Answer Time!

Hi all!

Last week, I brought up the idea of an occasional Q&A on this platform and a few of you took me up on that. My answers to your questions below!

If you’ve ever been, what is your favorite Disney ride?

Haha. “If I’ve ever been…” I live an hour and a half away! I used to practically live at Disney. And my current favorite ride is Rise of the Resistance. As far as storytelling and thrill, there’s just nothing that compares to it.

My favorite show is and forever will be the Country Bear Jamboree.

Who is your favourite muppet?

I suppose if I had to pick one member of The Electric Mayhem it would be Floyd Pepper.

Who are your favorite comics creators, outside the children and YA genre?

A ton. Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo, Otto Schmitt, Brian K Vaughn, Naoki Urasawa, Craig Thompson, Darwyn Cooke, Evan Shaner, and Chris Samnee are just a few names that immediately pop in my mind.

Lately I’ve read quite a few of Tom King’s books and I’ve enjoyed them all despite every single one being a bleak portrayal of superheroes (which isn’t usually my thing). He’s good at staging a story though so they end up holding my interest. I’ll be honest, most middle-grade GNs have not these days.

What's your favorite question you've ever been asked? 

This one.

For Cleopatra in Space, how much of the story did you know when you wrote Book 1?

I knew the important bits of the ending and a few stops along the way in order for me to get there. Thoth’s history of Kebechet in Book 6 is almost verbatim what I wrote in my original pitch packet. I purposefully wrote in a lot of open doors for me to discover along the way though.

At restaurants, do you regularly doodle on napkins? Can you help yourself not to?

I don’t. I try to spend that time focusing on my family or any other people I’m with. That’s their time with me (and mine with them) so I leave the drawing at home.

(Unless of course there’s a giant roll of paper used as a table cloth (e.g. Macaroni Grill)—then of course all of us are drawing the entire meal.)

It sounded like you were overloaded/burned out on Cleopatra. With enough time, do you think you would go back? Do a spin-off? 

You are correct on the burn-out. Although if I felt like the story warranted it, I would have done an additional book or two.

However, while I don’t have a concrete idea for a new story, I would consider returning to that world one day. Suppose it would depend on the demand for it. Likely it would focus less on Cleo and instead on either Yosira or Antony (or both).

Great questions! Will certainly try this again further into the month. For now, have a great weekend everyone!