I woke up in Blowing Rock yesterday morning and hammered out a few pages on the work-in-progress before eating breakfast and hopping into the car to drive back across the state. I honestly can’t tell you how many times I’ve driven across North Carolina. Thousands of time, easily.

By 4:00 p.m. I was sitting at the desk in our office, ready to interview NPR host Scott Simon for a future Creators’ Conversation that will be featured on Living in the Work. Most you know Scott Simon - or at least you know his voice - from NPR’s Weekend Edition: Saturday. He’s probably my favorite NPR personality: deeply sensitive and inquisitive, but wildly intelligent and acerbic. Scott is also an incredibly talented and prolific writer, publishing books about everything from his mother to the Cubs to his daughters to a YA novel.

During the interview, Scott and I talked about one of my favorite NPR moments ever: Scott’s interview with writer Gail Godwin, whom I happen to adore as both a writer and a person. Her novel Flora is perhaps the most perfect novel I’ve ever read. Here’s a link to the interview. You won’t regret listening. During my talk with Scott, he explained that listening while he’s doing an interview in order to see how the conversation is changing is similar to how he listens to his work when he’s writing. What’s changing? Where is the story going? Can he follow?

I’m back home, back at the desk this morning and will be back at it again tomorrow. Onward.