Your description of your attempt to interview Kip Kinkel, and his older sister, was riveting. I agree with you about being friendly as a path to getting people to open up. It is the right path, especially in times where the person you want to interview is emotionally distraught. It was your job; you had to make on-the-spot judgments. You had to size people up. It's probably a gift similar to what horse whisperers employ. It's why dogs like you. It's why some people do open up to you. There are far too many SOBs in the world, and you did right to not be one of them, even if it cost you a few stories. I did find an interesting story, written by Jessica Schulberg, which was an interview she had with Kip Kinkel, that included photos supplied by his legal team. I am not drawn to read about people like Kinkel, but I found his schizophrenia to be of interest because a protagonist in one of my novels was also diagnosed as being schizophrenic. I suppose there are many such cases where voices tell people to do bad things. We often fail to heed the counsel of our own voices. Human beings are an odd alchemy of good and evil, and in your reporting you tried to follow the good path, and that is worthy of something.
Your description of your attempt to interview Kip Kinkel, and his older sister, was riveting. I agree with you about being friendly as a path to getting people to open up. It is the right path, especially in times where the person you want to interview is emotionally distraught. It was your job; you had to make on-the-spot judgments. You had to size people up. It's probably a gift similar to what horse whisperers employ. It's why dogs like you. It's why some people do open up to you. There are far too many SOBs in the world, and you did right to not be one of them, even if it cost you a few stories. I did find an interesting story, written by Jessica Schulberg, which was an interview she had with Kip Kinkel, that included photos supplied by his legal team. I am not drawn to read about people like Kinkel, but I found his schizophrenia to be of interest because a protagonist in one of my novels was also diagnosed as being schizophrenic. I suppose there are many such cases where voices tell people to do bad things. We often fail to heed the counsel of our own voices. Human beings are an odd alchemy of good and evil, and in your reporting you tried to follow the good path, and that is worthy of something.
I guess I caught a sneak peak of other stories you were about to share, including an unfinished sentence. Looking forward to reading more!
I'm sorry - you should be able to see a properly edited version now. The first post contained some paragraphs I'd intended to cut.