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Post by Chris Wooding on Jan 24, 2007 16:12:01 GMT -5
Well I almost always work in a cafe and so there's always music on. I guess I just zone out. But when it comes music I like I have to know the album really well or I end up listening to the music instead of working.
Your guess is as good as mine!
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valca
Full Member
Layer 18
Posts: 203
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Post by valca on Jan 24, 2007 19:01:16 GMT -5
Which authors do you read?
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Post by zemira on Jan 24, 2007 19:11:29 GMT -5
Around what year did Alaizabel Cray take place in? (Can you tell that that is my favorite book? Really, you can't? Wow.) 1880-1901 is my estimation.
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riven
Full Member
Wyvern Master
Posts: 157
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Post by riven on Jan 24, 2007 19:23:36 GMT -5
Boo no English.
Are we annoying you?
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Post by nicholai441 on Jan 25, 2007 3:31:36 GMT -5
Here's a question that will show how enigmatic(is that how you spell that?) and weird i am: How does you brain worK? (to be more specific): what do you think about when you travel or in general? (more more specific ) When working on a project (or projects), how many times a day would you think of it/them? when you do think of it/them, do you put yourself in the story / imagine yourself as one of the characters? should have done this a long time ago.. I really like your books. out of all the storys i've read (not much), yours has kept me wanting to read more, and sticks in my mind for a very long time. i can stop in the middle of a page and instantly find where i left off (after reading a few lines). I can't really do that with other authers. so, in short. your the best auther i have ever read. (and that's pure 100% fact.) not that it can really be proven.. unless i was tested on your book as well as another book i was reading (for class). however.. that still wouldn't prove my honesty.. oh... sorry, i have a habit of typing what i am thinking when i think about what i am typing about. sort of like thinking out load. oh, another question that i remembered: have you ever based a character on someone you know/knew? maybe by using their name(s), or based the character(s) personality/ies on how you saw that person/people you know?
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Post by bluephoenix on Jan 26, 2007 11:31:40 GMT -5
waa!!! how can you manage to live off it so easily! (that's not a question you have to answer by the way) But, how many books did you have out and how many were selling? (to give me an idea of what to shoot for...) Also, any good advice for ignoriong distractions? That's my number one problem with writing is that even if I realy love the story I get too easily distracted....
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Tama
Full Member
Posts: 173
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Post by Tama on Jan 26, 2007 16:06:54 GMT -5
What's the weather like in Madrid? It's awful here...
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Post by Chris Wooding on Jan 28, 2007 6:07:18 GMT -5
Um, lots! I tend to read books rather than authors tho, by which I mean I'll read a book or a series by someone if I like it but I won't necessarily then go and buy other books by them. Now that I actually write that, it seems a little strange... I suppose I read what I feel like at the time. When I was younger I only read fantasy/SF/horror but now I don't read it half so much because I'm horribly jaded I used to read tons of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Orson Scott Card, Terry Brooks, Tolkien obviously, that kind of thing. Nowadays I just read anything that catches my interest. The last really original SF/Fantasy/notreallyeither author I read was China Mieville, who I recommend to everyone. At the mo am reading The Magus by John Fowles, which is supoib, like The Collector before it. Before that I was reading San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin (IIRC) which is all about the history of San Francisco and the depressingly familiar rape-of-the-earth, rich-guys-control-everything story that went with it. And before that it was Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr, a children's story from the 50's or 60's, can't remember, but it blows most modern kids' fic out of the water. Very long-winded and vague answer, sorry! *SPOILERS* No specific year since it's an alternate history that's gone right off the tracks. I bent history a fair bit. IIRC (and I may not, since it's been years and I don't have a copy of Alaizabel to hand) the wych-kin came when London was bombed by zeppelins after England tried to intervene in the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71); but in RL the first zeppelin flight wasn't till 1900. Can't remember how long after that the story takes place, but your estimation is about right in my screwed-up little timeline. Will answer more later, gotta run...
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marleen
Full Member
Wazowski!
Posts: 122
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Post by marleen on Jan 29, 2007 1:58:27 GMT -5
Oh yeah. China Mieville. I read "King Rat", and it freaked me out.
