Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Last-Minute Media Alert

Just got off the phone with Jacki Schechner, the "Internet Beat" reporter for CNN. With the sad death of Dana Reeve, the network is dedicating much of today's "The Situation Room" program to the subject of cancer. We talked for about 10 minutes about Mom's Cancer, why and how I did it, how it began as a Webcomic, reactions to it, etc. I also gave Ms. Schechner some digital images from the book and pointed her to relevant online resources that I think have value, including RedToeNail.org mentioned below.

CNN, "The Situation Room," 5 p.m. Eastern time (2 p.m. Pacific)...which, as I write this, is about 38 minutes from now.

I'll report back after I see how it goes.

UPDATE: What I learned today about TV journalism is that when the reporter says your story will be on "in the five o'clock hour," she means 5:57. Still, I have no reason to complain:


I thought Ms. Schechner's very brief report on online cancer resources was fine for what it was, given her obvious time constraints. As an occasional journalist myself, I'm impressed by how quickly she developed the story, from initial contact to on-air report in a couple of hours.

MORE UPDATE: I just received a nice e-mail from Ms. Schechner explaining that the show ran short on time and apologizing for her hurried report. Maybe she'll keep my work in mind in the future, and I certainly appreciate being included. When I got up this morning, I had no idea I'd be on CNN before dinner. That's pretty cool.

8 comments:

Otis Frampton said...

Congrats, Brian.

I have no cable, so I couldn't see it, but I'm thrilled you and the issue your books covers is getting this kind of attention.

Oh, and just FYI . . . our books come out the same month! :)

-Otis

Louis said...

Congrats Brian!

I didn't see the CNN report, but here's the link to the transcript. (Scroll down about 80% to find your segment).

Anonymous said...

Hi Brian,

I watched the last half hour of Larry King's show yesterday evening hoping to see your family portrait included along with the testimonials only to be disappointed. You did a beautiful job pulling up the screen captures for those of us who were unable to find it.
You should also know that my local comic book shop, Fanfare Comics and Cards of Kalamazoo, Michigan had one lonely little copy of Mom's Cancer on their shelves today. And I'm the one who bought it. Hope it's selling well for you. Sorry I wasn't able to get out to the New York convention in order to meet the family. As always, I wish you the best.

Bye for now. Sincerely,

Patrick

Brian Fies said...

Lynne: Me too! I'm glad you caught it.

Otis, thanks a lot. Is that the "Oddly Normal Volume 1" trade paperback you're talking about? Because if anyone wanted to read a charming comic about a girl with untapped powers she can't control lost in a magical world she doesn't understand, they could go to http://vipercomics.com/features/oddly_normal_tpb.asp to learn more about it.

Louie, thanks for the link. This transcript looks like a different report than the one I saw, and I gather that they gave Ms. Schechner another shot at the story in the 7 p.m. hour. If so I missed that one, but I'm glad she evidently had a few more seconds to get into the story.

Patrick, sorry you had to sit through Larry King. My bit was on a program called "The Situation Room" that ran, I think, before King. Thanks a lot for buying the book; I really appreciate it, and now maybe Fanfare will restock. I don't know exactly how well it's selling--it's still very early and numbers are hard to come by--but my editor and everyone at Abrams seems happy so far.

Lynda said...

Congratulations! I found my way here through your website, and from there through Red Toe Nail. I have visited once before shortly after my sister's death from non-smoking related lung cancer. I hope one day to read your book, though when I first visited your site, it was shortly after my sister died and very difficult.

I am very happy that you are able to raise awareness with your book. I was very sad to hear of Dana Reeve's death, because she had so much in common with Laurianne. They were both young (Laurianne was 25), had non-smoking lung cancer, and had young children. Laurianne's son was only 4 1/2 months when she died.

If you don't mind, I would like to link you to the site we keep in my sister's memory to help raise awareness about lung cancer, Laurianne's Hope.

Brian Fies said...

Lynda, Thank you for your congratulations and for asking to link to my site. "Laurianne's Hope" is a fitting tribute to your sister and I'm sure it will do a lot of good. I look at my book as the same kind of tribute to my Mom.

Of course you're welcome to link to my site, but you might want to read my book first! Our situations are a little different in that my Mom did contract lung cancer after smoking for 40+ years. I know she felt some responsibility and guilt because of that, and at least I (I can't speak for anyone else) had to deal with it as well. No one *deserves* lung cancer, but at the same time there's a natural reaction of, "well, what did you expect?" that I tried to address honestly. After getting a sense of who you are from reading your blog, I'm not sure how you'll feel about that.

Thanks for commenting, and I'd be interested in your reaction when you do read it.

Lynda said...

Aw, I linked you anyway. I have read comments about how your books has already helped people.

I want to change the "what did you expect?" mentality. I addressed that in a post today when I talked about Mom's Cancer. Better research towards finding a cure could have saved both your mom and my sister. Instead we have this stigma that smokers deserve lung cancer.

If your book stops one person from smoking, then I think it belongs on my blog. Quitting is still the #1 lung cancer preventative.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Just wow. I wish I could have seen it! Sadly, we don't pay for the extra cable.

I'm so proud of you, I could just burst.