Here is your SBBT schedule for today:

Laura Ruby at Miss Erin: "My favorite thing about being a writer is when you're sitting at your desk, staring out the window, trying desperately to figure out what comes next and questioning your own sanity, when you suddenly have an idea. You think YES! MONKEYS! I must have MONKEYS! And then you do. It's fabulous."

Bennett Madison at Shaken & Stirred: "I wish I had been allowed to have drugs in Lulu. In the first Lulu book, Berlin Silver was supposed to die from some kind of ecstasy freak-out, but my editors wouldn't allow it. They wanted her to be struck by lightning instead, but I thought that seemed too absurd even for Lulu. So we compromised on an allergic reaction to pork rinds, which is unlikely but at least kind of amusing."

Shaun Tan at A Fuse #8 Production: "It's also interesting to note that U.S. publishers seemed reluctant to take my books because they were difficult to categorize, difficult to market, and sometimes not entirely suitable for young children."

Chris Crutcher at Bookshelves of Doom: Pet Peeve: "Publishing companies who pay five times my advance for a book written by a first time author with no proven track record who is also, say, the daughter of the President of the good ol' USA, who himself is something less than a wordsmith."

Holly Black at The YA YA YAs: "Snape is totally redeemed! But as for other predictions, I have no idea. I don’t think Harry is going to die, but if he does, I hope he doesn’t just fall behind some curtain. If anybody else dies in that series, I want to see a body."

Kazu Kibuishi at Finding Wonderland: "When we started, I had saved about fifteen thousand dollars to print the book myself, but when we decided to produce it in color, I realized my budget was too small and that I would have to pitch the book to a publisher. So instead, I quit my job and lived off the savings while looking for a publisher or more funding to get the book into print."

Christopher Golden at Bildungsroman: " As for the story itself, it concerns a young soldier named Henry Baltimore (soon to be Lord Baltimore) and his encounter with a vampiric creature amidst the carnage of a war torn battle field, and what becomes of both soldier and monster as a result of that fateful meeting. "

Kirsten Miller at Jen Robinson's Book Page: "I went straight from Dr. Seuss to the Amityville Horror. It was only later (when I was in my early teens) that I went back and gobbled up all the children’s classics and realized what I’d been missing."

Sara Zarr at Big A, little a: "The forgiveness and redemption aspects seem to be part of my writer's DNA---they keep coming up in everything I do; I don't know if I could stop them if I tried."

Sonya Hartnett at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast : "But I do remember the feelings of childhood: I remember how it felt to flounder so helplessly in a world that was impossible to understand or control; I remember the terror that small disasters, like lost library books, inspired in me; I remember the shattering loneliness of losing a best friend. I remember, too, the great simple pleasures of being a kid: riding a bike on a newly-made road, eating ice cream and chocolate topping, watching the morning cartoons in a silent house, my feet up on the heater."

If you haven't heard of Shaun Tan prior to the interview today, then do check out his books. The Rabbits is one of the most amazing books I've ever read about colonialism - and it's a picture book with animals! Tan's illustrations are literally breath taking and John Marsden's story will tear you apart. This is the kind of book I prop up on my shelf so I can look at it everyday - a feast for the eyes, the mind and the heart. I can not recommend it enough.

And I am holding in my hands right now an ARC for Margo Lanagan's upcoming YA collection, Red Spikes. The new US cover is gorgeous in the best kind of creepy and unexpected way. Can't wait to read it!