Questions Part II

Questions and answers continued!

Kim has four questions:

1. What would you do if faced with an ant invasion of your home?

Well, I'd scream, cry, run, spray the place with a pestilent hue, and move into a new place with nothing but me, the clothes on my back, and a roomy duffel bag to sleep in at night.

2. Which would you choose if you had to give up either coffee or HP for life?

Oh, coffee. I've tried to give it up cold turkey a few times before to limited effect. But I couldn't give up my HP books, which are early in their becoming-worn-and-harried stages. I couldn't give up my dream of reading it in Italian, either.

3. How difficult / easy was it to write Harry, A History?

That depends which day you chose to ask. There were days when it flowed easy and free. There were days when I felt like my head was going to explode. Right before deadline I got stomach-achingly sick - seriously, it was like six cases of cramps at once, and I am sure, now, that it was psychosomatic. Every time I would get to this point, in the last two months before my first deadline at least, my temporary personal assistant, Jo, in her cute little British accent (coincidence, I swear), would pop her head in and ask, "Bit of Guitar Hero?" Because that's what destressed me. Guitar Hero. I'd play for 10-15 minutes and feel better.

For most of the year, though, it wasn't that hard, because I'd been thinking about it for a long time and experienced a lot of it. However, in the final three or four months before a deadline, the entire world becomes a pressure cooker and while you focus on one foot forward, bird by bird, you are always mindful of that looming date when you have to let it go. I was pretty depressed the day I sent the book in; I thought it would be a moment of joy, and instead it was one of extreme panic cloaked by what must have been some thin version of post-partum. Then my Leaky friends came to visit and we had a party and that made everything better. :)

4. What major writing piece are you working on right now?

I am developing a seminal piece of nonfiction. It's called My 2008 Tax Return. Love, death and taxes, all in one, man. It's going to tear things up.

(More later, and if you have more to add, as always, hit the comments.)