Posted by Laurie | July 8th, 2009

I recently did a book review of Jane Green’s book, Dune Road, for Penguin Canada.  I loved the book, and in fact have since read Swapping Lives and am halfway through Second Chance (yay to my library having a good stock of Jane’s books!)

So I was of course super excited when my contact at Penguin asked if I’d like to do a Q & A with Jane as part of her promotional tour for Dune Road. Typically, in my busy work at home mom life, with little childcare for the time being, I asked if we could just do it by email as I tend to have trouble having long phone conversations and there was a short time frame to do the Q & A in. So I sent my questions to Jane via Penguin and she graciously answered them AND posted them on her own blog too!

Here are the questions if you are interested – with a few comments added after the fact by me!

How much time do you spend writing each week? It depends whether it’s a writing week or not. If I’m on my fortnight hiatus, then it’s just blogging, which I aim to do every day, but of late, with the book tour, it has been a few times a week. If I’m on a writing fortnight, it’s three to four hours a day.

Do you need complete peace to work and do you have trouble getting that with your large family? Ha! Trouble? It’s practically impossible to have peace in the house, with sibling fights erupting every other second. Oddly, when I was in my twenties I was a journalist on the Daily Express in the UK, and worked on a super-busy desk with phones ringing and people chatting and editors shouting, and it never phased me, I just kept my head down and wrote. Nowadays I need complete peace, and so I put the kids on the school bus, then take myself off to my local public library, Powerbook under my arm, to write for the morning. I am always done by lunchtime, and back to being Mummy for the rest of the day.

(I totally need quiet to get constructive work done, which is why I’m typing this up at 11pm!)

I loved the independence Kit found in Dune Road and her appreciation for things that matter, instead of possessions. Did you have real life inspiration for her character? Is it obvious? I have lived the large life, in the large house, with the labels and the jewels, and I have never been more unhappy. It struck me then, and continues to strike me, what a fallacy it is that money should buy you happiness, and yet, up until recently, I think that is what we were supposed to believe. All of my protagonists are on a journey to find happiness, and peace, and all of them discover that it is never to be found outside themselves.

I’ve read a few of your blog posts – what do you think of blogging as a published author? Is it a good companion to your work, or a distraction? It is an enormous distraction, and increasingly hard to find the time, and yet, I enjoy it so. It seems that marketing and publicity are now increasingly self-generated, with blogs, and websites like Facebook and Twitter (to which I am horribly addicted, partly because they are quick and easy), and I love that I get to stay in touch with my loyal readers – it helps me, and them, stay connected.

(I definitely think blogging/twitter etc are great publicity – I use both for my VLA biz and have generated much interest that way. I can’t help but think it’s a perfect pr tactic for authors!)

Do you read a lot of blogs, and if so, what type of blog do you like best? I don’t, but my secret shame is the gossip blogs. I will say that I’m a regular visitor to Gawker – their comments section is hilarious.

(She doesn’t read my blog I will have to work on that I guess, lol)

How do you treat yourself, either as a reward or just cause you’ve had a bad day? With a steaming hot and deep bath, and an early night. I am completely addicted to my bed. Me, my cats, a stack of books and magazines, a computer…life doesn’t get much better.

(Me? Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate, hmmm, not a good weight loss technique is it?!!)

Who is your favorite author. I don’t have a favorite author, as such. I’m more likely to have favorite books. I loved The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher all those years ago, and loved Bread Alone by Judith Hendrickson. And the Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin are falling apart on my bookshelf, they have been read so many times.

(I can’t have a favorite author, I love books too much. I must say though that Jean M. Auel and the Clan of the Cave Bear series, for which I have been waiting forever for the last book, are way near the top of my list!)

Hmmm, think I’m going to have to go onto the library’s website tonight and request a couple of Jane’s favorite books – should be interesting reads!

Tags: author, book, email, jane green, penguin canada, Q&A, work at home mom