Hugest welcome to Tom Nicoll, his latest chapter book There’s A Dragon In My Dinner! had us chuckling rather loudly … so we asked him a few dragon questions in this author interview.
Tell us about you in 25 words or less.
I’m a comedy nerd, obsessed with books, TV, movies, video games, writing funny kids books and the TV show Pointless.
What makes you happy?
My family and good stories.
Where is your favourite place to write?
I used to write at my desk in my attic but it was always either too hot or too cold up there so now I write on our dining table. It’s a wooden table with a blue and white polka-dot mat over it.
What’s on your TBR pile at the moment?
Quite a lot actually! Normally I only have one book on the go but after getting book vouchers for Christmas I have a good few to get through. I’m reading Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens which is a lot of fun. I’m also reading Daft Little Stories by Limmy and working my way through Batman – Knightfall. I’ve just got Chris Brookmyre’s latest – Black Widow too which I can’t wait to get into. And I’ve got Demolition Dad by Phil Earle, A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig, Skellig by David Almond, I Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan – Alan Partridge and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson all lined up after that.
A dragon, Pan, is the main character in your debut novel There’s a Dragon in My Dinner! how did he come about … and how did you come up with his grand entrance in a box of beansprouts?! (LOVED that by the way!)
Well everyone loves Dragons and we’d all like to be pals with one, but the problem with Dragons has always been their size. Their size and of course their tendency to eat and/or burn people alive. So Mini-Dragons solve that particular problem. Of course, as Eric discovers, they come with their own unique set of problems. I wish I could claim the beansprouts idea but that one was actually suggested by someone at Stripes. One of the great things about working on this series was working with people who have great senses of humour and who are just as silly as me.
What’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked?
Because there’s a lot of humour in the books, some of the questions my editor asked me could be quite strange taken out of context. My favourite was when she asked me to suggest a watery word. I suggested Plop. See, in its actual context it was a perfectly reasonable question, but here it just makes us look slightly mad.
What’s your worst habit?
Picking my nails.
Your favourite word(s)
Sabotage. It just sounds so dramatic. You rarely get a chance to use it in a real conversation though, which I suppose is probably a good thing.
Can you give us a glimpse / peek / hint at your current WIP (I could bribe you with a cake/pics of cute urm, dragons!)?
The finishing touches are being put to books two and three. Book two – There’s a Dragon in My Backpack! (May) is possibly the world’s first novel about a Dragon heist. Book three – There’s a Dragon in My Toilet! (August) is possibly the world’s first novel combining Dragons and toilets. I know you think there must be loads, they seem so obvious – surely everyone’s writing dragon heist and dragon toilet stories – but honestly I can’t find any. So hopefully these books will go some way to addressing that glaring gap in the market.
Did we forget anything?
You mentioned something about cake…?
Just for fun
Tea or coffee?
Neither! I don’t drink either. Yes, I know I’m a weirdo.
Paper books or e-books?
Paper books. I love the smell too much.
Cake or chocolate?
Chocolate.
Write or type?
Type.
Poetry or prose?
Prose.
Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin?
Hufflepuff.
Hot or cold?
Cold. Unless we’re talking about food in which case – hot.
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