A Bookish Questions tag–feat. plans for when I’m a little old granny

Hello, friends! I have been tagged by the lovely Evelyn @ The Rain-drenched Writer to answer some book-related questions (created by Madison). An excuse to talk about books? This is my JAM.

You can read Evelyn’s post here (and you SHOULD because there are GOREGOUS pictures of LIBRARIES).

Let’s get to the questions, shall we?

1. What books or series that intimidates you (because of length, density, subject) would feel like an accomplishment to finish?

*glances at paperback brick that has been watching me from the shadows for ten years*

*sweats*

Someday I am going to read Les Miserables. I don’t know when that day will be. I am intimidated by the length, the large sections devoted to discussing the Napoleonic wars, and…the length.

It’s long, folks. I’m scared.

2. What author would you like to coauthor a book with?

I’m just going to come right out and say I have no idea how coauthoring a book works? It sounds terrifying?? But let’s just say this is an ideal world where I would actually be able to work with this author without turning into an awkward, inarticulate, inspiration-less blob.

…And I still don’t know who I would choose.

My impulse is to say Kate DiCamillo because a) I love her books, and b) I sometimes write in a similar style. So maybe it could work??

3. If you could interview any author on your blog, who would it be? What’s one question you would ask?

I know there’s a better answer to this, but my first impulse is to say I would interview Gary D. Schmidt and my question would be (regarding the first couple pages of Just Like That) “WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHEN DID YOU DECIDE THIS?? HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN YOU WERE GOING TO DO THIS TO US??? WAS THIS REALLY NECESSARY????”

…I guess that’s more than one question, oops.

4. What genre is out of your comfort zone that you’d like to conquer someday and write within?

Maybe the genre I’m trying to write right now?

*muffled screaming*

This isn’t exactly a specific genre, but something with semi-serious world-building (probably sci-fi or fantasy). I have done so little world-building and HOW does one go about this??

I also think it would be fun to write a book in Victorian style–something Charles Dickens-esque with tons of characters and drama and wit and general gallivanting around Victorian England.

5. What specific edition of a book would you like to own someday? (It could be rare, first edition, an anniversary edition, signed, or one with a special cover to you, etc.)

I would like a copy of the Sherwood Ring with a really excellent cover.

Unfortunately, I don’t think such a thing exists. Have you SEEN the covers?

This one was the first one I saw. And I didn’t like it.

BUT THEN I SAW THESE.

• 

• 

And I am DYING.

Suddenly the first one doesn’t look half bad. But REALLY now, this book is so excellent it deserves a really excellent cover.

6. Are there any books or bookish items that you’d like to collect?

By the time I’m a little old granny I hope to have collected the complete works of Charles Dickens in mismatched hard covers from the early 1900s.

*begins aggressively scouring thrift stores and book sales*

(I also hope to have read the complete works of Dickens by the time I’m a little old granny)

7. Name one bookish place you’d like to visit. (Not somewhere you’d like to visit because of a book and not a fiction place within a book, but a library, bookstore, etc.)

I can’t think of anywhere specific… But yes, I would love to visit all the libraries and bookstores, please.

Oh! Someday I need to visit a library with one of those ladders on wheels. This is important.

8. What’s one bookish event you’d like to attend? (A festival, a signing, a book fair, etc.)

I don’t know exactly what a ‘book festival’ or a ‘book fair’ would be, but they sound promising? Would there be book-themed foods and people dressed up as book characters and books handed out like balloons? Because I would like to go there, please.

9. Your WIP is getting published and designing the cover is solely up to you. What does it look like?

…which one?

The only one I’ve really thought about is The Entertainers. I picture a silhouette (or at least shadowy) picture of a hand/hands resting on piano keys, and there are strings running from the fingers up to the top of the cover (like marionette strings).

Ooh, The Chess Cafe could be a chess board, but instead of chess pieces there are small people sitting and standing around.

Four Princes (Three of Whom are Dead) would definitely just be a picture of the cat. Because clearly. (Ok, or maybe something like a bunch of distorted reflections in a crown?)

10. What’s one thing you’d like to accomplish within the bookish world? (As a writer, reader, blogger, whatever you want.)

I want to write the kind of book that makes people think. The kind of book that they nicely throw at their friends to read so they can all talk about it together. The kind of book that people want to reread because it’s just as good the second and third and tenth time you read it.

I want to write books that deal with heavy subject matter–books that can be totally heartbreaking, but leave you with a sense of hope in the end.

Hopefully, by the time I’m a little old granny, I’ll have written several such books.

Do you have any burning questions you would like to ask an author? Does co-authoring a book sound anxiety-inducing, or is that just me? What would the cover of you WIP look like if you could design it? Are you as traumatized by The Sherwood Ring covers as I am? Do tell!

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