Questions, Questions by Claire Fayers

 The Tir na n-Og award is given by Books Council Wales every year for the best children's book with an authentic Welsh setting. This year, I joined Liz Hyder and Meleri Wynn James in Penglais School, Aberystwyth, to be grilled by the young writers' group. Their questions were so much fun, I thought I'd share some of them.

If you were trapped in the void of space for eternity and you could only have one thing with you, what would it be? (Meleri and Liz predictably went with writing equipment. I reckoned I could make up stories in my head without needing to write them down and so I went off piste and chose my piano, because in space nobody would be able to hear all the wrong notes.)

How long would you survive a zombie apocalypse? (Not long. I'm the person who'd see a door marked DANGER, DO NOT OPEN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES and open it just to see what was behind. On the other hand, I can grow potatoes, and Liz grows courgettes so if we managed to survive the first six months we'd be able to feed ourselves.)

If you could have any mythical creature as a pet, what would you choose? (Meleri chose a dragon, I picked a stormhound, and Liz went with "you know, that fluffy thing that's really cute but also mythical and it can go on your lap.")

What do you think of AI? (This one brought groans from the authors. Meleri and I have both had our work stolen. Our answers focussed on the joy of creativity, something you can never get through AI, and the fact that relying on AI stops you developing your own imagination. I really hope the young writers took note of this one.)

Do you Google yourself? We all admitted to a sneaky look online now and then. 

Then there were writing-related questions.

When did you first know you wanted to be an author? (We all started telling stories from an early age even if we didn't hope to become authors then. It seems that the seeds of writing are sown early.)

If you could only publish one of your books, which one would it be? (This was a nice variation on the common question, which is the favourite book that you've written? I cheated and said the next one.)

And finally, If you weren't an author, what would you want to be? This one has unfortunately become a more pressing question for many of us with incomes dropping and AI taking work. I'd go back to working in a library, though those are under threat too. For now, though, I'm glad I can still do this.

Liz Hyder won the Tir na n-Og for The Twelve. I've just started reading it and it's fantastic. I was happy to come away with the readers' award for Welsh Giants, Ghosts and Goblins. 

Claire Fayers