Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Proust Questionnaire, Kidlit Edition, round 9

Fifty kidlit authors and illustrators answer a Vanity Fair-style Proust Questionnaire (i.e. short to read, long on insight). Same 10 questions for all (plus, for some, a wild card 11th of their choosing.) The series intro explains more and lists the participants.

Here are the next five:

Andrew Smith


What is the trait you most admire in others?

Knee-jerk judgmentalism and unquestioning loyalty to mass movements for which identity is fed to hashtags.

What is your greatest strength?

Run-on sentences. And fragments. Yeah, fragments.

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

I give really short answers on panel discussions.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

I remained an American citizen from January 2001 to January 2009.

What is your greatest extravagance?

I have two kids in universities.

What is your most treasured possession?

I have a pack of cigarettes I got from Ronald Reagan.

What was your big break?

Successfully respirating at birth. Everything after that is completely overrated.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

See above.

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

With acid: Panda Bear; without acid: Jim Nabors.

What is your motto?

“A gun is not a toy. All sales final.”

WILD CARD: If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

The mother****ing Loch Ness Monster.

Tanya Lee Stone


What is the trait you most admire in others?

The ability to get sh** done.

What is your greatest strength?

Perseverance.

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

Optimism.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

Childbirth—no meds.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Watching General Hospital.

What is your most treasured possession?

Two Maurice Sendak originals.

What was your big break?

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Speaking my truth.

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

Harry Connick Jr.

What is your motto?

“Right foot, left foot.”

Lauren Tarshis


What is the trait you most admire in others?

Kindness.

What is your greatest strength?

Interest in other people.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

Recently I stood up to a train conductor who was loudly and rudely harassing a woman and her daughter.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Taking trips with my husband and four kids.

What is your most treasured possession?

The clay bowls and creatures that my kids have made in elementary school. I keep my favorites on my desk.

What was your big break?

Getting my job on Storyworks, which led me into the world of children’s books.

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

I have a terrible voice but I believe that one thing my life is missing is singing. I have been trying to get some of my friends to have a hootenanny, but there are few takers.

What is your motto?

“It’s never too late.”

Chris Tebbetts


What is the trait you most admire in others?

This will sound pretentious, but—an ability to understand, and to live by an understanding of, the intersection between the personal and the collective experience.

What is your greatest strength?

It’s a tie: my patience and my sense of humor.

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

Steadiness.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

Generally by being called upon without advance notice.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Travel.

What is your most treasured possession?

My hard drive. I have plenty of stuff, but I’m not too attached or sentimental that way.

What was your big break?

James Patterson came looking for co-authors and knocked on the right door.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

At the risk of jinxing myself—a good marriage.

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

Jennifer Hudson. (Filed under “Go Big or Go Home.”)

What is your motto?

“Talent, luck, and persistence.”

WILD CARD: When and where were you happiest?

Somewhere (anywhere) in the water.

Terry Trueman


What is the trait you most admire in others?

Kindness.

What is your greatest strength?

Kindness.

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

Being witty/smart.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

When my beloved stepson killed himself (hanging himself from the deck of our home), I cut him down and did CPR until the cops/paramedics arrived, then I had to tell his mom he was gone. I wrote about this is a circuitous way in my novels Inside Out and No Right Turn. Very rough day.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Autographed book collecting.

What is your most treasured possession?

A limited edition Bukowski signed It Catches My Heart in Its Hands or my 1998 red C5 gen Corvette; hard to say which one I treasure more, although certain photos, documents, etc., I’d save first in a fire, so it’s safe to say I treasure a lot of stuff.

What was your big break?

Hmmm? There were quite a few parts/moments, but I spoze winning a Printz Honor Book award right outta the gate with my first novel Stuck in Neutral was the biggest break, although without having met and become friends/colleagues with Terry Davis, George Nicholson, and Toni Markiet, that book would never have existed.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

I’m hard-pressed to think of any one thing, but publishing
Stuck in Neutral was huge (see above).

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

At this particular moment, Paul McCartney because I’m going through a deep Beatles phase…again…

What is your motto?

I have several but one I find myself saying a lot is, “Every couple cuts their deal,” which is tied to how difficult it can be to make a relationship work well.

WILD CARD: I’ll make up a question: What do you see as the greatest value of interviews?

Getting to pretend I’m some kind of hot sh** that anyone would/could/should care about. Yayyyy me!

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