Interview with Heather Dixon Wallwork, author of THE ENCHANTED SONATA (+ a giveaway!)

Thank you, Myrna, for this lovely award, and for giving me the excuse for random ramblings! In order to accept the award, I'm supposed to tell you all ten things about myself that you might not know...so here goes!

1.When I was little (like, five) I wished my first name was Elizabeth because I wanted to have lots of nicknames and I didn't care for “Faithy” at the time. (Incidentally, do you know that the one name that most often reoccurs in the list of Newbery winners and honorees is Elizabeth? Just saying...I may have been on to something.)

2. Mark and I occasionally wrote each other love notes in Tolkien's Dwarvish runes (mostly when we were at parties supposed to be coming up with entries for Balderdash, and runes were just more convenient than coming up with out own secret code), and once I wrote a poem in Elvish. Yes, I believe this does qualify me as a total LitGeek. Will you still be my friend?

3. I love old movies. Movies in general, but especially old ones with borderline cheesy happy endings. It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie ever, closely followed by Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, starring Gary Cooper.

4. My not-so-secret unfulfilled desire is to learn to make pottery. I'm not sure why, exactly, but I feel a primal need to create my own cups and bowls.

5. I have lived in 12 different houses, plus two dormitories, one apartment, and a few months in a camper trailer. Do you want to know what motivates me to get my writing published? The hope of buying a house that I never again have to move away from.

6. While I love theater, I have had terrible luck in my roles. My first appearance on stage was as a “mouse” (that was their nice way to say “little rat”) in the Nutcracker. The next two were also ballets: While dancing to Handel's Watermusik, I was a wicked mermaid who pulled in a fisherman, and in Hansel and Gretel I was a moth who frightened the children in the night. I moved on to musical theater and was a goblin in Rumpelstiltskin and a wicked Ninevite in a production about Jonah. I avoided theater for a while—not on purpose, but because of moving around—but then as a teenager I was invited to join some of my friends in their Shakespeare club. They were performing Much Ado About Nothing—I got to play Conrad. Yes, he is one of the bad guys. (On the bright side, I met my husband there. He was the director and played Leonato.) Roles got better from there, excepting the time in college where I acted one scene as an adulterous woman who hates her daughter and is in love with her son. (Christine Mannon in Mourning Becomes Electra) Yeah. That one didn't thrill me, either.

Is there something about me that says, “Ooh—she really looks like a villain!”? I just don't get it.

7. When I was 10, I wanted so badly to learn to play piano that I would eavesdrop on my next-door-neighbor's lessons (her mom knew I was hiding behind the couch) and practice later. It worked, for the record—and incidentally, I still play while that neighbor, last I knew, had grown bored with music and given up on it.

8. I have recently become addicted to Stash chocolate mint tea. Mmmmm, it is so good.

9. Something I consider one of my greatest accomplishments is that I can now say, “Whip up” and “apple pie” in the same sentence. While I love cooking, baking wasn't really my forte, so the fact that I can get a pie from bare ingredients to in the oven in less time than it would take me to drive to the store and buy one makes me very happy.

10. I finished my WIP, THE WITHERING VINE!!!!!! I haven't really told anyone that yet, so does that count? I'm so excited. :)

 

There you go! Now, I'm supposed to pass this award on to five other bloggers... Here are five who I hope to get to even know better, should they choose to accept that mission. :)

 

Paula (Yes, I know I gave you an award already, but I like the role of cyber-super-hero, and we all love reading what you blog about!)

Kristin

Molly

Melissa

Susan Fields