Back on the Blog Chain: A Movable Literary Feast

I hope you had a good Halloween and that if you're participating in National Novel Writing Month, you're off to a good start. (Good thing I was able to write this post last night.) This round, Michelle H. asks us

If you could dine with any author, and I do mean any whether alive or dead (yes, we're going into the realms of time travel - but hey, we have science fiction writers on this chain so we can always ask for them to write up the time machine specs), who would you want to dine with? And if you can ask them for advice on one writing element you feel you might be struggling at, what would it be?

Kate answered this question before me, and  Christine will finish off the chain.

Well, as a science fiction author, I certainly feel able to use time travel here. But there are so many authors I'm interested in that I can't choose just one. So I decided the best way to answer this question was with a movable feast, spending each course with a different author.

For an appetizer, I'd start with John Lennon. Yes, in addition to writing songs, John also wrote stories and published three collections of them. He was a master of wordplay, so I'd ask him about language. However, John also enjoyed the surreal, so I'd have to tilt my mind sideways to be able to follow him.

The salad course makes me think of the line, "My salad days, green in judgment." This would inspire me to share the salad course with the author of that line, William Shakespeare. Since our language has changed so much since his day, I'd ask him about how he created such memorable characters.

Moving on, the entree course requires a meaty topic, something of substance. I think worldbuilding, particularly for creating alien races, would be a good choice. And to discuss that topic, I choose Julie E. Czerneda.

Finally, for dessert, I choose someone with a poetic style, someone for whom words flow as sweetly as chocolate. That would be one of my favorite authors, Patrica McKillip.

After such a meal, both my stomach and my mind would be well content. But may I keep John and William around, or would that destroy the space-time continuum? ;)