Sarah Langan

answers the Usual Questions

Sarah Langan

Has your interaction with fans, for example, at conventions, affected your work?

I love meeting fans. They're usually very encouraging, which is always nice. Once in a while a nut-job purports to be in love with me. Early on, that stifled my ability to get work done, which in some ways, was its insidious intention. But I'm older now, and less likely to feel threatened by random crazies and women haters.

Is there any particular incident (a letter, a meeting, a comment that stands out?

I just used a Starbucks gift card for $20, which was pretty cool.

A woman once showed up at a reading dressed like Susan Marley. She didn't announce it, but I recognized it in hindsight (blue dress, bare feet, very pretty, very shy, told me she was a big fan). I feel like the book must have spoken to her, maybe made her feel less alone, and that makes me feel pretty good.

Do you have a favourite author or book (or writer or film or series) that has influenced you or that you return to?

Weirdly, I'm reading an out of print series to my daughters, that I read as a kid, and realizing that its influence on me has been profound: Patricia Coombs Dorrie the Little Witch series. The kid is a mischievous slob, like me. I highly recommend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Coombs

Other influences: Richard Matheson, Shirley Jackson, Peter Straub, Stephen King, Joyce Carole Oates, the Hunger Games series, all those usual suspects.

Who is the person you would most like to be trapped in a lift with? or a spaceship?

Spaceship! Always spaceship!

The problem here, is that I might want to pick Neil Stephenson, Stanley Kubrick, Grace Paley, Dorris Lessing, or even Patricia Highsmith's brains, I totally would not want to be stuck on an alien spaceship with them, because there's a good chance they'd be bossy/crazy/so didactic my ears bled. I pick my husband, JT Petty.

Who is the person you would most DISlike to be trapped in a lift with? Or a spaceship?

See above. Also, Ann Coulter (Though who knows? Maybe she'd be useful if we had to fight our way off.)

What would you pack for space? (Is there a food, beverage, book, teddy bear, etc that you couldn't do without?)

Coffee, probably. It's my last vice, and I'm holding onto it with a death grip. When I'm 80, I plan to start smoking again. It will be awesome. Slightly sad, but awesome.

What is the most important thing you would like to get/achieve from your work?

Fame, influence, and the love of strangers.

What is the special satisfaction of your work?

Getting it right, when the pieces of the puzzle suddenly come together. Best feeling in the world, intellectually.

submitted by Sarah Langan

2 August 2014

For other answers to The Usual Questions Click here

Just the facts:
Born: Long Island, New York. October 20, 1974
Resides: Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Bibliography/Awards:
Publications: The Keeper, The Missing, Audrey's Door , more than twenty short stories, a radio play, and some nonfiction. Three Bram Stoker Awards, a Locus Fantasy Book of the Year, a Publishers' Weekly favorite book of the year, etc.

Web site:
www.sarahlangan.com
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