1. Is there an author you’d love to meet and why?
That’s a hard one. I generally don’t want to meet folks I admire because
a/ I’m so boring. Why would they want to talk to me?
b/ What if they’re rude, or mean (or smelly????)
Saying that, if Shirley Jackson or Stephen King or Hilary Mantel or Sebastian Barry or John Steinbeck were giving a lecture on writing, I’d be down the back of the class with my furtive little camcorder, hyperventilating like the geeky fan-girl I am.
2. Long hand or computer?
Funny you should ask! To my great surprise, I’m long handing the current WiP.
Poison Throne was almost entirely long handed too (children’s copybooks & biro) but my other four novels were typed into the computer. So it varies, I guess, though I do seem to have developed a preference for typing.
3. Irish mythology or modern Ireland?
To live in or read about? If to live in I’ll take modern Ireland. I like my underground sewage & lack of capricious gods, ta very much. To read, ah sure I’ll read anything me – especially if it has a ghost or a robot, a knight or a cowboy in it.
4. Fave book character?
Changes by the minute, sorry. Though I am perennially fond of Alice (of Through the Looking Glass fame)
5. What hobbies feed your creative soul?
It’s more like what hobbies save me from my creative soul! I need things to drag me out of my own mind and into the living world. Gardening is one of my favorite things. I’ve also recently taken up knitting; what a wonder that’s proved to be. Seriously, knitting is like yoga… or maybe its like heroin… it’s so addictive and relaxing, my mind finally unknots and stress just floats away.
6. Herbal tea, regular tea, or coffee when writing?
Water. A pint of water, two apples and a banana – these are the things I set on my writing desk in advance of a long session. They keep me going.
7. How many books do you read a year?
I have no idea. I detest this new fashion of treating reading like a numbers game. It’s not a competition. Read when you can, and enjoy it – to hell with anything else.
8. Using your answers to questions 2, 4, and 6 make a new sentence.
Alice seems to have developed a preference for capricious gods.
9. What’s the best way to start a fire?
Pile one’s rejection slips on an already smouldering heap of bad reviews…
10. Ask me a question? If a ghost appeared to you now, would you believe it or would you think you were on prank TV?
Oh girl, no! They wouldn’t appear because we have an agreement. I’m not ready to see them yet so they have to surround themselves in blue light and go to someone else who can help them.
Many thanks, Celine.
About Celine Kiernan
Twitter Bio: Award winning author, cynical optimist and social media sloth. Can’t spell – get used to it.
Celine Kiernan is an award-winning author of fantasy novels for young adults, and is represented by Mulcahy Associates, London. Her critically acclaimed work combines fantasy elements with the exploration of political, humanitarian and philosophical themes.
Celine’s fourth novel, Into the Grey (aka Taken Away) – a YA ghost story set in 1970′s Ireland – won the 2012 CBI Book of the Year (formerly The Bisto award) and the CBI Children’s Choice Award. It is the first book to have won both categories. It won the RAI Book of the Year 2013, and has been shortlisted for the Sakura Medal (English High) 2014. In 2013 the Irish Times named it as one of the best children’s books of the past 25 years. It was listed An American Library Association (ALA) Best Fiction for Young Adults title 2015.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, 1967, Celine has spent the majority of her working life in the film business, and her career as a classical feature character animator spanned over seventeen years, before she became a full-time writer.
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