CHRIS WOODING - Questions & Answers..

Read on to find out more...

Or click on a number to go to that question:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

1. Did you like school and what was your favourite subject?

I think I just tolerated school rather than liking it, but it could have been a lot worse. I was always kind of a misfit, but I was good at my studies so the teachers let me get away with it. My favourite subject was English, because I had two great teachers who gave me a lot of encouragement: Tricia Henderson and Terry Everley, to whom I dedicated my first book, Crashing.

2. Who was your favourite author/illustrator when you were a child and what is your favourite children’s book?

I didn’t have a favourite but I read tons of Stephen King, James Herbert, J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Brooks, all that sort of stuff. I used to read adult books rather than children’s fiction most of the time: a lot of fantasy, SF and horror. My favourite, however, is probably John Christopher’s Tripods Trilogy.

3. What books do you enjoy reading?

All kinds, really. I don’t read horror much anymore and I only read fantasy when it sounds original rather than elf-dwarf-goblin-dragon. I read a lot of SF and a lot of Manga and graphic novels, some classics and some contemporary fiction and non-fiction… whatever takes my fancy at the time, really.

4. Why did you want to become a writer?

Because I was really, really scared of getting a job! Actually, that’s only half the truth. I loved how some of the books I read when I was a kid could completely transport me to another place, and I wanted to be able to do that to other people.

5. How did your writing career begin?
 
I just kept on writing novels until someone paid attention! I bought the Writers and Artists’ Yearbook, sent my books to some of the agents I found in it, and one of them liked my work and took me on. A year or so later I sold my first book to Scholastic.

6. What is a typical day for you?

Get up, shower, plonk self in front of computer, write a lot, get stuck, scream at self, throw self out of window, clamber back up stairs, plonk self in front of computer again, write some more.

7. What advice would you give to want-to-be-authors?

Buy the Writers and Artists’ Yearbook and do what it says.

8. Which of your own novels do you like best and why?
 
I’ll be diplomatic and say Storm Thief, because it’s the last one I wrote. Seriously, I like them all for different reasons, but I tend to like my later stuff better. Doesn’t everyone?

9. Where did you get your idea for Storm Thief?
 
It started with the idea for a castle that never stayed still and kept on changing around. Then the castle became a city, and the city became lashed by probability storms, and I had to ask myself why on earth anyone would build a city like this. That’s where the story started.

10. How long did it take you to write Storm Thief?
 
Nine months, give or take. I was working on other projects at the same time, but Storm Thief was one tough little sod to get right…