SciFi Rock n’ Roller Coaster Q&A: Author Guest – Ilana C. Myer

Ilana C. Myer has written for the Globe and Mail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, and the Huffington Post. Previously she was a freelance journalist in Jerusalem for the Jerusalem Post, the Jewish Daily Forward, Time Out Israel and other publications. She lives in New York City. She is also the author of the new fantasy novel, and her debut, Last Song Before Night, published by Tor Books.

SciFi Rockin’ Roller Coaster: Hey Ilana! You strapped in? Let’s have some fun! Have you ever, or would you ever go sky diving? Details!

Ilana C. Myer: No way! Maybe when I’m 90!

SFRRC: We have a magic kitchen, which can prepare any meal you want. Cost and prep time are not an issue. You can either eat alone, or invite guests from anywhere in time and space, fictional or real. What’s your ideal, one-time only menu? Who joins you? And what’s the venue?

Ilana: My favorite food in the world is the hot chocolate at the Agelina’s café in Paris. While it’s most special if my spouse is present, I don’t care who is with me as long as I have a pitcher of that incredible hot chocolate with some whipped cream on the side!

SFRRC: Speaking of appetites, when it comes to fiction, what three books would you most like to read that you haven’t gotten to yet?

Ilana: I’m looking forward to reading BARSK, by Lawrence Schoen, which comes out in December from Tor Books; ORLANDO by Virginia Woolf because I keep hearing about it and really, it’s about time; and a book-in-progress by David Mack that I have on queue to beta-read, that I know is going to blow me away.

SFRRC: What book, in any genre, has stayed with you the most long after you read it?

Ilana: It’s really tough, just about impossible, to pick just one! But a standby is TIGANA by Guy Gavriel Kay.

SFRRC: Star Wars or Star Trek? Why?

Ilana: Star Wars, because lightsabres. 

SFRRC: Favorite character from any SciFi movie?

Ilana: Han Solo, obviously!

SFRRC: There’s been a resurgence over the last decade, bringing SciFi back to TV. What’s your favorite SciFi show that’s debuted in the past ten 10 years?

Ilana: I really love Firefly.

SFRRC: We love Rock n’ Roll here at SFFR. What’s your favorite kind of music? And if you could go on tour with any solo artist or band, for one year, all expenses paid from any time in history, who would that be?

Ilana: My musical tastes are all over the map, though mostly instrumental. If I could tour with any musician, it would be Loreena McKennitt.

SFRRC: In our bag of tricks is a single wish, granting you one, specific super power — which you can use at your discretion for one full week. You have to pick now. One-time only offer, and your power can’t be that you can give yourself more powers. What’s your power, and why?

Ilana: When I was younger I’d have answered differently, but now I’d say I would want the power to heal—myself and others. I have a new awareness as I advance into my 30s of how vulnerable our bodies are.

SFRRC: Now that your powers are used up, we can now send you to a magical realm filled with wonders and dangers with almost unlimited possibilities, where you’ll encounter all sorts of creatures, friendly and otherwise. If you go, there’s a 50-50 chance of you making it back to the life you know now. If you do make it back, you’ll be filled with stories to share that authors can only dream of inventing. But if you don’t make it back — whether dead or alive, thriving or not — you can’t ever return, and the people you know in this life will have no idea where you’ve gone or what’s become of you. Would you go?

Ilana: Now why would I do that, when I can read and write and have the same experiences.

SFRRC: When you writing career is over, how would you like to be remembered, both as a person, and as an author?

Ilana: She kept right on fighting.

SFRRC: OK. We’ve tortured you enough. You’re a writer. What are you working on now? Promote away!

Ilana: I’m currently working on the sequel to LAST SONG BEFORE NIGHT, which just came out from Tor Books on September 29th. It’s a fantasy novel set in a world where art and magic are intertwined, and the protagonists are poets.

http://ilanacmyer.com/