In the past, we’ve had a guest join Authors Answer for a month (Michael J. Sullivan). Last year, for our one year anniversary, we had several join (Janny Wurts, Brian Staveley, Andrew Rowe, Baye McNeil, Erica Dakin, and Amy Morris-Jones). But what if we start inviting more authors to be guests? Well, this is actually something I will be doing, hopefully each guest writing for a month each. But who do we think should be guests? Of course, many of our choices are unrealistic, so these are our dream guests.
Question 70 – If you could request any author to be a guest on Authors Answer, who would it be and why?
Michelle Browne! She is such a “mother hen” type when it comes to taking in writers of all walks of life and giving them a place to share their geekery. At the same time, she is also a huge supporter of social activism and ideals, which is less rare but more important. Plus, she’s a great friend in addition to being a prolific and multifaceted writer.
Basically, I have nothing but amazing things to say about her and her prowess.
J.K. Rowling. (I’m nothing if not ambitious.) Even outside of being a huge Harry Potter fan, I like how she conducts herself on Twitter. She’s clever, witty, and not afraid to ruffle feathers. It’s a personality I think would well for this format.
My partner in crime Erica Dakin is already following along with Authors Answer, though she’s still in the teens. Don’t know who I’d nominate otherwise.
Terry Brooks, for starters. He’s my favorite fantasy author. I love Shannara and once upon a time dreamed of visiting.
My second option would be Sheree Fitch. She is a fabulous children’s author (though she has some adult novels, too). “Mable Murple” and “There Were Monkeys In My Kitchen” are classics and my boys love her as much as do. Plus she was a guest in our home for a bit and read part of Monkeys in my Kitchen to the kids. My third choice would be Lesley Crewe. She sets her stories close to where I live so they come alive in ways other works of fiction can’t. Also, she’s hilarious to talk to so I know she would come up with some great answers!
I’m going to have to go with Monica Hughes, who wrote one of my favorite books of all time: “Invitation to the Game“. My best friend stumbled across the short novel at a book fair when we were in the fifth grade and she showed it to me because the summery on the back sounded an awful lot like the story I was actually writing at the time. So I ended up buying the book to see what it was all about, and it wasn’t even the tiniest bit like my story, but I absolutely fell in love with it. I had never read anything like it before up to that point – I didn’t even know what “dystopian future” meant back then. It as just such an amazing story, so odd and imaginative and yet also so believable. It amazed me and intrigued me and I’ve read it over a dozen times since that day in the fifth grade because I always find myself drawn back to the world and the characters at different stages of my life. So, yeah, I’d love to see Mrs Hughes on here so I could see how she would answer some of our questions!
I’d love to have a chat with George R. R. Martin, not only about who we’re finally going to see on the throne when the series ends, but the perils of writing such an involved series and the pressures of an audience when it catches up with you and waits. And waits, increasingly more demanding, judging your every move that doesn’t involve writing.
Hypothetically? J.K. Rowling. Despite her fame, I know far less about what kinds of answer they would give than I do about any of the other authors I thought of.
Will Ferguson. He’s a Canadian author, writer of Happiness (TM) and the non-fictional travel adventure, the hilarious Hitching Rides with Buddha. I can’t think of a more entertaining writer, nor one I’d love to interview more.
You did not specify that they had to be living, so I think it would be fascinating to hear from the likes of Conrad and Melville. It would be interesting to hear from them about how they perceive writing to have changed since they wrote, what they think is good and bad, better and worse. And it would be great to hear what they think about how their works are now perceived.
Julian May – because I think her writing is brilliant and overlooked, she’s spanned both the fantasy and sci-fi genre, including the fun muddy bits between, and I would love to hear her insight on pretty much anything. If you haven’t read her Pliocene Exile series, you are missing out.
Well, since you didn’t specify that they had to still be alive, I request for Mark Twain to be on here. His answers would be very entertaining. Besides, can you imagine what he’d say about the political situation nowadays…?
Realistically, there are several authors I could ask and have as guests, but I’m going with someone who is likely not going to answer positively. And that’s Brandon Sanderson. I haven’t actually read his books yet (I will! I just wanted to wait until moving to Canada before adding to my book collection), but he’s incredibly well-reviewed almost universally. I’d like to know what he thinks and how he’d answer our questions.
How about you?
Who would you like to have as a guest author on Authors Answer? Let us know in the comments below.
I Read Encyclopedias for Fun 
Reblogged this on North of Andover.
Reblogged this on and commented:
Who would YOU like to see as a guest author on Authors Answer? This week we all list our personal picks…some more unreasonable than others. ^_~
Reblogged this on On the Edge of Enlightenment and commented:
To be fair, we were all answering the version of the question that starts with “if you could”.