One young lad put up his hand and asked ‘Mr Colfer, do you have a girlfriend?’ Everyone rolled around the place laughing. ‘I have something even better,’ Eoin said. ‘I have a lovely wife.’ Then Eoin said it was one of the funniest questions he’d ever been asked.
It got me thinking about questions and what was the funniest question I’d ever been asked at a book event. There are a few that stand out.
1/ What’s your favourite type of cheese?
This was asked by a boy (always the boys!) at a school event in Cork.
And my answer was: Emmenthal
2/ What’s your favourite kind of tractor? Yes, a boy again – this time from Carlow.
And my answer was: A John Deere – he liked this answer as his dad had one!
But the question I am most often asked is this:
3/ Where do you get your ideas?
It’s a very hard question to answer. Ideas come from all over the place – memories, old diaries, travelling, things that have happened to me, good or bad, books, movies, songs, sunsets . . . I could go on. When I turn the tables and ask the audience the very same question they mostly say ‘My head’, which is also a good answer!
So a question to all the writers out there – what’s the funniest or strangest question that YOU have ever been asked at a book event?
And readers – if you could ask a writer ANY question at all, what would it be?
Yours in books,
Sarah XXX
PS The YOUNG EDITOR Competition has just opened - if you’d like to get involved in working on my next Ask Amy Green book with me, Wedding Belles do enter!
