Author Interview by Rose Garcia

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Ilana • 2 Comments

“Testing, testing, one-two-three…”

Hello everyone! A while back, YA paranormal romance author Rose Garcia was kind enough to interview me on her blog. The following is an excerpt. Enjoy!

Meet Middle Grade Author, Ilana Waters

Welcome to Five Question Wednesday featuring MG author, Ilana Waters. She’s super cool and a really terrific writer. Enjoy! [note: there are less than five questions because, as I mentioned, it's just an excerpt ;-) --Ilana]

Q. How did you come up with the idea for this book? [The Adventures of Stanley Delacourt]

All right, I know this sounds silly, but it came to me in a dream. Really–it did! I woke up and knew the basic plot and three of the main characters. The rest of it is loosely based on equal parts life experience and wish fulfillment.

Q. Do any of the characters symbolize someone or something in real life?

Each of the main characters contains part of my personality. Stanley is my shy, quiet side. Sophie is how I feel when I’m irritated. And the befuddled psychic Foreshadow is the part of me that spends two hours searching for a sweater . . . that I’m wearing.

Q. Who are your favorite authors? 

Hmmm . . . there are too many to list, but off the top of my head I can think of Lemony Snicket, Michael Ende, Philip Pullman, and Diana Wynne Jones.

 

Q. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one book, what would it be and why?

This is where I give the smart aleck answer: “How to Get Off a Desert Island for Dummies.” But I’m pretty sure that’s what every author says.

So my real answer would have to be “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.” One, because it’s really, really long. It would be years before I ran out of reading material, and I might be stuck on that island for years! Two, I’ve never read the complete works, but have always wanted to. Three, because many of Shakespeare’s comedies are laugh-out-loud funny.

And if I’m in a place where there’s no indoor plumbing (and no indoors!) or coffee, I’m gonna need some cheering up.

Thanks for the interview, Ilana!

Want more MG author info.?

Read the entire author interview here, or a quick summary of my MG book here. You can even check out the first chapter for free! Then go buy it on Amazon, Barnesandnoble, Apple, Kobo, or Smashwords. Go on . . . you know you want to!

After that, head over to rosegarciabooks.com for more terrific reading material. You can also follow Rose on Twitter and Facebook.

The lovely interviewer herself!

Thank you again, Rose, for having me on your blog! *waves*

What do you like best about author interviews? Least? Would you change anything in the way they’re normally done? Let me know in the comments!

(Top image by AV Hire London. Bottom image by Rose Garcia)

2 Comments. Add yours?
  • http://www.caryncaldwell.com/ Caryn Caldwell

    How cool that you came up for the idea for your book in a dream! That’s great! And I actually did laugh when I saw your answer “How to Get off a Desert Island for Dummies” because I don’t see that very often. (You’d think it would be a more popular answer, wouldn’t you?)

    • http://twitter.com/ilanawaters ilanawaters

      Thanks, Caryn! I guess I just felt silly, because sooo many authors say “it came to me in a dream!” But if that’s really how it happened, what can we do?

      And yes, everyone should own an annotated copy of “How to Get Off a Desert Island for Dummies.” Just in case. ;-)

      Thanks for stopping by!