The BookBrag Q&As

Getting started on a conversation about a book and/or an author is always tough. To make life that little bit easier I have come up with a list of Q&A’s to set it going.

To take part in the Q&A BookBrag Challenge answer at least 10 questions from the selection below  – first two are obligatory.

The title being promoted should be current – i.e. it should have been published during the past 6 months (longer by agreement) or coming up in the next 3  months.

Preferred total word count between 500 and 2,000.

Funny or serious, or a bit of both, the choice is yours, but keep it clean!

I reserve the right to refuse any submissions on grounds of taste/style/substance.

In addition to this Q&A I am also open to authors promoting their own book here as a guest blogger by prior agreement.

• Tell us a little about yourself –  remember to include your own web/blog links, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook or other social media links, plus details of you book, (book cover and blurb), 50 word biog and author picture. (Thumbnail/low res pics only.)
• Tell us about your new book!  (publication date, publisher if applicable, links to purchase, formats available, price)
• What was the thinking behind the book – themes and settings
•  How long have you been writing and how did you get started?
• What do you like to do when you’re not writing, and does it come in useful for your stories?
• What do you like best/least about your characters
•  What is at the root of your current book/story?
•  Ebooks or Traditional?
• How important is your setting? (time and place)
•  What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?
• Is there any genre or style of writing you haven’t tried yet but would like to?
• Do you ever brainstorm ideas with other writers?
• Name your superpower and why that one?
• Covers: how important are they? And how do you find/design yours?
• Where would you hide the bodies?
• Your work space: chaos or calm?
• Pitch your latest book to the world at large in 100 words.
•  What’s the most important thing you have learned about writing?
• What aspects of writing to do you find the most tricky?
• Do you have music playing when you write? What are your tracks of choice?
• Romance: Pride and Prejudice or Fifty Shades?
• Have you ever use real people in disguise for your books? (Be they relatives, neighbours, friends or enemies)
•  Which of your previous works are you most proud of, and are there any that you would like to forget about?
• Your favourite quote from any book.
•  What is it that you like best about the lead character in your book/series?
• Have you ever killed of one of a major character, and why?
• Do you have a typical writing day?
• Do you have any particular preparations for warming up the writer-brain, or get stuck straight in?
• Full synopsis before you start? Or seat of the pants?
•  Who would play you in your biopic?
•  If you could have dinner with any writer in your field (past of present) who would it be and why?
• Crime: Poirot or Girl on a Train?
• Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
• What was the first (*genre ) story you read and what kind of impact did it make on you?
• What one genre/plot cliché would you get rid of?
• Research: chore or obsession?
• What is the oddest fact you have ever unearthed when researching a book?
• Naming characters:  do you choose? or do the names come fully formed with the character?
•  If you could kill off any character from any other book, who would you choose and how would they die?
• Your most embarrassing moment –  have you ever given that moment to any of your characters?
• Have you ever included people you know (disguised or not) in your fiction?
•  Fantasy: Lord Of The Rings or Howl’s Moving Castle?
• What are you currently reading?
• Who are some of your favourite authors and what is it about their work that appeals?
• Comic: Batman or Fables?
• Do you have a soundtrack for your work ?
• Do your allow your characters to ever take over the plot?
•  Who would star in the film?
• What/when was the first piece of fiction you wrote? And what happened to it? (Be honest now!)
• If you could have written any other book what would it be and why?
• If not a writer then what?
• Literary festivals and conventions:  Where/when will you be appearing  next?
• Oxford commas – discuss!
• What are you up to next? (Published works/conventions/random fun!)
• (Insert question of choice.)