# If you could spend an afternoon with any author, who would it be?



## windyrdg (Sep 20, 2010)

I think I'd like to spend time with Herman Wouk or Charles Dickens. Have loved every book they wrote.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I'd go with either Martin Woodhouse* or Isaac Asimov. Maybe Stephen King or Carl Sagan.

Based not on how much I liked their writing, but on the possibility of talking to them about a range of topics possibly not associated with their work at all.


Mike

* Extra points to anybody who knows who he is... or has read something by him.


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## Miriam Minger (Nov 27, 2010)

Sigrid Undset, author of Kristin Lavransdatter.

Miriam Minger


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## Thomma Lyn (Oct 21, 2011)

jmiked said:


> I'd go with either Martin Woodhouse* or Isaac Asimov. Maybe Stephen King or Carl Sagan.


Yes to Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, and Carl Sagan. Emphasis on Carl Sagan. He'll always be one of my heroes.

Another author I'd love to spend an afternoon with is Pema Chödrön.

Aw, heck. Here are some more: William Styron, Flannery O'Connor, Joseph Campbell, Dorothy Parker, John Gardner, E.B. White, Sherman Alexie, and Amy Tan.

My reading tastes run the gamut!


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## GerrieFerrisFinger (Jun 1, 2011)

Excepting those that have passed on, I'd like to spend an afternoon with Carol Oates and Dennis Lehane.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Probably Twain.

Living authors?  Hmm. Maybe Patricia Briggs, John Levitt or Ilona Andrews.  But it all depends on what is being served.  I'll go for the best meal every time.


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## teodorika (Nov 5, 2011)

Cassandra Claire and Holly Black! They seem like such good fun!


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## Alicia Dean (Jul 11, 2011)

Dennis Lehane, Stephen King, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly...

Oh wait, that's four. Okay. I'll choose Dennis Lehane if I have to pick one.


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## Dee Ernst (Jan 10, 2011)

Harper Lee.
A living author? Neil Gaiman.  And not because he's hot...


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## Vianka Van Bokkem (Aug 26, 2010)

I would like to spend an afternoon with J.K. Rowling.


-Vianka


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

No living author comes to mind, though I'd  stop and  chat with a few if I meet them.  Nothing too long.  However, about ten years ago I was visiting the town where Kurt Vonnegut lived and i really wanted to bum a cigarette from him even I'd quit smoking.  Didn't happen.


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## W. B. Emerson (Oct 29, 2011)

Although she passed away decades ago, Flannery O'Connor would be at the top of my list. I don't think I've ever read an author who can evoke emotion the way she does. She wrote a lot about life in the South, race relations and isolation. All things I think she was intimately acquainted with.

Whereas O'Connor is my all-time favorite writer (penning my favorite short story "Revelation"), Umberto Eco's _The Name of the Rose_ is my all-time favorite novel, so I wouldn't mind sitting down with him either.

Of course, there are so many great writers past and present, it's difficult to give just one or two names: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Annie Proulx, John Updike, Philip Roth...there are just too many! Maybe a dinner party would be more in order. 

BTW: If you've never read "Revelation" by O'Connor you should. It's included in _The Complete Stories_. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

Jane Austen, because as well as writing some of my favourite books she was by all accounts hugely witty and fun to be around in person as well as in print. And maybe some smidgen of brilliance would rub off.


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## Thomma Lyn (Oct 21, 2011)

Dee Ernst said:


> Harper Lee.
> A living author? Neil Gaiman. And not because he's hot...


Yes to both Harper Lee and Neil Gaiman. And yes to hot!


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## Borislava Borissova (Sep 9, 2011)

Perhaps I would enjoy meeting with John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and most of all I would love his heroes to present if possible. 
Of course, many other authors would make my list with most wanted to meet


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## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

Definitely professor Tolkien, Dante, Bai Juyi, Ellis Peters, Alexander McCall Smith and Barbara Hambly.

Just one? I'll have to flip the coin between professor Tolkien and Dante.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Mark Twain. Runners up John D. MacDonald and James Lee Burke.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Mike Hicks.


Spoiler



and he better bring chocolate.


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## mattlynn (Jun 10, 2011)

Joeseph Conrad....


