This morning we posted our review for the novella Take Your Medicine by Hannah Carmack. When we were approached to read the book, we also were given the opportunity to do a small interview with the author. We sent her some questions and here are her answers!

1) Why did you choose to have Take Your Medicine be a novella and not a full length book?

I had originally submitted it for an anthology which had a 30k word limit, and I didn’t want to be someone pushing that limit, so I kept it at 25k. When my editor wanted to expand it to a novella we debated lengthening the novel, but felt if we opened it way up it would turn into a behemoth of a project.

2) Was your own love for Alice and Wonderland the inspiration for this retelling?

There was actually some internal pushback! Growing up with American’ McGee’s Alice and Tim Burton’s and just really the Alice in Wonderland mania I felt Take Your Medicine would just be more noise in the ether, but I had this idea of the queen of hearts as a cardiothoracic surgeon in my head and I couldn’t shake it, thus Take Your Medicine was born!

3) What are your favorite books and why?

So almost every interview I’ve talked about The Book of Lost Things, but I figured I’d shake things up and talk about some newer books I really liked. Time Bomb by Joelle Charbonneau just came out and it does a lot of fun stuff with POV.

4) What book inspired you to start writing your own?

I think I was writing/storytelling before I was reading, ironically! I have always enjoyed telling stories and would make my parents write them down for me as I told them.

5) If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

The Giving Tree. The writing is simple enough that I could share it with anyone. The message is through provoking enough that you’ll likely still be thinking about it months later. And, the story has so many ways of being interpreted you’ll nearly always read it a little different.

6) Do you have any future books you’re busy with at the moment? If so, could you tell us anything about them?

Yes! Currently I’m working on a project titled Viva La Education! It’s a duology I am hoping to have out on submission within the next couple months. 🙂 It’s a LGBTQIA+ Thriller based on a Betsy Devos inspired education system.

7) Do you like to read character driven books or plot driven books?

I think characters make good stories. There are only about 20 plots in this world, so a character is going to be the truly unique aspect of a story.

8) Do you like writing character driven books or plot driven books?

Same as a above 🙂 I think plot is a solid device to draw someone in, but character is a solid way to ensure someone stays.

9) Do you like reading blogs? If so, what kind of posts do you enjoy the most?

I do! I love The Bloggess. For me, the best kind of post is a down-to-earth post that says a little bit about the blogger and a lot about the world.  

10) What advice would you give to young writers?

Keep writing! Practice is the number one way to get better. 🙂

It’s always interesting to hear what an author thinks about writing and what their favorite books are. We hope to do more interviews in the future. Are there any questions you would love to have authors answer? We would love to hear from you!