other than le guin’s earthsea series, this is one
of my favorites. A Conspiracy of Kings is a New York Times
Bestseller AND was also chosen by American Library Association’s
Booklist as one of the Top Ten Fantasy/Science Fiction Novels for
Youth in 2010! i’m delighted to offer a signed copy for tgifbm!

i also have an impromptu interview with megan whalen
turner. these were questions i had posed to the authors
of the summer reading panel at mysterious galaxy a few
weeks back.

if you could live the life of one of the characters you’ve written,
which would it be and why?

[This] makes me wish I’d written a story about a nice
middle aged woman living in a charming hillside town with a great
veiw and central heating, where the villagers revere her for no particular
reason and bring her food three times a day and otherwise don’t
bother her much. : )

See, you didn’t ask which person I’d like to be, you asked whose
life I’d like to take on. I think I’d have a nervous breakdown if I had
to deal like any of my characters. So, I think I’ll go with the narrator–Aunt
Charlotte, in my story “Aunt Charlotte and the Portraits at the NGA.”
Sure, she had some absent parents and some childhood isolation
going there at the beginning, but by the time she’s telling her story,
she’s all grown up and it’s clear she’s got her life well in hand.
Ooh, or possibly I’d be the Selkie in that story. That would be okay.

(megan did admit at the panel to admiring eddis and it might
be neat to be her. but not so much living her very
stressful life as a queen.)

name a favorite book that you wish you had written
yourself. why do you love this read?

Just lately, I’ve been thinking that if
I were Frances Harding and I’d written The Lost Conspiracy,
I’d be darned proud of myself. But the problem is that
if your *write* the book, you don’t get to be the reader of it. Given a choice,
I’d rather someone else wrote books *for* me.

If you could magically implant your idea in someone else’s head and
get *them* to think it through and make a story out of it,
who would you pick?

megan’s sly like that and turns the table on you! ;*)
well, i’d be really interested in how you’d write Silver Phoenix,
megan. and i’d be curious to see how neil gaiman would
write it as well. because you are both authors i admire and
write and think so differently than i do.

…

okay, lovely blog readers! you know the drill!
tweet, fb status, blog or LJ about this contest with
a link back to the post AND comment here with
your link to enter!! i’ll select a random winner some
time on wednesday, june 16th! this contest is open
to all!! good luck!