A Bowl of Questions

Meet the one and only Delia Sherman!

Delia is here! If Serial Box Publishing ever held a Miss/Mr Congeniality contest amongst our writers...well, it would probably be a 30-way tie, but Delia just might eek out a bit past the rest. We couldn't be happier to have this remarkable woman - and legend of genre fiction - working on Whitehall with us! Get to know her a bit more over a bowl of questions.She who would be queen must win the love of a king—and a country.Whitehall is set in the 17th century court of King Charles II and focuses on his queen, Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza. Her journey to find her place as the foreign wife in a court riddled with political and religious intrigue – not to mention the many mistresses of Charles the “Merry Monarch” – is a tale of perseverance only a true queen could endure. Love mingles with betrayal before a sensual renaissance of art, culture, and sex in this lush historical serial.Released in weekly episodes, Whitehall began on May 18th and is written collaboratively by Liz Duffy Adams, Delia Sherman, Barbara Samuel, Madeleine Robins, Sarah Smith, and Mary Robinette Kowal.Read it or learn more at SerialBox.com!

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Delia Sherman BW Square

Where are you a local? I live in New York City, on the Upper West Side, across the street from Riverside Park, which gives me a very large back yard indeed. I’m within walking distance of four supermarkets (all of them slightly different), four banks, numerous dry cleaners, and more restaurants than I can count. My study looks out on a back alley, the wildlife I see most often are, um, large rodents and hard-shelled bugs. And I don’t own an automobile.Who would be the 5 people (alive, dead, or fictional) at your dream dinner party?Let’s see. Dorothy Wilde (Oscar’s niece), for sure, because she could talk to anybody. Aphra Behn, because she’d almost certainly flirt with Dorothy, and hearing them trying to top each other would be so much fun. Liz Adams, because it would be cruel not to, under the circumstances. Phryne Fisher, because she’s an asset at any party, and Nanny Ogg, ditto. And if Miss Fisher’s Mr. Butler would consent to come and serve, I’d be eternally grateful, because being stuck in the kitchen with that dinner party going on would be just too horrible.Who is your favorite writer outside your genre?Charles Dickens.First Love: Book edition. What was it and when? (i.e. what book made you love reading?)Howard Pyle’s The Merrie Adventures of Robin Hood. I begged my father to buy it for me when I was three and he read it to me almost every night. This meant that I made myself a social pariah by demanding a stoup of canary (that’s a tankard of white wine) at kindergarten juice time, but it was totally worth it.You now have a time machine – to where and when do you go?London right after the Restoration, of course, because I’d like to know how the kitchens worked and who made Catherine’s clothes and exactly how sexy Barbara was and whether Rochester really was all that and a bag of chips and go to the theater.If you could have one magic spell up your sleeve, what would it be?Time control. Slow it down when I needed a few extra minutes; speed it up when I’m doing something I really don’t want to do.Last thing you read that made you think, “Well damn, that was cool…”Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up The Bodies. The way she writes historical fiction is a revelation and a glory. If your soul was manifested outside of your body in the form of an animal (like in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series), what would it be?I am totally a rabbit.Delia Sherman is the author of numerous short stories, as well as the novels Through a Brazen Mirror and the Porcelain Dove. She has judged the Crawford Award for Best First Fantasy Novel, The James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and the World Fantasy Award. She has taught SF and Fantasy writing at Odyssey: the Fantasy Writing Workshop, the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop, the Hollins University Master's Program in Children's Literature, and workshops at colleges and science fiction conventions all over America. DeliaSherman.com. @deliasherman.

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