Q&A With Michael Grant

Harper Teen’s 28 Day Giveaway stops here today with a Q&A with author Michael Grant. Be sure to visit http://www.28daygiveaway.com/book/15 for a chance to win Hunger, 2nd in the Gone Series. Lies, 3rd in the series, will release this May.

1. How do you escape the bleak months of winter in Southern California?

You think you’re kidding, but the other day I was forced to put on a sweater. That’s right: a sweater! We go out to eat fairly often, and sometimes the chill becomes so unbearable that the heat lamps on the restaurant patios aren’t enough and we’re forced to eat inside. Plus there are times when I gaze up through the palm trees and the neighbor’s lemon tree and see actual clouds. I know! The horror!

2. If you really did like snow and ice, where would you live and why?

We used to live in Portland, Maine, and in Minneapolis, and we lived for five years in Chicago. All were cold and I enjoyed all three places. But I feel like I am just done with cold now. I kind of hate cold, and I hate gloomy, overcast skies. But I guess if I liked all that misery I’d live in northern Sweden or Norway so I could see the northern lights. I’ve never seen the aurora borealis and I really want to.

3. What’s your favorite book to escape with?

That’s a good question, and very different from asking what my favorite book is. For escape I read Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series. It’s about the Royal Navy in the early 1800’s. You’ve got ships, ocean, heavy meals, gruesome surgery, little bits of romance, lots of humor, and plenty of guys getting their legs blown off by cannon shells. What’s not to like about that?

4. Tell us one really embarrassing thing about yourself and tie it into winter.

For a while in Minneapolis I wore a giant beaver fur hat. I have a ginormous head—like XXL, seriously, because of all that extra brain—so the hat was equally ginormous. (I think an entire family of beavers had to give their lives for that hat.) Since I’m already fairly tall, the hat raised me to about seven feet. Children would see me, scream, and flee. I would walk into coffee shops and sudden silence would descend on the room. Somehow the sight of me with that monstrous hat was enough to strike fear into the hearts of some pretty hardy Minnesotans.

5. Help us look past winter and think of spring.

How about Easter eggs? There are a number of “Easter eggs” in the Gone map. Trotter’s Ridge, Lake Tramonto, and Achatz River are all named for Chicago chefs. The Stefano Rey national park is the Stephen King national park in English. There’s a Santa Elissa island for the Harper editor, Elise Howard, who acquired Gone, and San Francisco De Sales island is named for the patron saint of writers.

Thanks to Michael Grant, and Harper Teen for hosting the 28 Day Giveaway! Click on the widget below to check out their home page and today’s giveaway and access to all of the other featured books this month.