This feature is a series of questions and answers but with a difference, each month I’ll be publishing the answers from lots of authors to just one question. The questions are mainly book, writing or publishing related but they are meant to be fun!
This month the question is “What’s the best question you’ve been asked on a panel?”
Chris Whitaker: I was asked about a certain character in Tall Oaks and the question contained a HUGE spoiler. I found it hilarious, though the lady looked mortified when she realised.
Elizabeth Haynes: ‘If you could go back to your childhood self and tell her what lies ahead, what advice would you give her?’ I liked that one very much.
Lilja Sigurðardóttir: ‘How do you like French bread?’ I got this question in a literature panel in France, obviously.
Steven Dunne: It was about my search history. In A Killing Moon, Brook is presented with a victim whose body has been burned and one of the little factoids I wanted to research was about the boiling point of an eyeball.
Barbara Nadel: There have been a lot over the years but I can’t recall one particular example.
Mari Hannah: ‘Why did you make Kate Daniels a lesbian?’!
Cath Staincliffe: ‘Don’t you get bored, Miss?’ (From a pupil on a school visit rather than a panel).
Phoebe Locke: Which of the characters from The Tall Man I’d most like to go on holiday with – the answer is not many of them! I went for Greta, the documentary film-maker from the book, in the end – she seemed the least likely to be bringing any unwanted supernatural baggage with her!
Hanna Jameson: I genuinely can’t recall anything I’ve been asked so it’s possible I’ve never been asked anything very interesting.
David Jackson: ‘Aren’t you the guy who plays Jimmy Perez in the Shetland series?’
Nick Quantrill: Probably something about Hull, but now we’ve held the title of UK City of Culture, we’re not a secret enclave in the middle of nowhere…
V M Giambanco: ‘Why do you write crime fiction?’ It’s a pretty straightforward question but the answer changes every time.
Simon Booker: I’m always asked, ‘where do you get your ideas?’ Answer: Waitrose.
Susi Holliday: ‘Which murderous character would you go on a date with?’ (Patrick Bateman)
Mark Edwards: I can’t remember a single question I’ve ever been asked on a panel!
Anna Mazzola: ‘What is the best way to kill someone?’
Quentin Bates: ‘How did you learn to speak Danish so well?’
Fergus McNeill: At one event, an old lady stood up in the audience and asked me “When will you stop being so MEAN to that lovely Detective Harland? He’s gone through so much…”
Rachel Amphlett: ‘Why are you independently published, not traditional?’
Novel Heights 