1.  What drew you to young adult fantasy writing?  Did you always want to be a writer?

I first became hooked on writing around the sixth grade, after my father suggested I give it a try. (He overheard me telling myself stories and suggested that I put them on paper). I was also beginning to notice how hard it was to find active girl heroes in the books I picked. I wanted-I needed-to read about girls who kicked butt. So, I began to write the kind of stories I wanted to read . As I got older, I discovered that I still liked reading about the adventures of girl heroes-so I kept on writing them.

At first writing was mostly just for me, or for who I was in middle school. I would write what I'd like to read, and when I was done, I'd share it with my sisters and friends. I didn't start out planning to be a writer. My first ever career goal was to be a cowboy. (That's right. A cowboy.) Then I wanted to be a nurse, then a ballerina, then a chemist. (This was before I discovered chemistry involved m-m-m-math.) Then a lawyer, and then a writer. For a while during high school and college I thought I couldn't write, so I planned to get my credentials in counseling psychology, to work with teenagers. I began to write again during my junior year in college, though, and after that I only wanted to write.

Eventually, as I tried to move from short stories to a first novel, I found I couldn't work up enough interest to write a book based on the "real world". I thought back to a time when writing was really easy for me, the days when I wrote page after page without thinking about it. Those were my girl warrior stories. So I tried that for my first novel, and then my next. Really, I'm still writing what I like to read-but now I am fortunate enough to earn a living doing it!

 
2.  Where do you prefer to write (your home, cafe, etc.)?  Do you listen to music when you write?

I work at my desk at home, or sometimes at the dining room table. And I do listen to music a great deal as I work. While I can't listen to music with words in a language I understand even a little (it's distracting, rather than inspiring), anything else is fair game. I tend to pick music from the same culture I base the book's culture on. For STREET MAGIC, for example, I was listening to Hindu and Arabic music, and for the first Circle of Magic quartet, again, it was Arabic, Greek, and North African music. For the Trickster books, I listened to a lot of Indonesian music. Movie soundtracks are also helpful: those from the Kenneth Branagh "Henry V" and the Kevin Costner "Robin Hood" were very helpful as I wrote The Protector of the Small books.

 
3.  Who are some of your favorite YA fantasy authors?  Do you have any books that you would recommend?

I'll be kind, since I guess you don't know that at least once a year I come out with a list of my favorite books of the year, plus lists like Books for Boys, Books for Gifted Kids, Science Fiction for Gifted Kids, Female Heroes, etc. People are always asking me for recommendations, and I'm happy to share my favorites!

Like most people, I'm on tenterhooks waiting for Suzanne Collins' MOCKINGJAY -I loved the first two books and am eager to see how she ends the trilogy! Kristin Cashore, whose GRACELING came out the same year as THE HUNGER GAMES, is another of my new favorites (FIRE, though very different, was still splendid), as is Cassandra Clare. Bruce Coville, who is a friend as well as one of my favorite writers, just finished his Unicorn saga with the thundering book THE LAST HUNT . I love his Magic Shop books and his Nina Tanleven books, too. Garth Nix, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, and Diana Wynne Jones are perennial favorites of mine. I've also just discovered that D.M. Cornish, author of The Monsterblood Tattoo books, will soon publish the third title, FACTOTUM. These are so unusual, so unique-I never know where he's going to go with them. The same is true, though in a less steampunk way, with Sarah Beth Durst's and Esther Friesner's books.

And for older readers, I recommend Greg Keye's dark, complex, and fascinating Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone quartet, starting with THE BRIAR KING, and Judith Merkle Riley's Margaret of Ashbury trilogy, which begins with A VISION OF LIGHT. Dame Margaret comes from poverty to nobility, and hers is a mystical journey as well as an economic one.

4.  If you could co-write a novel with any author (living or not), who would it be and what would the novel be about?

Bruce Coville and I have talked about collaborating. Honestly, he's the only one, because I feel comfortable with him. We've talked about a story revolving around the servants of all of those intrepid adventurers who headed into the Orient, Africa, or the Himalayas in search of something mysterious.

Oh-I'd love to work with Mark Twain. I'd probably let him overpower me, though, just to listen to him talk!  

5.  You're so accomplished as a writer, can you tell us some of your favorite characters that you enjoy bringing to life?

My favorite character? Kel is so easygoing and relaxing to be around, but Alanna can say whatever she feels like, which is something I wish I could do! Briar is a flirt and a smartmouth, and he can pick locks, which is very cool, but Tris has lightning-and she is the only character I've ever based on myself (though, to tell you the truth, every character has a little bit of me in them, or I never would have created them). Very often, too, Tris says what I am thinking, and we both have that all-consuming love of books and animals.

Then I think, Daja can hold fire and shape metal-I haven't even begun to look at what Daja can create. I love Sandry's daintiness while she spins people's clothes to capture them. She's also the only person I've ever met who can make us believe that a wooden fence and a little gate is a castle wall.

