Rachel Hartman leapt onto the children's book scene in 2012 with Seraphina, which won the William Morris Award for a debut YA novel. She created a world filled with humans, dragons, music and half-dragons ("ityasaari")--like Seraphina herself, who straddles both worlds. Now Hartman returns with the sequel, Shadow Scale (Random House). Born in Kentucky, Hartman now lives with her family in Vancouver, B.C.
On your nightstand now:
I'm at a hotel right now, but I've got two books by friends I saw recently: Clockwork Game, a graphic novel by Jane Irwin, and The Amazing Cynicalman, Volume 2, a collection of comic strips by Matt Feazell. Next to my bed back home, Carrie Mesrobian's Sex and Violence languishes, half-read, waiting for me to return.
Favorite book when you were a child:
It's hard to pick just one. I was a child for an extraordinarily long time. However, let's say Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson. My mother read it to me once, then refused to read it again because she thought it was creepy. I was forced to figure out how to read it on my own, so I owe a lot to that book.
Your top five authors:
Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, Diana Wynne Jones, George Eliot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Book you've faked reading:
The Grapes of Wrath. I lived in England the year my high school did American lit, and while I managed to read a lot of the books I missed on my own, I never did get around to Steinbeck. Which is too bad, because I think I would have liked it better than Gatsby. I know the plot, though, and somewhat more embarrassing, I know the Charlie Daniels song about it.
Book you are an evangelist for:
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. It was my model for a story that was both world-spanning and intimate, and I have been known to have an extra copy sitting around just so I could give it away.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I… have never done this. But now I kind of want to.
Book that changed your life:
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. He made me realize that fantasy could encompass anything, that nothing was out of bounds, and this gave me the courage to make my fantasy novels about things that are deeply important to me.
Favorite line from a book:
"There are some awful things in the world, it is true. But there are also some great books." That's from Among Others by Jo Walton.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
One Hundred Years of Solitude. I loved it so hard in college, and for a very long time I called it my favorite book, but I've only ever read it once. There was something in it that moved me, but I've been reluctant to revisit. Maybe the time is coming.