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

Vince Flynn since he must be a lot like Mitch Rapp


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## amy_saunders (Aug 8, 2011)

Agatha Christie!


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

Susan Howatch -- I read an interview about writing with her once, and her answers about characterization, etc, were fascinating.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes -- talk about fairy tales and archetypes with her.

Florence King -- because she would make me laugh.

Laini Taylor -- she was an artist, a sculptor of faeries, before she got serious about her writing.  I would like to see her artwork.


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2011)

Nancy Pickard.

I love her writing style and stories, but I've also corresponded with her through email a few times, and I get the impression she is a genuinely awesome person.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

Dennis Lehane 
(Tie) If we can do TV/movie writers, Joss Whedon


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I'd do anything to catch a baseball game with Stephen King.  I'd also love to spend time with Neil Gaiman, whom I also saw mentioned on here already.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

purplepen79 said:


> Susan Howatch -- I read an interview about writing with her once, and her answers about characterization, etc, were fascinating.


You beat me to it. Susan Howatch is my all time favorite author. I'm rereading the Starbridge Series right now. I'll have to see if I can find that interview.


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## SpearsII (Jan 16, 2010)

George R.R. Martin...as long as I could bring a gun along and yell, "write, [email protected]$& you, write".


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

I'd like to spend it with Lee Child b/c he's such a great writer, I'd be bound to learn something.


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## escapeco (Aug 19, 2011)

Difficult one - he he - me in 10 years time to see if I have been successful.

Seriously - Charles Dickens, Tolkien and Martina Cole


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## Julia444 (Feb 24, 2011)

Really hard to narrow this down!!

But I'm with Vianka--I'd like to spend time with JK Rowling.  Why?  (You might ask).

A) She's my age, and I admire the way she writes and speaks.

B) She lives in a Scottish castle, and I would like to see the inside of it--it might resemble Hogwarts.  

Julia


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## JMJeffries (Jun 13, 2011)

David Weber.  I adore the Honor Harrington books.


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## shel (May 14, 2011)

Harper Lee and Vonnegut are both favorite authors of mine.  

Also, come  to think of it, wouldn't J.D. Salinger be interesting?  Catcher in the Rye is the "original" YA and he was so reclusive.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> You beat me to it. Susan Howatch is my all time favorite author. I'm rereading the Starbridge Series right now. I'll have to see if I can find that interview.


I love Susan Howatch! _Cashelmara_ is my favorite (probably because Edward and Marguerite are one of my favorite literary couples of all time) , but I love the Starbridge series too. The interview I'm talking about is in the back of _The Wonder Worker_--it's the Ballantine Readers Circle edition.


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Cynical and funny...a winning combination for engaging conversation!


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## Darlene Jones (Nov 1, 2011)

I just finished reading Cleopatra's Daughter. I'd love to talk to Michelle Moran and learn how she did all her research. Darlene Jones, Author


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## BRONZEAGE (Jun 25, 2011)

Just to play devil's advocate, here is a different sort of answer.

Agreed with a choice above, of Sigrid Undset. Then considered the implications from her perspective. By most accounts she was a private sort of person (and had serious issues in her personal life). So how would she in fact enjoy having to spend an afternoon with a stranger who was fawning, or intrusive, just asking a string of insipid questions like ,
What is your favorite color, or, How did you find out about early Norse mythology or medieval smorgasbord fare at rural smallholder tables? --
Etc.

Most writers in person are more than the sum of what they've written.  & If anyone ever insists on spending an afternoon cozying up with me, I'd probably seek a restraining order to preclude wasting an afternoon. Whether I'm a deceased author, or not.  

Off to get more caffeine. May edit later. Maybe not.

ETA: someone mentioned Dorothy Parker. Yes, probably at the Algonquin...


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## Sean Patrick Reardon (Sep 30, 2010)

(dead author) F. Scott Fitzgerald, or (living author) Stephen King. Nice question, by the way.


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## Thumper (Feb 26, 2009)

Kurt Vonnegut...I think he would have been tons of fun to hang with.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

Dashiell Hammett  would be one of my first choices. He wasn't perfect, but he was a man of principle, he was a real private detective -- and a good one -- before writing about such stuff, and he inspired such respect that when he spent some time in prison (under McCarthy) the guards all used to call him 'sir.'


