K.C. Shaw spends her spare time reading, writing, playing drums badly, producing Strange Animals Podcast, and birdwatching in the forests around her home in East Tennessee. Somehow she finds time to fit a day job into her busy schedule. Visit her blog at kcshaw.blogspot.com or just follow her on Twitter @kc_shaw.
Name one book that you keep going back to and why?
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. It’s a good story but what I especially love is the way the author slowly reveals the truth about who the main character is and his motivations without it feeling contrived or awkward–and she does it in first person point of view.
What has been your favourite place to live?
I haven’t lived in very many places because I was fortunate enough to grow up in the most beautiful part of the world, East Tennessee near the Smoky Mountains. Every time I move away, I miss it and come back as soon as possible.
Can you tell us a short anecdote that you think says something about you?
Years ago I was invited to a really nice restaurant for my job. I did my best to act cool and professional, mingling with my coworkers in the lobby before we went in to eat. I thought I was probably the most sophisticated person there. Then when we entered the dining room, I walked into a mirror so hard I bounced right off it. I thought it was a doorway.
Years ago I was invited to a really nice restaurant for my job. I did my best to act cool and professional, mingling with my coworkers in the lobby before we went in to eat. I thought I was probably the most sophisticated person there. Then when we entered the dining room, I walked into a mirror so hard I bounced right off it. I thought it was a doorway.
If you could be any fictional character who would you be and why?
I’d like to be a dragon, one that can fly. I’d rather be a dragon in a world like that of Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles or Diana Wynne Jones’s Dark Lord of Dirkholm, but I’d settle for being a dragon on Pern or in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Just don’t expect me to obey any stupid humans just because I’m supposed to.
If you could go to the pub for an evening with any writer alive or dead who would you choose?
Diana Wynne Jones because she must have been a lovely, interesting person to talk to, with lots of interesting stories about her long life and a good sense of humor.