Gio Clairval is a multilinguinal, well-travelled, super-smart writer who commutes between Paris and Lake Como. She has blogged as a guest for Jeff VanderMeer (faaaaarrrr more intellectually than I) and her time in Malaysia as a management consultant provided the setting for Sushi for Demons. Watch this space.
- 1. The easiest part of writing is …
Typing.
2. If you could choose to be a fictional character for one day, with no consequences, who would you choose and where would you go?
Straight from my teenage days, I would choose to be Corwin and I would go to Amber. The only female character deserving admiration back then was Angélique, Marquise of Anges, but she lived in a world so incredibly limiting for a woman: 17th-century Roi Soleil’s France–no thanks.
If you could choose to be a fictional character for one day, with no consequences, who would you choose and where would you go?
3. The three essentials of a compelling character are …
a) Motivation; b) conflict; c) oh, zut, did I already say “conflict”? So, if you need a c), I will answer as a _reader_ . Among the various flaws/strengths she has, the character must possess something–a positive or negative quality– that I don’t have and that fascinates me. It can be knowledge, some ability, a particular experience, or a trait of personality I’ve never expressed (and maybe I don’t want to admit to having).
4. If you couldn’t be a writer, what would you do?
I’d like to answer “international adventurer,” but I’ve grown too lazy to run about like that.
Let’s say that, if I couldn’t be writer, I’d be a specimen of the natural subspecies of Homo scribens.
An editor.
5. Donut or danishes?
Danishes. Why do you even have to ask?