Q&A with Elspeth Cooper discussion

Dog or cat? Tea or coffee? Sweet popcorn or salty? This is the place to ask...

Anything at all? Hmmmm...

;-)

Hi Ellie! Thanks for the invite. Hope you're OK.

Welcome! I am very well, thanks - you too, I hope?

Hello! Is it okay if I call you Ellie?

I am kinda curious about the dog or cat, being a cat person myself XD

Of course you may! Cat person here too: currently have two.

What are their names? I'm always curious when it comes to cute kitties XD

Aleksander wrote: "What are their names? I'm always curious when it comes to cute kitties XD"

Don't laugh: Tigger and Tinkerbell. We adopted them from the local shelter, and those were the names they'd had since kittenhood so we hadn't the heart to change them.

And yes, I will stand on the doorstep at midnight and shout for them. I have no shame.

Rebecca wrote: "two cats here, as well! Rescue kitties! Complete pains in the neck! :-D"

All my cats bar 2 have been shelter kitties.

My brother and I have four cats, all adopted from kittens! We wanted to get a ginger one for our last one and call it Gair but it seems all you can get where we live are hordes of black cats XD

Aleksander wrote: "We wanted to get a ginger one for our last one and call it Gair"

Ladies and gentlemen, my No. 1 fans... ;o)

Haha we are kinda crazy impatient about the next book XD

Aleksander wrote: "Haha we are kinda crazy impatient about the next book XD"

Two months and it will be yours...

Sean wrote: "Sweet popcorn or salty then? I like salty, but the quality of the stuff in cinemas is terrible nowadays."

Sweet - salty makes me too thirsty!

Of all the foreign and domestic editions of Songs, which is your favourite cover--and why?

Leo Elijah wrote: "Of all the foreign and domestic editions of Songs, which is your favourite cover--and why?"

Good question - although it's a bit like asking which of my kids I like best!

I'll always have a soft spot for the UK cover (especially the shiny twiddly bits on the trade paperback) because it's my firstborn, as it were. The French cover connects quite strongly with the themes of the natural world that permeate the whole book, whereas the Spanish cover artist chose to focus on one dramatic scene. But I think if I absolutely *had* to pick a favourite, it would be the German cover, by a whisker. It's very atmospheric, with a subdued, misty colour palette, and there's a hail-and-farewell vibe about the figure holding the staff aloft. Plus the longer you look at it, the more detail you see, which makes you feel like you're stepping into the painting.

Which is your favourite?

The Spanish cover is really nice, and the German cover is pretty atmospheric. I, like you, really like the UK edition, entirely because it was the first -- and for now, is the only one I own! -- but my favourite is the Dutch version.

It's a lovely, lovely cover.

I'd have to agree with my brother when it comes to the Dutch cover! It's such a lovely cover.

I'm not too keen on the Spanish one however... It doesn't seem to really reflect the book, if that makes any sense. The UK one is great too, but I still can't see Gair as the man on the front cover, and I have a soft spot for the French one,

Aleksander wrote: "I still can't see Gair as the man on the front cover"

Does any reader ever think the guy on the cover looks like the guy on the page? I give very bare-bones physical description of my characters because I'd rather the reader built up their own picture of them from a few broad strokes. Besides, I'm more interested in what's going on behind their faces.

P.S. I also think the Dutch cover is lovely - its mood makes me think of the scene where Gair looks back at Dremen as he's leaving.

I can think of a couple of books where the guy on the front ended up being the guy in the book lol.

But the Gair on the cover just didn't seem... handsome and shaven enough for how I saw him XD

Yep, the guy who posed for the cover shots had a goatee, and Gair is clean-shaven, but he captured the about-to-come-up-swinging look we wanted - and is much better looking in real life ;o)

Oh, and just for the record, Gair as I envisage him isn't particularly good-looking: he's a bit too bleak and hawkish to be pretty, but you'd certainly remember his face. You, of course, as a reader, are free to make him as gorgeous as you please.

I seem to have put a few cats among the pigeons on a few other threads here by suggesting that it is perfectly fine to skip dull descriptive chunks in books if as a reader that is what you feel like doing. I also advocate picking a character and following their 'thread' if a book feels like hard going - and then following another character and then reading the whole thing if you would like to tackle it that way. I've done that for some books - not yours I hasten to add.

This has been greeted with passionate responses of the order of 'you might as well not read a book at all if you are going to skip bits' and 'you should only read a book the way the author intended it to be read.'

I have this wild belief that most authors would be very pleased if somebody buys their book in the first place and would not mind if a reader chooses to enjoy it in their own way and would prefer they enjoy it somehow than not at all.

Would it break your heart if somebody skipped bits on their first read through of your books?

Once someone buys my book I have zero right to tell them how to read it. To do otherwise would be like Cadbury expecting to have the right to tell us how to eat a Creme Egg.

Obviously I would like the reader to read every word in the order in which I put them on the page, because that's the way it makes most sense to me, and I'd be fibbing if I said I could completely understand why anyone would want to do it differently, but they are entirely free to read a book in whatever way suits them. It's the act of reading that's the important part - an "I may not agree with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it" sort of thing.

So no, it wouldn't break my heart if they skipped a bit or read story arcs out of sequence as long as they enjoyed the book overall. If they didn't enjoy it, well, it would be unrealistic to assume everyone would, so I'd be disappointed, naturally, but them's the breaks. There are people in this world who don't like chocolate, either.

Elspeth wrote: "Once someone buys my book I have zero right to tell them how to read it. To do otherwise would be like Cadbury expecting to have the right to tell us how to eat a Creme Egg.

Obviously I would like..."

Thanks for the reply - most interesting to have your perspective.