Robin Hobb, Roald Dahl, Joss Whedon, Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams
2.Who has had a major influence on your writing?
My parents. As booky people themselves, they read to me all through childhood, and I even dictated my first stories to them before I could spell. It’s pretty much all their fault.
3.Can you name at least one book that you never finished?
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I was always in two minds about it.
4.What word or words do you always have trouble spelling?
Archaeopteryx. And I’m not just being faceitious. Facitious. Dammit.
5.What three adjectives best describe you?
Intelligent. Handsome. Modest.
6.Which of your characters would you most like to be and why?
Losara, from the Broken Well trilogy. He is a mage who can turn to shadow and zip pretty much anywhere at the speed of thought, which is appealing for a nervous traveller like me.
7.Which author would you invite to dinner?
Roald Dahl.
8.Where do you write?
In my bedroom, wherever that happens to be.
9.When do you write?
I tend to write to daily targets (such as word count) rather than time. So while ‘hours of operation’ may vary, effort is consistent.
10.What makes you happy?
Butterflies. Yum Cha. Computer games. Ice cream.
11.What do you most fear?
Plane travel.
12.What is your favorite vice?
This is like asking me which of my children I love the most.
13.What is the quality you most like in yourself?
The lack of a real job.
14.What are the qualities you most like in your friends?
Good humour.
15.Would you be lying if you said your works were not autobiographical?
Nope. I don’t meet many dragons going up the street for milk.
16.What part of your personality do you detest?
Indecisiveness.
17.What is your favorite adjective?
Relentless.
18.What is your favorite book?
This is like asking me what my favourite vice is.
19.What book would you read three times?
Mort, by Terry Pratchett.
20.To whom would you award the Nobel Prize for Literature and why?
Golly. I think I might have to pass on this one, simply because it is a serious question about a serious prize, and I really don’t read too many serious books. Something my mother often admonishes me about.
