Today I am fantasy author Graeme Brown’s “Author in the Spotlight.”

http://fantasywritingjourney.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/author-in-the-spotlight-ceci-giltenan/

I like the interview format when I am a guest on someone’s blog. An “interview” is usually a set of written questions provided by the blog owner. Frequently there are 20 to 30 questions and the person interviewed is instructed to answer 8 to 10 of them. Wouldn’t that have been nice in college, only answering the 8 easiest questions on a test?

Graeme’s interview was different. It contained 7 questions, period. I had to answer them all. For a moment it was as if I were in college again and I had walked into a test expecting multiple choice, only to find all essay questions. To make matters worse, they were very like the questions I had skipped on the other interviews (because I found them difficult to answer). They required a lot of thought. “What authors influenced you and how?” I have loved reading since I was a little girl but which of them influenced me? He may as well have asked, Describe the metabolic pathway known as the Kreb’s cycle including the substrates, products and catalytic enzymes at each step.

Take a deep breath, Ceci. You can’t get this one wrong, you just have to think about it. The mental exercise was well worth it. Once I took the time to really examine what authors influenced me and how, the answer became obvious and I was a little surprised by it. The author who most influenced me was…no, I won’t give away the answer. Pop over and read the interview.

Ceci