Gail Carriger, the New York Times bestselling author of the Parasol Protectorate and the Finishing School series, questions Kate Elliott about THE VERY BEST OF KATE ELLIOTT, tea, sanity, and other writerly pursuits.

Tea or coffee and how do you take it?
Tea. English Breakfast or Chai, with milk and one teaspoon of sugar.

Describe your personal style for author appearances.
I would like to say sporty chic but I think that is an oxymoron. I aim for neat and presentable in clean, attractive, well-cut clothing that, in the event of a sudden zombie attack or alien invasion, would not impede my mobility.

<snip>

Which one of your characters would you most want to kiss and why?
This is a particularly interesting question because there is a difference between the “me” who channels a character as I write them (and who therefore wants to kiss all the people the character wants to kiss) and the “me” who is the me right here typing this whose views are rather different from those of my infatuated characters. 

Answering it is made doubly difficult because this is a short fiction collection, not a novel. I do think I emphasize love stories in my novels more than in my short fiction. In the case of this story collection I will choose two: A motherly kiss for the traumatized children in “The Memory of Peace,” and a very different sort of kiss for the husband of the main character, Anna, in the story “Leaf and Branch and Grass and Vine,” because it is clear he is the kind of man who knows how to expression his appreciation and love.

Check out the rest of the entertaining and insightful interview at Carriger’s eponymous blog.

For more on THE VERY BEST OF KATE ELLIOTT, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Julie Dillon.

Design by Elizabeth Story.