- Is India your real name?
- Yes. I’m named after my grandmother. It’s an old-fashioned Southern (U.S.) name. Grandma had at least two friends who shared her name, so it was like the “Jennifer” of the nineteen-oughts in Atlanta. In Gone with the Wind, Ashley Wilkes’s sister is named India; if I recall correctly, she doesn’t have much of a role in the movie, but in the book she’s rather unpleasant.
- Are you from India?
- No. I am a native New Yorker.
- Are you Indian?
- Like many persons of African descent in the U.S., I am a mix. The parts we know about for sure are Russian, Hungarian, Irish, Norwegian, and Native American (maybe Seminole?). In a word, American. My mother’s maternal grandmother did look very Native American, but, no, I’m not Indian in any way that explains my name in the slightest.
- Have you ever been to India?
- Nope. I have great affection for the country as a source of brilliance, beauty, fine cuisine, fun movies, and mangoes mangoes mangoes, but I have not visited and obviously never can do so because I would spend three-quarters of my trip trying to explain my name.
- Is “Amos” pronounced “EY-mis” or “AH-mos”?
- We call ourselves “EY-mis,” but with a name like mine, you learn to answer to pretty much anything.
- Are you related to Famous Amos?
- Yes, actually. Distantly.
- So…what does one do, exactly, designing book interiors? Does one pick the fonts?
- Yep, that’s all there is to it. Your cat could do it.
- Your site seems mostly to be about book design, but sometimes you post stuff about editing and Web development. Are you a Web developer, or a designer, or an editor?
- Um. Yes and no.
- Do you design book covers?
- I’m primarily a text designer, but yes, I have done some covers.
- How can I get in touch with you?
- Through the contact page, of course.
- I posted a comment. Why didn’t it show up?
- I moderate comments somewhat, so it may be stuck in the approval queue. Or I may have trashed it. Have you read the comment policy?