I once emailed a famous author, Jaclyn Moriarty, asking her about a book of hers. She responded, which drove me INSANE. I then asked her, for my school newspaper, if she would care to answer some interview questions. She was soooo nice, and she responded with these huge answers! Check out the interview below:
- What is your favorite book genre?
I was going to say that I like fantasy and comedy, but I think it’s more specific than that. I like humorous books that have emotional depth, and magical books that have a real-world context.
- Of the books you have written, which is your favorite?
That’s a tricky question because it’s a bit like asking me to choose my favourite child! I feel fond of them all for different reasons - for example, I like Feeling Sorry for Celia because that’s the first book I got published, and I like The Year of Secret Assignments because that one sold the most copies! (Also, I wrote that one almost twenty years ago and lately I’ve been getting a lot of letters from grown-ups telling me how important the book was to them when they were teenagers - so that is very special.)
However, I’m very keen on The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone because I had so much fun writing it. I wrote each chapter in a different cafe in my neighbourhood for a while, and then I ended up writing most of the second half in a chocolate cafe which had a chandelier made of teacups! At the moment, I feel very affectionate towards The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst, which is about to come out in the US, because my niece named Piper has read it three times and says it’s her favourite book in the world. And because I adore the covers that artists have created for the Australian, American and English editions. (I’d better stop now or I’ll end up telling you why every single one of my books is a favourite…)
- Why did you choose writing as a career?
From the age of six, I loved making up stories. I was very shy and I liked being inside imaginative worlds. I also loved reading books about magic and dreamed of one day being able to write books of my own. I feel very, very lucky that my dream has come true.
- Who or what inspires you to write?
I grew up in a family of six children and most of us liked to tell stories. So instead of giving us pocket money, our dad used to ‘commission’ us to write ’novels’. He paid us a dollar fifty if we filed up an exercise book with a story. That was a big inspiration to me – and two of my sisters, Liane and Nicola, have also grown up to be authors.
If I need inspiration, I like to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and watch boats on the water. Or run up and down a flight of stairs. Or eat chocolate…
- What do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I like to read, swim in the sea, ride my bicycle and bake – my favourite things to bake are chocolate brownies, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, sticky date pudding, apple-cinnamon cake and upside-down plum cake. But my very favourite thing to do is spend time with my fourteen-year-old son – listening to music with him, seeing movies with him, or watching him compete in athletics tournaments (he’s a very fast runner, like Finlay in the Whispering Wars!)
So, that was her interview! I highly recommend The Kingdoms and Empires series, which consists of The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone, The Whispering Wars, and The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst!
Thanks! See you next week!