Thursday, November 09, 2006

Serials and Scenarios - Oops - The Cubicle Next Door - Siri Mitchell

I gave you a wrong link to Amazon's link to The Cubicle Next Door. I'm sorry. Let's chalk it up to flakiness.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0736917586">The Cubicle Next Door

If you haven't been there yet, what are you waiting for? Go.

Serials and Scenarios - Siri Speaks! The Cubicle Next Door - Part 2

Because I want to get to know the authors I read I ask them sometimes bizarre and sometimes deep questions.

Siri Mitchell played along and below are the things I needed to know and the stuff you probably never realized you needed to know, too.

If you missed the review of Cubicle and her website/Amazon links scroll down to yesterday's post.

Thanks, Siri.


A man and woman sit at a table in an upscale restaurant. They each have a cell phone to their ear. What are you overhearing? Tell me about this couple…..
Well, they’ve got to be Americans, because the French have better sense. If they’re in a restaurant, they’re there to eat. And the Japanese have better manners. These people are totally annoying! I don’t care what I hear. Be in the moment, people! If it’s that important, go back to work. Or break up and find another boyfriend/girlfriend because they’re just not that into you.

What makes you feel most alive?
Fall. I love the colors of autumn leaves and the crisp air. One of my favorite poems is James Whitcomb Riley’s When the Frost is on the Punkin:
http://www.bartleby.com/104/10.html
It pretty much says it all. I used to be able to recite it, but it’s been awhile…


Book, music, person, food you would take with you on a very long trip.
I’d take Claudia Mair Burney in the process of writing another book so that I could read over her shoulder as she typed. It’s fall, so I’m into Harmonia Mundi’s popular French dances of the 16th century. Those medieval/renaissance flutes, pipes, and drums are the soundtrack of the season for me. As for food? As many pints of Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food as I could fit into a climate-controlled suitcase.


Where would you most like to travel ----- moon, north pole, deep seas, deserted island, the holy land or back to a place from your childhood, somewhere else? – and why.
Paris. I can hear my thoughts in Paris and I’ve been inspired to more than one book when I’ve been there…three and counting…


Which compliment related to your writing has meant the most and why?
I’ve had several readers comment that my words have made them think about their faith. If my words can inspire someone to think about their faith, then I feel like I’ve done my work. As Christians, most of the time we’re not taught to think, we’re taught to listen and then regurgitate. The problem with knowing ‘what’ without knowing ‘why’ is that faith grows no roots. The person who thinks about their faith and why they believe what they do is the person who owns their faith.


What criticism has cut the deepest and why?
I actually like criticism because it helps me build better books. I have several readers that write me each time they’ve read one of my books and tell me what they didn’t like. I look forward to receiving their e-mails because they don’t attack me personally and they’ve spent a lot of time thinking not only about what they didn’t like but why they didn’t like it. I’ve learned valuable things from them about writing. I try to make every book better than the last and I learn with every book I write.