Promoting "Renewable Energy — Facts and Fantasies" — What Might This Be Like?

I didn’t create Renewable Energy — Facts and Fantasies with the aspirations of becoming the J.K. Rowling of clean energy. I honestly just wanted to have a book that answered people’s questions about a certain subject – albeit it an important one – a short, readable piece that would be appealing to whoever happened to have an active curiosity on the subject.

But now that the book’s available, I’ve decided to try to promote it a bit, as long as that can be done without too much cost or time out of my day. To that end, I’ve engaged a group of folks to try to get me some radio and television interviews, as that certainly seems to be the main way we hear about new books in our world today.

I’m trying to anticipate what this will be like – being on the other end of the flow of questions and answers from my normal role as interviewer. In particular, the experience is rooted in the unknown: when I’m asking the questions, there are no real surprises. But when I’m on the other side, I have to wonder: What question is next?

From all the work I’ve done in the industry, I’m pretty good with the softballs — or really anything fair question that addresses the technological, economic, or political challnges that clean energy faces.  But what about some twisted knot of a screwball?  It’s only a matter of time until I wind up with a belligerent interviewer whose agenda is to rip me up.

I’m trying to approach this with a light attitude: What’s the worst that can happen? I suppose it is that I respectfully and calmly disagree with some mad-dog reporter. At the very worst, these people will keep me on my toes, and challenge me to think fast.