The interview round-up for today:

Martin Millar at Chasing Ray: "I liked writing about Thrix and Malveria and their fashion obsessions, though that was difficult because although I sympathise with people who are very keen on fashion, I don’t actually know anything about it. So really I was relying on copies of Vogue bought from the local newsagent.

As for the werewolf violence, I quite liked writing that too. (I wouldn’t say it was on a very high level – I’m not fond of gore or horror) It made for a change. I’ve never written about fighting before but possibly, having read a lot of comics as a youth, I had a secret desire to do so."

John Green at Writing and Ruminating: "So when I started writing Paper Towns, I thought it would only be about the treacherous lie of the manic pixie dream girl.* It is about that (at least I hope it is), but it is more broadly about the relationship between the world we draw and the world that is—when it comes to manic pixie dream girls and also when it comes to Santa and cartography and nerds and user-created encyclopedias and the dead and many other things. So hopefully the story becomes more interesting (and more true) in the writing."

Beth Kephart at Hip Writer Mama: "I am the outsider-poet-skater of UNDERCOVER (who learned to skate, by the way, on a pond). I am the caretaker Rosie of HOUSE. I am the heartbroken daughter of NOTHING BUT GHOSTS. I am the anxiety-ridden, but seemingly solid Georgia of THE HEART IS NOT A SIZE. Characters are only difficult when you don’t truly know them. I try to know my characters. I live with them. I am them."

Emily Ecton at Bildungsroman: "I think hamsters have the undisputed title as the funniest house pet, so when I was trying to figure out what kind of pet would be in a cursed grave, there was no competition."

John David Anderson at Finding Wonderland: "Between movies, novels, and video games, I have spent a fair number of hours slaying orcs, dragons, aliens, and other beasties in other people's worlds, and I readily admit that much of the novel has its trappings in those worlds."

Brandon Mull at The YA YA YAs:"I'm a massive daydreamer. Almost to the point where it makes me dysfunctional. I get bored with reality and invent stories in my mind to entertain myself. I have done this ever since I can remember."

Lisa Papademetriou at Mother Reader: "I wanted to write something about fate and chance, and I wanted to write something about the eeriness of Las Vegas, and I wanted to write something about being a first-generation American. I guess I could have tried to play it for laughs, but it just didn’t come out that way."