samothrace

Bloggers and Tweeters are all just a tad self-absorbed, so when Raul over at Hummingbird604 offered to “interview” me, I succumbed to my inner Hermione Grainger and did the virtual equivalent of shoot up my hand saying “Me! Me! Oh GAWD pick me!”

Here are the results:

1) What country would you live in if you weren’t living in Canada?

That’s like asking a blind girl her favourite colour. Can I pick all of them? To answer would be to pick a location based on fantasy and book-learnin’ and too much TV watchin’ as a child.

My dream in high school was to spend the first half of my career being a foreign correspondent and the second half hosting the national CBC newscast. My high school grad yearbook (from 1983) says I want to be Barbara Frum. Instead, I got married and pregnant all at the same time at age 20, then had three more kids by the time I was 28. I still haven’t made it off the continent, but I want to explore the world – then pick a place to live.

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2) Which element of communications is the one that makes you most passionate?

Same thing that excited me most about being a journalist: the opportunity to explain difficult subjects to a lay person with accuracy. To me, there’s no such thing as “we can’t possibly simplify this any further.” If I can’t distill it into digestible language, it means the source material is bulls**t right from the start.

George Orwell said “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.” I love to take a policy wonk’s or an academic’s dense treatise and turn it into clear language for you, me and your grandmother.

From an early age, I would extemporaneously immerse myself into my favourite topic du jour and write a little paper on it (seriously! and hand it in as an unsolicited enrichment project!): volcanoes, mummies, Greek Gods, constellations, the metric system. I was a geek – but an accessible one.

Much of my job now is behind the scenes, but still doing work I did as a reporter: diving into subject matter, interviewing people, reading briefing notes & papers – then writing concise summaries and advising the best sound bites. I keep hearing from policy people that I “get” what they’re doing, and that’s very satisfying. Whether it’s explaining how telephony or internet delivery works (I’ve worked for two ISPs), or why you should support United Way, or how your home assessment is determined, or why B.C. is Canada’s gateway to the Asia-Pacific, or how come Vancouver is experiencing a drop in cruise ship passengers this year – I can take it from four pages to one and a half (including three bullet-points for a media response) and make it understandable to a reporter, a member of the public or an extremely busy executive member or cabinet minister.

3) You want to run a marathon. What is the drive behind that desire?

In training for and (knock wood) completing a marathon, I need to prove to myself that I have the discipline and committment required in order to create the life I want. Marathon for me is a metaphor for the best things in life I feel I haven’t yet achieved: a healthy marriage, a fulfilling and stable career, financial stability, meaningful and lasting friendships.

There’s another reason: it has to do with a dream I had almost seventeen years ago after I lost my third child, Sarah. I have a blog post about that to be published in October, so I’ll leave it at that for now. Suffice it to say that it’s going to be a very emotional moment when I cross the finish line October 11 – compounded by the fact that my first grandchild will be born right around the time of Sarah’s birthday.

4) What is your favorite movie and why?

**schmaltzy and cheesy alert**  Let me start by saying that I devour thoughtful, well-crafted films of all kinds – independent film, quirky shorts, animated, documentary film, good Hollywood movies – but it’s hard to pick one and usually I answer depending on what mood I’m in. Previous responses have included Citizen Kane, A Fish Called Wanda, All About Eve, Vertigo.

But today – I’m in a – wait for it – Forrest Gump kinda mood. Please don’t laugh: it’s all about the scene wherein Jenny throws rocks at her childhood home. That’s also the subject of another blog post I’m working on.

5) You work for the provincial government right now. Do you find it difficult to separate your personal from your professional identities and if so, why?

Yes and no. Yes, difficult: because I do have definite ideas on public policy and how government should communicate with and engage with citizens, but as a public servant working in PR I no longer share my personal views publicly.

No, not difficult: because I have so many other passions and interests that I am able to share. It’s a relief to switch back into the mom, marathon runner, fitness instructor, climber, writer aspects of me. I should also add that I work with a group of creative and talented people from whom I derive a lot of good energy. I am fully myself at work; my boss(es) and colleagues recognize that my passion, enthusiasm, curiosity and creativity make me an effective PR professional.

Want to get in on the fun? You can be a part of it by following a few simple steps…

Send me an e-mail with the subject line “Interview Me”

I’ll respond May 4 or 5

Random picture of Tori in kayak - photo by D-man

with 5 questions directed to you (I promise to try and be unique)

Answer the questions on your blog (or Facebook or MySpace) and link back to this original post

Invite others to participate by re-posting these steps.