A Few More Questions

I have been asked a few more questions following on from my previous post.  Here are the Qs and As.

1. Do you keep an note book of ideas?

I have several notebooks full of ideas, some good ideas, some rubbish ideas. I write down every idea that I have, whenever I have it. then I go back to my ideas and work on them, play with them and see if they’ll make a story that I’d want to write and more importantly a story that I think would be interesting to read.
Strangely, my best ideas seem to come to me when I don’t have a notebook with me, so I also have lots of scraps of paper floating around with ideas for characters or a way of describing somthing or a snippet of dialogue; it drives my wife mad.

2. Do you have a special place where you write?

The short answer is no. I usually write at home at my dinner table. Sometimes I take my laptop out and write in a cafe or in the park if the weather’s nice.

3. Who is your favourite character so far?

My favourite character so far is probably Abdi. He isn’t in Too Much Trouble but he might have a small part in the sequel and I am writing a series of stories just about him.
He is the cheekiest, smiliest, sometimes naughtiest boy that you can imagine. All his friends love him but his teachers and parents find him a bit infuriating. He spends all his time making people laugh.

4. What’s your favourite book?

My favourite book is a far too difficult question Charlie! I love so many, let me tell you about a few of my favourite children’s books.

Holes by Louis Sacher: An amazing book with beautiful interweaving strands of story and a very happy ending.

The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder: Funny at times, very mysterious, as the title suggests, and wonderful characters. Like Holes it is a story that spans over several generations of a family.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin: Brilliantly written fantasy. One reason that I like it is that it is not straight forward good against evil, like most fantasy is, it is more subtle about the good and evil that resides in all of us.

Millions by Frank Cottrell-Boyce: I think it writes lead characters better than anyone and Damian in this story is very involving.

The Iron-Man by Ted Hughes: Breath-takingly described sci-fi adventure.