To celebrate World Book Day on March 7th, a huge book tour was organised. As part of the World Book Day virtual tour I got to interview Will Hill, author of the Department 19 series.
1) What is your most favourite thing about being an author?
My favourite part is luckily what I get to spend most of my time doing - making things up and writing them down, to quote Neil Gaiman. It's genuinely exciting when a new idea presents itself and I realise it might be a good one, or when I write a scene and read it through and realise it has done what I wanted it to do. The most challenging is when I get towards the end of a book and realise that if it doesn't all fit together, if it doesn't work, that I'm going to have a pretty big problem on my hands.
2) Does being an author live up to the way you thought it would be before you were published? Absolutely - if anything it has exceeded my expectations. You can never really prepare for how amazing it is to see your first cover design, or how it feels to hold the first finished copy of a novel that you wrote. But beyond all that, what nobody tells you is how many awesome people you get to meet - other authors, publishers, and, most importantly, readers. There is nothing better than someone you've never met telling you they spent their time reading your words, and it's (obviously) even better if they tell you they liked them! But even if they didn't, it's still a deeply humbling experience.
3) How many books will be in the Department 19 series and what do you plan to write about when it finishes?
There are two more books to come, so my first non-D19 book probably won't be out until 2016. What it will be, I'm not exactly sure just yet - I've got an SF horror that I'm really excited about and have started doing some of the planning for, as well as a story about a religious cult that keeps coming back to me time and again...
4) What is the strangest question you have ever been asked at a book event? There have been so many - what's my favourite cheese (I hate cheese), have I ever met Rihanna (no), do I ever work in my pyjamas (yes), am I any good at football (no). But the most unexpected came from a year 9 boy at a school in Bristol: "What are your thoughts on the involvement of western ground troops in Syria?" I tried my best to give him a good answer, but I'm really not sure I managed it.
5) Who is your favourite author?
I can't pick just one, I'm afraid - Roald Dahl, Stephen King, Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt, Philip Pullman, JK Rowling, Jonathan Lethem, Patrick Ness, Neil Gaiman, to name just a few...
My favourite part is luckily what I get to spend most of my time doing - making things up and writing them down, to quote Neil Gaiman. It's genuinely exciting when a new idea presents itself and I realise it might be a good one, or when I write a scene and read it through and realise it has done what I wanted it to do. The most challenging is when I get towards the end of a book and realise that if it doesn't all fit together, if it doesn't work, that I'm going to have a pretty big problem on my hands.
2) Does being an author live up to the way you thought it would be before you were published? Absolutely - if anything it has exceeded my expectations. You can never really prepare for how amazing it is to see your first cover design, or how it feels to hold the first finished copy of a novel that you wrote. But beyond all that, what nobody tells you is how many awesome people you get to meet - other authors, publishers, and, most importantly, readers. There is nothing better than someone you've never met telling you they spent their time reading your words, and it's (obviously) even better if they tell you they liked them! But even if they didn't, it's still a deeply humbling experience.
3) How many books will be in the Department 19 series and what do you plan to write about when it finishes?
There are two more books to come, so my first non-D19 book probably won't be out until 2016. What it will be, I'm not exactly sure just yet - I've got an SF horror that I'm really excited about and have started doing some of the planning for, as well as a story about a religious cult that keeps coming back to me time and again...
4) What is the strangest question you have ever been asked at a book event? There have been so many - what's my favourite cheese (I hate cheese), have I ever met Rihanna (no), do I ever work in my pyjamas (yes), am I any good at football (no). But the most unexpected came from a year 9 boy at a school in Bristol: "What are your thoughts on the involvement of western ground troops in Syria?" I tried my best to give him a good answer, but I'm really not sure I managed it.
5) Who is your favourite author?
I can't pick just one, I'm afraid - Roald Dahl, Stephen King, Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt, Philip Pullman, JK Rowling, Jonathan Lethem, Patrick Ness, Neil Gaiman, to name just a few...
Department 19 and Department 19 – The Rising are already available to buy and are published by HarperCollins. Department 19 – Battle Lines is published later this year.
To find out more about Will Hill:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.