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Post by bluephoenix on Jan 29, 2007 11:05:08 GMT -5
about the first answer you're the only author whose books I pick up for the author's name. When I was little I liked a lot of Llyod Alexander but I wasn't to the point of reading everything of his I could grab. Your books however....yeah...I'm obsessed. (with the books, not you...maybe)
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Post by nicholai441 on Jan 30, 2007 17:09:28 GMT -5
here's another weird question: out of all your characters, who do you relate to the most? or um.. what charcter(s) relate to you the most?
oh, and um.. do you have a myspace? if not have you thought or planned on making one?
is there anywhere you haven't been that you hope to go to someday?
what are your thoughts about giant mech stories, and then giant mech with fantasy stories.
which of your books is your favorite (incase it's changed since the last time you answered this.. if you have)?
i notice you like anime.. what is your favorite anime(s) so far?
when thinking up a story, do you have fellow authers that you throw your ideas around with? (supposedly like Tolken and c.s lewis (perhaps others) used to do)
what is an authers life style? more specific... what is it like in a day (or week if day is not long enough) of your life (i think i typed that correctly-i hope i did-)?
I'm dyslexic.. do you have any disabilities?
if i ask anything too personal.. sorry.
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Post by Chris Wooding on Feb 2, 2007 14:14:44 GMT -5
Ok, few more, am on the run again... Um, honestly I can't answer any of those questions. I have no idea. I think about tons of things in general; doesn't everyone? And I don't count how many times a day I think of something. Stuff just happens and stuff. No, I'm always watching it as if it was a movie. Aw, I'm blushing. Thank you. (ps and as a general shout to everyone else who's said nice things about me on this board, cos I don't get time to respond to all of them. Thanks! I do appreciate your support CRASHING was based on me and my friends when we were 16, but I mixed up personalities and physical characteristics so it wasn't too obvious. Other than that I don't think I ever have. Oh, but Mishani was physically based on a girl I knew, I guess. That's it. Lots Seriously, I don't know. And it's complicated. There's a whole system of advances, paying-back-advances, royalties, international advances & royalties, and the fact that it takes a long time for money to work its way back to you. Plus you're always writing at 18 months to a year ahead of actual publication date. I was living off being a writer when I was 21 and only CRASHING had come out by that time, I think, which was hardly a bestseller by anyone's standards; but then when you're 21, you get your clothes out of a dumpster and you live on Veggy-Sausage-and-Pasta'n'Sauce sandwiches you don't need a great deal of money. Go somewhere where you can't get to the internet and you can't easily go home and muck about. That's why I work in cafes. There's nothing to do but write and get loaded on coffee. *looks out of window* Dark. Haven't read KR but I read all his New Crobuzon books so far. Gotta love that guy's originality! Yay! ;D
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Post by shyviolet on Feb 3, 2007 4:59:18 GMT -5
I've got one that might seem a bit odd; when you get new ideas for a book, do you ever start working on one and then find it's turning out too similar to one you've used before?
If so, do you scrap it and start again, re-work it or use it anyway as-is? Given that none of your books are glaringly similar I'd assume not the latter, but still...
This one is just idle curiosity, but when you said a load of psychos mailed you before, were they actual kill-you type psychopaths, or just particularly rabid fans?
P.S. not a question, but must be said: Your gift for visual description is amazing! I often like to do illustrations for my favourite books, and yours are the only ones where I don't have to sit and think about what it should look like, the images just pop! I bow to your skill *bows*.
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Post by bluephoenix on Feb 3, 2007 23:06:48 GMT -5
but I don;t like coffee....I guess I'll just sip my hot cocoa. Plus, I'll need a working laptop. One holds about half-an-hours charge and may or may not be able to transfer data (it's a '95...yeah, it should be dead....I don't know how it still works) and the other I can't make hold a charge. anyway, don't wanna hear me talk, here's a question: Will you ever do a tour of the USA again? If you did I would drive any amount of time to get wherever you are. and, you're welcome for all the praise, you deserve every bit of it.
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Post by moonlighthuntres48 on Feb 4, 2007 0:16:45 GMT -5
Chris, or anyone really, do you know where i could go to find some Alaizabel Fan Fiction, and i am so sorry about the double posting, i'm still alittle new to this, and if i did anything eles, my bad.
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