[Caitlin]

With me, that is. The link's http://www.wotmania.net/fantasymessageboardshowmessage.asp?MessageID=12647 4

Just in case you have trouble accessing it this way: it's wotmania.com, "Other Fantasy", "Message Board" - and from there it should be easy. It's a long interview - the longest I've done so far in my brief career, and it took quite a while. But it was also a lot of fun.

[Miriamele]

Great interview, Caitlin. I'm impressed by the depth of your family's involvement in the world of literature! You couldn't help but to grow up loving books. And your father read you Greek myths as bedtime stories--how wonderful. (Incidentally I've tought some of the Norse myths to my 6-year old and she's fascinated by them. Ancient myths are some of the most imaginative and appealing stories ever created.)

Actually I'm a bit jealous. My parents are very conservative Christians who tried to teach me to read little else but the Bible. (My dad, who contends that "fiction will rot your brain like candy rots your teeth" sneers at my large collection of fantasy and mythology books.) Even though I learned to love books and especially fantasy on my own, my parents' influence on my thinking is sometimes surprisingly hard to shake when I'm doing my own writing! I'm still learning to think outside the parameters that were established for me so long ago.

In fact I credit reading fantasy more than anything else for opening up my mind and improving my imagination. I hate to think of where I'd be without my beloved books! :)

But as usual I digress...thanks Caitlin for the link to the great interview. I read the whole thing and found it quite interesting. And now I'm even more exicted to read Telling, which arrived from Amazon yesterday! :)

[Caitlin]

My parents are very conservative Christians who tried to teach me to read little else but the Bible. (My dad, who contends that "fiction will rot your brain like candy rots your teeth" sneers at my large collection of fantasy and mythology books.) Even though I learned to love books and especially fantasy on my own, my parents' influence on my thinking is sometimes surprisingly hard to shake when I'm doing my own writing! I'm still learning to think outside the parameters that were established for me so long ago.
You're amazing. Really. I have no idea how difficult it must have been (and still is) for you to overcome the parameters you talk about; all I can say is how impressed I am at the strength and vision that have kept you imagining, despite other pressures. And I hope you now have many, many supportive people in your life.

But as usual I digress...thanks Caitlin for the link to the great interview. I read the whole thing and found it quite interesting. And now I'm even more exicted to read Telling, which arrived from Amazon yesterday! :)
You're very welcome; and hurray! Enjoy the book. :)

[Larry]

Hey again Caitlin,

Just thought I'd say in yet another forum how much I enjoyed doing this interview with you. That reminds me, I think I'm going to extract the questions you asked and present them in a separate thread for the readers at wotmania to answer - sound like an enjoyable thing to read in the near future?

Larry

[Caitlin]

Just thought I'd say in yet another forum how much I enjoyed doing this interview with you.
We're pathetic! :rolleyes:
Seriously: I, too, yet again, will say that yours were the very best interview questions I've yet been asked. They were the last things I thought about before I fell asleep and the first to spring to my muzzy mind when I awoke. So yeah: I'll answer your questions anytime!

That reminds me, I think I'm going to extract the questions you asked and present them in a separate thread for the readers at wotmania to answer - sound like an enjoyable thing to read in the near future?
Yes indeed! You go, you creative guy, you! :D

[Larry]

Well, you did answer the Monkey Question, so I'll give you that ;) Any question, huh? I did seem to forget to ask you the embarassing questions about funny moments with fantasy groupies ;)

And yeah, I just posted your questions...after I had to edit them in - can you say "blond moment"? I knew you could! :p

[Gary Wassner]

You do a great job, Larry. Thanks Caitlin for the insights and the sincerity. I am still anxiously waiting for Telling to arrive. But I now suppose that the delay was fortuitous because I will read your book with more of a sense of where it came from.

Thanks again to both of you.

[Larry]

Thanks Gary! By the way, did you send me an email a few weeks ago? I seem to have somehow lost it, and I've been meaning to email you about that, but school and work has scattered my brain somewhat, so I might have been hallucinating :P If you did, I'm sorry that I haven't replied on time :o

[Gary Wassner]

yes, i believe that i did. but i don't remember now why. I will look through my sent mails. thanks for reminding me.

[alison]

Wow Caitlin, fascinating interview (don't mind me, I'm always late).

I kept thinking, yes, yes, yes. Also, I have to meet this woman one day... :p - there are so many parallels between us. My father was/is a mining engineer, but he does love reading (and fantasy, it was my father's copy of the LOTR that I stole when I first read it), and he too told me Greek myths as bedtime stories - as I worked out later, when I got around to reading them...and I also moved away from fantasy for a long time, rather longer than you, and for similar reasons. And your list of YA influences is practically identical to mine. Hmmm. (Btw, if you haven't read David Almond, have a look - try Heaven Eyes - he's a wonderful writer in the Garner tradition, and I'm sure you would like him).

I also suspect that we have a common concern in the fantasy books, although yours sound very different from mine, in that the power of language/silence is the basis of your magic. I'm now waiting rather impatiently for your book. Alas, here at the bottom of the world, things take ages to arrive...

Miriamele, I know it's small of me, but I still can't help being shocked that there are still people around who think like your parents. It seems so much of another century, even though I know it isn't. All power to your imagination!