And yet there is the wolf Short Snout in WOLF SPEAKER , who will eat anything once, or Zhegorz in THE WILL OF THE EMPRESS, who reduces everything to crazy logic. I've just spent two very long short stories in the company of darkings, who are evolving rapidly while I've been off doing other things. Did you know they want to start building things?

6.  The Provost's Dog series is the prequel to The Song of the Lione ss series.  Why did you decide to go back in time to continue this series? 

I wanted to do something about the Provost's Guard, since in Alanna's day I based the Lord Provost on my dad. I felt I hadn't done enough with them. My fans had been asking what things were like in the days of the lady knights; that was another factor. I also hadn't really done much with the Lower City and the way Corus's poor lived. I'd been waiting for years to do that thing with the pigeons, where it sounds almost like humans talking if you listen to them in large enough groups. And it was that image, the little girl with the pale eye, hanging on to my Lord Provost's stirrup, telling him she could take him to those robbers he was looking for. Making her George's ancestress-priceless.

7.  Can you tell our readers a little bit about Beka Cooper?

In one way Beka is a bit like me-she's caught between two economic worlds, the extreme poverty of her first eight years (my teen years) and the more moneyed, genteel life of her next eight years. While she sees all of her siblings go on to work in that more stable economic world, Beka isn't able to forget her first world in the Lower City. Spending eight years at the Lord Provost's coattails, being encouraged by him, she wants to be a Dog, and to be one in the Lower City, where so few people care about law and order, or the protection of the power. Remembering the violence of that life, and seeing it when she visits family there, she wants to help the Dogs there to keep order. To the displeasure of Lord Gershom's lady, who takes pride in turning out foundlings educated for genteel service, Beka becomes a Dog. She has encouragement not only from Lord Gershom, but also her violet-eyed cat, Pounce, who she found as a kitten in the stable loft. Being used to Pounce, and being a matter-of-fact person, Beka soon gets used to the fact that her cat can talk, and control who hears him. I hope this shows people that she's a pretty matter-of-fact person over all.  

8.  When will Mastiff be released?  Can you give us a little inside peek into the story?

Spring or summer of 2012. I don't know exactly when yet. Its two-thirds of the way done!

As to peeks: Beka and Tunstall, her partner, are called out on the biggest kidnapping case of their lives. Teamed with Pounce, Beka's scent-hound Achoo, Lady Sabine (there to deal with nobles), and a mage named Farmer, they are on the trail of evil-doers who murder anyone who gets in their way or possesses even the slightest tidbit of information about them or their organization. There is treason and murder at the highest levels of the kingdom, greedy nobles, the rise of a religious cult, and a search throughout the realm that will either make the searchers' careers, or end their lives.
 
9.  Do you have any upcoming signings/book tours?  Where can our readers find you online?

No, I'm afraid I have no book tours scheduled at the moment. Currently tammypierce.livejournal.com is my lj, www.tamorapierce.com is my webpage, and I'm on Facebook. I keep a schedule of upcoming appearances that will be open to the public on my webpage, so it's a good place to check for future signings in your area from time to time!
 
10.  What kind of advise would you offer someone interested in writing fantasy?  Did you ever participate in writing groups or attend writing conferences?

The most important thing is to write, and keep writing. Try not to be too hard on yourself. No one's great when they start. I wasn't. You will see all the flaws in what you've written, or all the things you know you could do better. Don't get discouraged-just keep on going. With every word you put down, you'll learn something. It's like learning a language, or dancing, or learning an instrument. You get better as you practice.

You'll usually be best off by writing the kind of thing you like to read. Even if you borrow the settings and characters of other authors for your stories (it's called "fan fiction" nowadays, but it's been around for a long time-I did quite a bit of it when I first started out, before there was a term for it), you'll be learning things, until you can create stories, settings and characters of your own.

One more thing: Listen to yourself, but keep open to constantly learning and improving. The most important thing for a writer is to write , but when you want to become a published author you will start to face the challenges of the business side of writing too. You may run into criticism (we all do), and it's important to stay level and understand which is the good criticism (the kind you should listen to and grow from) and the bad (from negative people who aren't looking to help you in your career).

With regard to writing groups: no, I've never belonged to any.  My experience with my one fiction writing class was such that I avoided writers' groups; although I know many writers who have had really good experiences with them (my friend Bruce belongs to three!).  Bruce actually talked me into doing writing with him, so we have a miniature writing group that works really well for me.  I do attend one writing conference, Alpha ( http://alpha.spellcaster.org/ ), every year in July. There I present and answer writers' questions, though I don't read and critique work-the writers and the staff do that part.  It's a great conference and a number of the graduates have published work. I'm very proud to be associated with it!

Upcoming novels:

(Feb 22, 2011) You can pre-order it on amazon: Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales