SDQ Interview with Kathe Koja.

Kathe Koja is the author of Going Under, which I raved about recently.*  She's also the author of Talk, The Blue Mirror, Straydog and Buddha Boy -- as well as a good number of grown-up books. 

Book Currently Reading:

I just finished Donald Antrim's THE AFTERLIFE; really wonderful, a memoir about death, family, alcoholism, and how not to buy a Dux bed.  Helen Frost's THE BRAID is next on the stack.

Cds Currently in Rotation:

My iPod is rocking Rufus Wainwright, Interpol, the Evens, the Pixies, Kronos Quartet, Secret Machines...and helping me rediscover how much I love Mott the Hoople. "Marionette," WOW.

Last Movie Viewed:

"The Constant Gardener."  I'm not a big Ralph Fiennes fan, but it was a very fine film.  The last movie I really loved: tie between "Brokeback Mountain" and "Syriana."

Literary Crush (real person or fictional character): 

I am too shy to reveal it.

Pet Peeve:

Adults who use cell phones as pacifiers.  No, EVERYONE who uses a cell phone as a pacifier, to stave off those anxious moments of silence and/or actual thought.

Current Obsession:

Nag Champa incense.  The whole house smells enlightened by now.

Guilty Pleasure:

overheardinnewyork.com.  When I should be working, I'm clicking and laughing.

Irrational Fear:

Flying.  Nothing to do with security, or anything like that - I just secretly don't believe that the science of aerodynamics is anything but collective voodoo, and once we all wise up...boom, gravity.  I must be a real treat to sit next to on a plane.

Favorite Words:

The sounds of the names of the ones I love (people and animals).

*In an email, Kathe described Ivan as "a pip", which I think is a tad of an understatement, but hey -- she's his creator, so I suppose she knows best.  She also mentioned that the gorgeous cover art was created by her husband, Rick Lieder.