1. Jasper, if you look in the mirror and into your own soul, what would you see?

2. If you had a time machine like H.G. Wells' to which time(s) and place(s) you would travel and what would you you do there?

3. What do you think are the most difficult and most enjoyable things about writing?

4. What is the thing that makes a book very special for you?

5: What are you currently reading?




1. Jasper, if you look in the mirror and into your own soul, what would you see?

An eight-year-old trying to be noticed. (this reply is true of everyone, almost without exception)

2. If you had a time machine like H.G. Wells' to which time(s) and place(s) you would travel and what would you you do there?

Ah! the 'Time Tourist' conjecture. Well, in no particular order: Being with Howard Carter as he opened the tomb of Tutankhamen (1922, Valley of the Kings); The signing of the Magna Carta (Runymede, 1215); Paganini performing a concert; The first flight of the Wright Brothers, (Kittyhawk, 1903); the return of the first Mars manned mission, (Sea of Tranquillity Spaceport, 2062); watching a meteor hit the earth 72 million years ago; observing Michaelangelo paint the ceiling of the Cistine chapel in the Vatican; Mozart conducting the premier of 'The Magic Flute'; being a passenger on the first Zeppelin round-the-world flight; listening to Edgar Allen Poe reciting 'The Raven', (Baltimore, 1846); attending the Schneider Trophy races, (The Solent, UK, 1932); opening night of Hamlet, (Globe Theatre, 1601); the signing of the Eurasia/Americas/AfroMidEast/Oceania peace accord, (Istanbul, 2351); seeing James Stewart perform 'Harvey' live, (Broadway,1954); the construction of Chartres Cathedral, (Chartres, France, 1272); The independence celebrations on Io, 3217; listening to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysberg address; The lighting of the world's first industrial Fusion reactor, (Bern, 2027); witnessing Martin Luther King's 'I have a Dream' speech; watching the Beatles live at the cavern; Mahatma Winston Smith al Wazeed's historic speech to the citizens of the World State at Europolis in 3419; the launching of Brunel's giant steamship 'The Great Eastern' (London, 1851); the list goes on and on...

3. What do you think are the most difficult and most enjoyable things about writing?

The most difficult things about writing are the folowing: Sitting in front of a typewriter or computer screen and knowing that the rubbish staring back at you will be vaguely usable after a month's solid work; thinking up a really good idea only to find it's already been used to death after you've published; avoiding wasting time looking on eBay for things you really don't need; dealing with producers who want to option your work but can't take NO for an answer; wanting to answer every email and go to every requested appearance but knowing I can't physically do it; the realisation post-publication that there was a way to improve the book after all; the fact that you have to stop tinkering eventually and hand it over to your publishers; that I will never write anything as funny as 'Three men in a boat', nor as powerful as 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' or as original as 'Alice in Wonderland' or as beautiful as 'The Little Prince'; that try as you might the copyeditor will always find glaring errors no matter how hard you try and that the book will never be perfect, nor even close.

The most easy and enjoyable things about writng are as follows: You can write anywhere you want; the only limit to your book is the power of your own imagination; that you are carrying on a tradition of storytelling that is even older than the oldest profession; you are your own boss; you work from home; you have time to search eBay for all those things you found you needed after all: you can watch movies in the daytime and write it down to research: you can act really weird and no-one seems to mind; you get to meet other more talented writers and speak to them on a one-to-one; you can entertain people; you get to travel; no fixed work hours; you get to play god in your own books; if you don't like someone you can lampoon them in the next novel; best of all, you are doing something you really enjoy.

4. What is the thing that makes a book very special for you?

A good story well told, obviously. But to make a book special I think you have to grow up with it or to have discovered it at a very early age.

My particular favourite are the two 'Alice' Books by Lewis Carroll. These appealed to my sense of humour when I was about ten and still do - but since I have grown up with them they have a 'factor X' that seperates them from other books; a familiarity that no recently discovered book could ever have. One's formative years, I believe, forge links with people, places, objects, stories and pursuits that last a lifetime. Of all the things that interest me (and many things do) I still have an inordinate fondness for the riches I first discovered in my childhood.

5: What are you currently reading? I always have at least four or five books on the go at any one time. I am currently reading or dipping in to: 'The Sceptics Dictionary' edited by Robert Todd Carroll (Mankind's overwhelming capacity for self-delusion is always fascinating) 'Inside the Sky' by William Langewiesche) (an excellent aviation book; I always have at least one of these on the go at any time) 'A short History of almost everything' by Bill Bryson, The Book of the 'Ig Nobel' awards for bad science; 'Flashman at the Charge' by George McDonald Fraser, (excellent fun. I am working my way through the series), 'The Eyre Affair' by Jasper Fforde (to make sure there are no continuity errors in book four: 'Something Rotten'.)



Questions set by Susanne Kasper for www.literaturschock.de

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