TNBBC Presents - The Christopher Moore Author Q&A discussion

This thread is for any personal (but not TOO personal!) questions you would like to Christopher to answer.

For example:

What were some of the worst jobs you have ever held?
Who are you most "star-struck" by and why?

Ok, are you a "gotta have my coffee in the morning" kinda guy? Or are you naturally full of zest and zeal?

Who is the most famous person you've ever met, and what was your impression of him or her?

Who would you most like to have dinner with (living or dead)? And since it's you, I'll specify that if you chose a deceased person, you could travel back in time to have dinner with them, or they could travel to the 21st century to have dinner with you.

Chocolate: dark, milk, or white? Unadulterated or with nuts or fruit added?

Lori wrote: "Ok, are you a "gotta have my coffee in the morning" kinda guy? Or are you naturally full of zest and zeal?"

Coffee, and lots of it.

Lisa wrote: "Who is the most famous person you've ever met, and what was your impression of him or her?

Who would you most like to have dinner with (living or dead)? And since it's you, I'll specify that if yo..."

Hmmm. I suppose Jimmy Buffett is the most famous person I've met. He was very nice. We talked about cargo cults. He'd just published his book on one and I had written about them in Island of the Sequined Love Nun. It was at a Christmas Party at some friend's of mine in Hawaii. (Rock star family - really.)

I'd like to have dinner with Mark Twain. I'd like to go back there to have dinner with him, but only if I'm sure I can come back where there's antibiotics and flat screens and whatnot.

Lori wrote: " This thread is for any personal (but not TOO personal!) questions you would like to Christopher to answer.

For example:

What were some of the worst jobs you have ever held?
Who are you ..."

The worse job I ever had was cleaning stables out at the exhibition barns after the county fair (back in Ohio, when I was a kid). It was awful.

I was most starstruck by Ray Bradbury. I tried to make myself go up and talk to him when I was just starting out and he was speaking at a writer's conference I was at, but I just couldn't make myself do it. Two years in a row I wussed out.

Were you a funny child, funny in the sense of humour way??
When I first started reading your books, I always felt that you must have been funny, but also interested in authors like Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Yes??? Maybe?!!

Christopher,
I think it is very telling of a person when they admit that another author "starstruck" them. I love it!!

If you could have any job (besides what you are doing) what would you choose to do?

Do you have any pets?

What is your favorite band?

What is your favourite genre to read?

Do you have a favourite author?

What are you reading at the moment?

Where do you like to holiday?

There are so few authors out there that manage to write truly funny novels. There are many authors who try (maybe too hard) to be comedic and fail. You are the rare author who can present a well-written, sincere, and gut-busting story. Which contemporary authors, if any, do you like to read for a laugh?

Lance, I love seeing authors talk to authors! Thanks for joining. And I am very interested to see what Christopher recommends to you.

Lance wrote: "There are so few authors out there that manage to write truly funny novels. There are many authors who try (maybe too hard) to be comedic and fail. You are the rare author who can present a well-w..."

I like Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry, David Sedaris, Mil Millington, Nick Hornby, and Bill Bryson that I can think of right now. A few others, but I'm not sure I read them regularly enough to say I seek them out. There are a lot of new, young authors who write some pretty funny stuff, but it's hard to find time to get through all the failed attempts to find the stuff that's really funny. Sad but true.

Mandy wrote: "Where do you like to holiday?"

Last few years I like to go to big cities. Paris, London, Chicago, places with a lot of art and a lot going on.

Mandy wrote: "What is your favourite genre to read?

Humorous fiction, I guess.

Do you have a favourite author?

John Steinbeck.

What are you reading at the moment?"

Truck: A Love Story- by Michael Perry

Stacie wrote: "If you could have any job (besides what you are doing) what would you choose to do?

I'd like to do stand up, radio (if it wasn't programmed too rigidly), or be a painter (art, not barns).

Do you have any pets?
Not presently. We had two kitties in Hawaii but they stayed with the house. They were jungle kitties, used to a lot of land to roam in, I didn't want them to have to adjust to the city. They're healthy and happy I'm told.

What is your favorite band?"

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - although I listen to a wide variety of music.

Suzanne wrote: "Were you a funny child, funny in the sense of humour way??
When I first started reading your books, I always felt that you must have been funny, but also interested in authors like Stephen King a..."

Yes, that's a pretty accurate guess. (Although I didn't know about Koontz until I had written my first book.)

I read Lovecraft, Poe, Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, all great horror writers when I was a kid. Discoverd Stephen King when I was in high school. I think I always thought I would be a horror story writer, the humor thing just sort of took over as I realized I was good at it.

For you, what makes Ray Bradbury special? Does he have a writer's characteristic you want to embody yourself? ^_^

I am so very happy that your 'humour thing' just sort of took over!!! I LOVE your books!

Beng wrote: "For you, what makes Ray Bradbury special? Does he have a writer's characteristic you want to embody yourself? ^_^

"He was/is, just a terrific story-teller. When you first learn the craft, it makes sense to learn by writing short stories. Bradbury is as good a short story writer as has ever lived. You can see the structure and the beats of a short story, where in a novel, it's a little harder to grasp the whole structure.

What's your take on the e-book craze? Pro or con?

Meghan wrote: "What's your take on the e-book craze? Pro or con?"

Honestly? I wish it wasn't happening, but I don't think there's any stopping it. I think it's eventually going to hurt a lot of authors financially and will drive some to do other things for a living. I've owned the most popular reader and I flat out hated the experience, but I'm sure the readers will get better and people will get used to them. If e-books go the way that music did for the ipod, with pirating becoming the norm, a lot of us are going to be looking for different jobs. We don't have a performance model to fall back on the way musicians did. In short, we're fucked.

Christopher wrote: "Meghan wrote: "What's your take on the e-book craze? Pro or con?"

Honestly? I wish it wasn't happening, but I don't think there's any stopping it. I think it's eventually going to hurt a lot of au..."

Maybe I'm just naive, but I pay for the music I download, and I pay for the books I put on my Kindle (other than the ones offered for free by the authors themselves; these are a great way to find new authors). I'm a firm believer that artists should be paid for their work, musicians and authors alike. And if I enjoy an artist's work, regardless of the art, I'll shout it from the rooftops.

My friends have hated my Kindle because it's meant the end of my lending library. But even when I have a paper copy of a book, I generally only have one to loan out, and if I endorse it enough, most of my friends buy their own.

There's one book for which I downloaded a .pdf for my Kindle, but A) it came from the author's web site; and B) there was a copy of the paper book in my house already. In a case like that, I just prefer the electronic copy, and I would happily have paid for the Kindle version had the author been willing to make it available.

Again, maybe all readers aren't like me, but I bet the reading fanatics willing to spend hundreds on an e-book reader are more often like me than you think.

I'd be really interested to know if you write from an outline, or just sort of feel your way into the story and figure it out as you go. Or is it both?