much everything, but I never fret about product – shampoo, moisturizer, that kind of thing. I’m not a big participant in the cosmetic-industrial complex and it seems you can always get what you need. The upside of globalization, eh?

I always bring at least one Nerd’s Eye View t-shirt – I wish they were cheap enough that I could pack a full suitcase of them and give them away as I travel.

2) What early childhood experience ultimately decided that you should travel? Did you run away from home a lot?

Jeez, I have NO idea. I was an exchange student at 16 and I never stopped traveling. I only ran away from home twice – every time after that it wasn’t really running away because it was planned and on the level.

3) Do you have an established schedule for your day in which you devote to freelance writing? Have you worked through Artist Way at any point?

I write in the mornings, almost every day. I like to write early, early, early, 6ish, until I get tired of it. I’m usually good until about 11am, then, if I have client work, I write again around 330/4 in the afternoon until I get hungry.

I’ve never cracked the Artist’s Way. I hear great things about it, but I’ve never had the time or inclination, one of the two. I might be too lazy for it.

4) Which kind of writing bores you to tears? How do you cope with artists who do not know how to properly frame their questions or spell correctly?

It’s rare I’m bored by a genre of writing, so it’s just bad writing that bores me. I’ll read (or listen to – I love podcasts) just about anything if it’s written well. Sci-fi, romance, adventure, whatever, I don’t care. If the language is good, that’s worth a lot. Right now I’m listening to a lot of classic mystery – Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot – on my iPod and I’m really enjoying those. A while back I was really in to sci-fi… it changes all the time.

I never worry about poorly framed questions – it sometimes can take a conversation to get to what, exactly, the question is, so that’s okay, but I can be impatient with sloppy spelling. I don’t mean typos, everyone makes them, me too, all the time, and hey, proofreading is an intense skill. But bad spelling? Argh. I admit it, it makes me cranky if it’s not caused by a language barrier.

5) You produce some fantastic photos. As you recall – what is the story behind the first photo you ever took? Do you presently photograph with your cell phone?

My cell phone is so retro, it doesn’t have a camera.

I can’t remember the first photo I took – I’ve been taking pics for way too long, but I do have my first digital photo pics on my Flickr feed. There’s a picture of some eggplants in my ex-house’s kitchen. God, I love digital photography. It’s incredible.

I loved being in the darkrooms in college, too and since the day I started traveling, I’ve always had a camera with me. But it’s only the last few years that I’ve thought I’m any good. This isn’t fishing, I can totally see the improvement in my work. Though you should all know that my husband is a damn fine photographer too, and some of the stuff you might be admiring is his work.

6) As a world reknown ukulele musician; other than Don Ho and Tiny Tim; who is on your I-pod? Do you play the ukulele as it travels well in a suitcase?

I don’t have a ton of uke music on my iPod, a little Iz, some traditional Hawaiian that surely has uke in it, but I’m not a big collector of uke music. I play to play, rather than to listen, though I do love to hear live uke music when I get the chance.

I love that the uke travels well, but that’s not why I play – I play because the first time I went to Hawaii I fell in love with the sound and I wanted to be able to make it myself. I can go on and on about how great it’s been, the friends I’ve made with my uke, the opportunities I’ve had. I NEVER thought I’d do an open mic, for example, and hey, I’ve done it more than once. It’s the most fun, ever. I love it. Everyone should find a way to make music and if you can do so with other people, wow, so much the better. I swear, it’s the way to salvation.

7) Where can a U-Tube movie be located of your ukulele magic? Where do you tend to attract most of your viewers?

I’m not on You-Tube, nope. I recently recorded a video, though – it’s on my site (here). I don’t attract viewers for my uke playing, I’m not that good. I don’t suck, but I’m realistic about my skills and I don’t expect to be lauded for them. There are a zillion way better players than me out there.

You’ve seen my blog; it’s Wordpress. it’s got issues. Where might I go to begin to get them straightened out? (meet the nerd)

I LOVE Wordpress SO much. It rules. But it can be overwhelming. I break my blog every few months tweaking it, changing the template, changing the CSS.

I think the best thing to do to fix blog woes is to start deleting stuff. Look at what’s on there and ask yourself, “Why is that on my blog? Is it really helpful to my readers, does it make me money, promote something I really believe in (including me me me ) or is it just noise?” If it’s noise, get rid of it. People love those little buttons and banners and awards, but I think they come under the heading of noise. I also moved my blogroll off to a whole ‘nother service – it’s through Bloglines – because it was just too much trouble to manage. Who wants to wade through a giant uncategorized list? For what it’s worth, and all that.

9) I am trying to get an illustrated novel published; do you have any creative ideas I can use for the rejection slips? (Oh… and do you know of a publisher in need of a block-buster illustrated novel?)

I’m a big fan of collage work. I love art that has real text in it… I also think nice book art can be made out of recycled letters, rejection or otherwise. Once, I put a bunch of old love letters in a blender and made paper out of them – that was a nice way to keep them and to not have to read the damn things. Stupid mean boyfriend. Mutter, mutter, mutter…

If i had publisher leads, I’d gladly share them. I’m a big fan of self publishing on demand. No inventory, no production costs… okay, no marketing, either, but without an agent, what’s a writer/illustrator to do? I have no idea. It’s why I’m on Lulu – it’s all self published on demand. My sales, by the way? 12 copies? 15 tops. I’m not exactly raking it in.

10) So what’s next for you and your online presence?

This year I decided I was going to try to be more community minded. I tend to lurk, not participate, sit in the corner and observe, even on the Web. The Interview Project timing is great because it totally fits in with a shift I am going to try to make. I have a guest blogger lined up for while I’m traveling next, and I’ve been more conscientious about writing comments when I have more to say than, “You go!” But I don’t see any big changes ahead for Nerd’s Eye View – more of the same, I think. I’m quite content with it as is. It’s working for me.