This week's dragon is Mary G. Thompson, author of the brilliantly titled Evil Fairies Love Hair. She was raised in Oregon before going on to become a practicing attorney for more than seven years, including five years in the U.S. Navy. She received her BA from Boston University, her JD from the University of Oregon, and her MFA in Writing for Children from The New School. Mary is now a law librarian and the author of Wuftoom and Escape from the Pipe Men!

In Evil Fairies Love Hair, out on August 5th from Clarion Books, Ali and her middle-school classmates are raising flocks of fairies to make their wishes come true. But it's harder than it sounds: the fairies eat only human hair, and the rules for dealing with them are confusing, misleading, and subject to change. As Ali and her friends struggle to earn their wishes, mistakes are made, spells go awry, and soon they're up against hundreds of two-inch-tall imps with very big plans...

1) Uh oh, it’s the zombie apocalypse. Which author (living or dead) do you want riding shotgun?

Roald Dahl.

2) Look, I got a time machine on eBay! Where do you want to go? (Said time machine may possibly malfunction and leave you there. Possibly. It was *very* cheap.)

The future. I'm still hoping to upload my brain and it ain't happening now. Let's say 500 years just to be safe. If the world is still around and they don't put me in a zoo, I'll be a lot better off than you saps who picked the 1920s or ancient Rome.

3) What’s your favourite thing about writing for kids?

I like letting my imagination run wild. The older the age level, the more I have to rein it in. Kids are encouraged to make things up no matter how unlikely they are to really happen. That's the mindspace I'd like to keep! 

4) A witch has cast a spell on you (sorry about that) and you’ve woken up as a character in a children’s book – what’s your special talent or power?

It has something to do with bubble gum.

5) What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?

When I was in eighth grade, a huge hulk of a girl was bullying me about my name. You know, Mary had a little lamb … she said to me "why don't you just come over here and slap me." So I did. Afterward, she followed me into the bathroom with one of her henchwomen, and I thought they were going to kill me, but they didn't. Phew! They say you're supposed to stand up to bullies, but I'm not so sure. If I had it to do over, I'd try talking my way out of it before slapping she-hulk across the face!

6) What’s something you wish you’d known about writing when you started out? What’s something you wish you’d known about publishing?

I started trying to write a novel when I was in law school. I wish I'd known that legal writing and fiction writing are not that different. You have to take complex concepts and turn them into something coherent. I had this idea that fiction could kind of come out of thin air, and so it all came out vague and nonsensical. But no matter what you're writing, it's all about what people are going to understand. If you focus on whether your words, sentences, paragraphs, and overall story make logical sense, you'll be okay. I don't think there's anything I'd want to know about publishing. I'm glad I didn't know about how the proverbial sausage is made when I was starting out. At that point, it has to be all about the writing.

7) What would your daemon be?

A turtle.

8) My books don’t have dragons, but they do have... fairies, aliens, giant evil flies, sewer-dwelling worm creatures, spaceships, and cakes. 

I am *so* there for travelling into the future :) And how awesome is that cover?? You can find out more about Mary and her books on Twitter, her website, and Goodreads.

This week am thrilled to celebrate with Dana Alison Levy, as it's her debut book birthday today! Dana was raised by pirates but escaped at a young age and went on to earn a degree in aeronautics and puppetry. Actually, that’s not true—she just likes to make things up. That’s why she always wanted to write books. She was born and raised in New England and studied English literature before going to graduate school for business. While there is value in all learning, had she known she would end up writing for a living, she might not have struggled through all those statistics and finance classes. 

Her first book, The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, is a tale of four boys, two dads, an ever-changing number of pets, and a miserable new neighbor who just might ruin everything. It's out from Delacorte Books for Young Readers TODAY!

1) Uh oh, it’s the zombie apocalypse. Which author (living or dead) do you want riding shotgun?

Hmmm... that’s really hard. On one hand, Jo Rowling could totally charm the zombies with exquisite storytelling, but Gary Paulsen would probably do better at keeping us alive. Heck, I’d probably just choose my critique partner bestie Kate Boorman because she’s very tall and they’d see her first. Plus she usually has Cadbury’s, so she could bribe them to stop with the whole human brain thing, or at least make sure we went down in a chocolatey blaze of glory.

2) Look, I got a time machine on eBay! Where do you want to go? (Said time machine may possibly malfunction and leave you there. Possibly. It was *very* cheap.)

I know that my kid-self would have answered in a heartbeat: “Wherever they wore hoopskirts!” I was obsessed with hoopskirts — I have no idea why, since they seem appallingly uncomfortable and inconvenient. So having said that, adult me would have to choose Paris in the 1920s. I know it wasn’t perfect, but having lived there in my twenties, dreaming authorial dreams, I can only imagine how awesome it was with Ernest and Gertrude and Alice, when the dollar was strong, the booze was stronger, and anything was possible.

3) What’s your favourite thing about writing for kids?

I think what I love most about writing for kids is that story trumps all. The best children’s books can and often do have glorious, lyrical writing, complex and layered symbolism, and careful characters arcs. But they MUST have a good story to tell, whether it is a story of wizards and castles, or a story of making a new friend, or a story of a perfect summer’s day. Also, kids are the best audience in the world. They devour books. They go into raptures over books. They quite literally sometimes count on books to save their lives. What could be better than that?

4) A witch has cast a spell on you (sorry about that) and you’ve woken up as a character in a children’s book – what’s your special talent or power?

