I keep meeting people in this game with just fascinating lives.
You do not need to be a champion for me to want to talk to you. Honestly, some of my favorite conversations have been with people who barely compete. I just want to know how you ended up here.
Off the Rack is me sitting down with someone from the Scrabble world and asking way too many questions. Sometimes we stay on Scrabble the whole time. Sometimes we end up somewhere I never expected, like their childhood, or the strangest job they ever had, or a story I'm still thinking about a week later. I never know where it's going, and honestly that's the fun part.
Talk to meNobody outside the room ever hears this stuff
I keep meeting people in Scrabble and finding out they have these absolutely fascinating lives that nobody talks about outside the tournament hall. Decades of stories, friendships, arguments, weird nicknames, disasters at Nationals, all of it just floating around in people's heads. None of it goes anywhere. I think that's kind of a shame.
Full disclosure, I'm pretty new to this
I came to competitive Scrabble later than almost everyone I talk to on this show, and I'm not really trying to hide that. I'm not interviewing you as some Scrabble authority who's earned the right to ask. I'm just nosy, in what I hope is a charming way. I co-direct the Space Coast Scrabble Club, I'm at tournaments constantly, and at some point I just started wanting to know everybody's whole deal.
Okay, here's how this actually works
Fill out the form
Takes about five minutes. Tell me who you are and what you'd want to talk about. It doesn't need to be polished.
I read it myself
Every application comes straight to me. If it feels like a fit, you'll hear from me directly, not a team, not a form email.
We figure out timing
I book these around my own tournament travel, so I'm usually looking for a trip that lines up somewhere near you. Coming to Florida instead? I'll work around your schedule too, including tournaments I host through the Space Coast Scrabble Club. And if the timing doesn't line up right away, I'm not ghosting you. I keep everything on file and circle back when it makes sense.
We actually talk
Plan on about 2 hours of recording. I build in a third hour on top of that for setup and breaks, so nobody feels rushed. No script, no gotcha questions. I just want to hear how you got here.
What I'm hoping happens
Maybe a newer player finds this and realizes people like them are already out here doing it. Maybe it's the reason somebody finally shows up to their first tournament. I really want more women to find their way into this world and stick around long enough to get good at it. I want a woman to win Division 1 at Nationals in my lifetime, and I don't think that's a weird thing to say out loud.
Why I'm actually doing this
Get more people curious about a game I didn't expect to fall for either.
Get more women into competitive Scrabble, and keep them there.
Give people who've been doing this for years an actual excuse to know each other.
Write some of this down before it disappears, because right now it just lives in people's heads.
I want to know how you got here.
It doesn't matter what your rating is or how long you've been doing this. If you've got something to say, I want to hear it.
Talk to me