The Glasgow-based author brings her plague novel to the International Festival of Authors at a time when epidemics are dominating the headlines. She reads from the book Tuesday (October 28), 7:30 pm, at the Lakeside Terrace sits on the A Pox On Your Head round table Wednesday (October 29), 7:30 pm and gives an artist’s talk Thursday (October 30), 6 pm, both at the Studio Theatre. Here’s how she answered our literary quips questionnaire:
Summarize your book in a tweet, i.e., less than 140 characters.
A plague called the sweats hits London. Stevie’s search for her boyfriend’s killers takes her into the heart of a dangerous, collapsing city.
Who should star as you in your biopic? Why?
Matt Damon – we have a similar physique and politics.
What important book have you pretended to have read? Were you convincing?
The Bible. Not very.
Recount your weirdest encounter with a fan.
A reader once gave me a collage he had made especially for me. It was composed of cut-outs from girlie mags. I didn’t keep it.
Lena Dunham, creator and star of TV’s Girls, has received $3.5 million for her first book. Care to comment?
Do you have her telephone number?
You’re ready to write the next bestselling dystopia. What’s the premise?
A comic finds himself locked in jail on false charges at the beginning of a worldwide pandemic. He escapes into an altered and dangerous world.
Do writers make good lovers? Why?
What a question! I live with a writer, so I obviously think so. But I suspect some writers may be a little selfish – not a good quality in a lover.
Whose memoir do you not want to read? Why?
I love memoirs. If it’s well written, I don’t care who it’s by.