Sunday, February 6, 2011

Q&Q Writer Series featuring Monica Kulling

I met Monica Kulling at OLA 2010 and it was friendship at first sight! She was signing copies of All Aboard, Elijah McCoy's Steam Engine. An excellent book which I heard Monica read at Word on The Street Toronto last fall, bells, whistles and all.

Monica has published over 26 fiction and non-fiction titles for children which includes picture books, poetry and biographies. You can read about it on her website.

Her latest book, Merci Mr. Dash from Tundra received a great review from the CM Mag.

A gifted writer with two dogs and four cats who lives in TO. Need I say more...read on!

1) In one word, how would you describe your personality?

Fun-loving.

2) What is your deepest desire?
To live pain free.

3) Your greatest fear?
Public speaking.

4) Your favourite colour?
Moss-green.

5) A song you can't help singing along with, every time you hear it?
I’ve always loved to sing. I used to play guitar and even entertained the thought of writing songs and following Joni Mitchell on her world tours. Oh the foolishness of youth! These days I sing whenever I hear a great oldie. Yesterday it was These Eyes by the Guess Who.

6) A movie that made you cry?
Schindler’s List.

7) A book you have read more than five times? Or a book that influenced you the most?
I was not a reader as a child, or even as an adult in my thirties. Consequently, I’m packing in a lot of reading now, but have yet to read one particular book five times. The writer who has influenced me the most is Virginia Woolf. Her daring and her skill always encourage me. She truly is a writer’s writer.

8) From your own oeuvre: your favorite child?
It’s true that the story one has just finished writing shines as the most perfect thing you’ve ever written, until it becomes a book. Don’t know why that is nor how that gorgeous piece of writing morphs into something completely ordinary. So I have two favorites: the story I finished last week about a grumpy girl who finds her smile, and It’s A Snap! George Eastman’s First Photograph because I love photography.

9) One thing you hate about being a writer?
Not making a living salary.

10) One thing no one knows about you (and now will)?
I’m a fan of slapstick. I know … childish. But if you’re going to slip on a banana peel or walk face-first into a clean pane of glass, what am I to do? Or course, in real life, not REEL life, I’d help you out. But watching it on film cracks me up. Every time.

1 comment:

Beth said...

Great interview! I read Mrs. Dalloway a few years ago and thought it was fabulous.
For someone who wasn't a reader as a child, you've had a brilliant career, Monica. I'm looking forward to checking out It's A Snap!