Week 2: The Life of an Intern

The second week is easy to summarize and doesn't deserve the detail of a daily analysis. I almost only work on what is referred to as "slots", which is looking through all newspapers (monday to sunday) and picking out anything that has the potential for author or book publicity. This could be the 60 second interview in the Metro, or any other celebrity snippet to be found in a newspaper. Potential for interviews, profiles, articles, reviews, etc. all has to be taken into account. Although it has been beneficial to learn about papers and specific journalists, it can feel very soul destroying when the only other thing to be done in between is mailing out hundreds of books, press releases and book jackets.

On friday I had to do something slightly different, which in this case felt incredibly exciting, only because it was that little bit of variety that can make all the difference in staying positive and resigning one's self to extreme cynicsm and pessimism. The task required that I make some show cards for a book called "The Hike" by Don Shaw, for his local library where he will be due to give a talk and sign his book. This involved taking big poster boards and putting all the neccessary information on it, such as the date, an attending fee, time, etc. I also had to find a creative way to use the jacket (front and back) to make the board look attractive and interesting. My visual creativity is usually non-existent but I guess as a reaction to course of the week I surprised myself. Maybe a stifling, boring, soul destroying environment really is the ultimate creative catalyst? Then again, maybe it is only the routine of the life of an intern.

M.M.