Breathing underwater. Easy. I realize there are loads of options here, and some might be more practical as a writer/mom/boring-life-living person, (can you say magically-folding-laundry-spell-caster?) but I’d love nothing more than to swoop and dive and roll around in the waves without ever needing to come up for air.

5) What’s the scariest or strangest thing you’ve ever done?

These are very different questions! But since the internet is the kind of place that doesn’t exactly forget stuff, let’s go with the scariest, and leave my weirdest moments hidden for now. One of the scariest things I’ve ever done was to take my family off to Nepal for a month of trekking near Mount Everest. Now the kids were not babies; they were nine and eleven, and we were just hiking, not scaling massive Himalayan peaks or anything. Still, we had to fly in and out of an airport famous as the most dangerous airstrip in the world, and debate the issues of altitude sickness, rabies vaccines, and wisdom teeth, given that we would be many days’ walk from medical attention. As the date got closer and closer, the secret mantra in my head was “just get through this. You don’t ever have to do it again.” Well, not only did we get through it, but it was glorious. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

6) What’s something you wish you’d known about writing when you started out? What’s something you wish you’d known about publishing?

I knew a lot about publishing, compared to most, because I worked for a literary agent for several years, and because I have two family members who are well-known children’s book authors, Elizabeth Levy and Robie Harris. (However, nepotism only goes so far — I got pulled out of the slush pile like everyone else)! So I had a lot of industry knowledge of the good, the bad and the ugly. But what I didn’t know about publishing, or about writing, was how hard it would be to let go. I’m a person who likes to keep control of as many details as possible (the term “control freak” is so judgmental, I find, but not totally inaccurate). When publishing a book, there are a lot of times when you just have to let go and recognize that many smart people are involved in the process. That was a tricky one for me.

7) What would your daemon be?

Wouldn't we all love it to be something noble, like a snow leopard, or playful, like a seal? Or maybe a Fennec fox! But we don’t choose these things. I just hope it wouldn’t be a rat. I really hate rats.

8) My book doesn’t have dragons, but it does have... Um... cat barf? Turtle pee? An invisible (and perhaps imaginary) cheetah named Flare? Gah... I need to write a book with dragons next time. So much more noble than turtle pee...

Whoa, the Everest trip sounds like an amazing adventure! If I were more of an outdoor person I'd be very jealous :) If you'd like to find out more about Dana and her books, pop by her website, Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook page. 

This week am delighted to have as my guest Stephanie Burgis, author of the brilliant trilogy of Regency fantasy adventures for kids, The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, which has been published in the UK and US. Stephanie lives in a small town in Wales, surrounded by castles and coffeeshops. She has published over 30 short stories for adults and teens, and her first novel, A Most Improper Magick, won the Waverton Good Read Children's Award 2011 for best début novel by a British children's writer.

1) Uh oh, it’s the zombie apocalypse. Which author (living or dead) do you want riding shotgun?

Ooh, should I choose based on their books or on their real personalities? Either way, if I have to choose just one author, it should definitely be my friend Jenn Reese, who is a martial artist in real life and writes FABULOUS fight scenes in her MG science fiction adventures (starting with Above World).

2) Look, I got a time machine on eBay! Where do you want to go? (Said time machine may possibly malfunction and leave you there. Possibly. It was *very* cheap.)

Uh-oh. The possibility of getting left there SERIOUSLY changes my answer - because as much as I'd love to visit Jane Austen's time period for a day or so, I would NEVER want to get stuck there. Reading and writing novels set in that time period is as close as I'd ever want to come to actually living in an era with such ingrained sexism and such terrible medical care. And I'm awfully happy with my family and couldn't really take the risk of leaving them behind... so, boringly, I'm going to say that I'll skip the time machine completely. Have fun, though! And if you get stuck in the past, leave me a message in a buried time capsule to let me know what it was really like!

3) What’s your favourite thing about writing for kids?

I love getting to tap into that sense of wonder that isn't hampered by too much cynicism, and I LOVE getting to meet my readers. Every time I do an event for kids, I come out feeling SO charged up and swearing that I'll never stop writing for kids, ever, ever! 

4) A witch has cast a spell on you (sorry about that) and you’ve woken up as a character in a children’s book – what’s your special talent or power?

Ooh. I'd love it to be the power to fly. I've always wanted that one!

5) What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?

The scariest thing I ever did was step on a plane to move to Europe (from America) without a job or any guarantees, to live with my British boyfriend after ten months of a long-distance relationship and less than ten weeks together in person, ever! (We'd met at a six-week writing workshop in Seattle the year before.) 

Luckily, it was also one of the best decisions of my life! :) (I'm now a UK/US dual citizen living in Wales with Patrick and our two children, Patrick and I are coming up on our ten-year wedding anniversary, and Patrick's first, fabulous MG novel - Secrets of the Dragon Tomb - is coming out next year!)

6) What’s something you wish you’d known about writing when you started out? What’s something you wish you’d known about publishing?

I wish I'd wasted less time and energy on self-doubt. I still wish that about myself now!

7) What would your daemon be?

I'd love it to be a wolf.

8) My book(s) don’t have dragons, but they do have...  magic spells, highwaymen, humor and romance!

Aww, no wonder your books have bravery and romance threaded through them! To find out more about Stephanie and her books check out her website, where you can read sample chapters from all three books, and chat to her on Twitter.