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## StephanieVoid (Mar 11, 2011)

Edgar Rice Burroughs.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

BronzeEagle's answer goes double -- I can't imagine that the writers I could name wouldn't think they could spend their time better than hanging around with me for an afternoon.

But, boy oh boy, are there a bunch I'd like to be able to buttonhole for a little while just to point to particular books or stories and ask, "How the h*ll did you do that?"  Simenon, Theodore Sturgeon, Roger Zelazny, Ray Bradbury, Fredric Brown, Maugham, Joseph Epstein, Fritz Leiber, John D. MacDonald, Hemingway, Gerald Kersh, and on and on.  If I had to pick just one, though, I'd love to be able to hear Don Robertson talk about the process of writing MYSTICAL UNION.


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## Iain Edward Henn (Jan 29, 2011)

Dickens and Sagan have already had a few mentions, and I'd agree.

Also, Alexandre Dumas, a writing whirlwind in 19th Century France, it would be fascinating to discuss his process with him.

And a more contemporary author - Michael Crichton, also for his process and particularly for he fascinating views he held on social and scientific progress and its future ramifications, both good and bad.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

I's a tie between Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Both would be equally impressive to write about in my diary. I'd actully enjoy meeting Agatha Christie too, we could have some good discussions on Poirot.


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## Susan Brassfield Cogan (Mar 25, 2011)

Thomma Lyn said:


> Yes to Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, and Carl Sagan. Emphasis on Carl Sagan. He'll always be one of my heroes.
> 
> Another author I'd love to spend an afternoon with is Pema Chödrön.
> 
> ...


I hadn't thought of Pema Chodron as an author (in spite of the fact that she's written several books) but I definitely have to agree.


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## Michelle Muto (Feb 1, 2011)

Such a hard choice for me!

Stephen King inspired me to write. 
J.K. Rowling has the greatest imagination.
Dean Koontz is a fellow dog lover and I love his work.


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

Lauren Winner, just because she fascinates me.

JK Rowling is a close second.  

Dawn


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

If it could be someone no longer with us, then Roger Zelazny. If it could be someone who is not primarily a writer (but has published both a novel and a memoir), then Craig Ferguson. Otherwise, I'd be perfectly fine with an afternoon with Terry Pratchett.


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## yingko2 (Jul 26, 2011)

For me it would be Lester Dent, writer of the Doc Savage series. He might not be Shakespeare, but he inspired me more than I could ever thank him for. Also Paul Ernst, writer of The Avenger pulp series, for the same reason.
Cheers,
Howard


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## StephenEngland (Nov 2, 2011)

JFHilborne said:


> I'd like to spend it with Lee Child b/c he's such a great writer, I'd be bound to learn something.


Have you read Robert Bidinotto's recent interview with him? I've got the link here somewhere. . .

My personal choice would be Tom Clancy. He's been such an inspiration to me over the years.


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## Jorean (Jul 31, 2010)

Lloyd Alexander was the first person who ever capturedmy imagination and made me actually WANT to read. That was a huge defining moment in my childhood, so I would choose him.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

Hmmmm.  Dead? Maybe Jane Austen.  (I love her insight into human nature.)  Living (but not real)?  Richard Castle!  Living: Nelson DeMille


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## Jorean (Jul 31, 2010)

Cindy416 said:


> Hmmmm. Dead? Maybe Jane Austen. (I love her insight into human nature.) Living (but not real)? Richard Castle! Living: Nelson DeMille


I second Richard Castle! Yum.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

Jorean said:


> I second Richard Castle! Yum.


No kidding!


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## wordsmithjts (Nov 14, 2011)

I would love to spend time with Edgar Allen Poe. He was so far ahead of his time and not fully appreciated until well after his death. I love the tell tale heart, the black cat, cask of amontillado.. and too many others to mention here. The way he was able to weave such an intricately thought out plot structure and put so many dynamics and elements into a short story. He didnt need 300 pages to make his point. He could terrify the daylights out of you in five.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

wordsmithjts said:


> I would love to spend time with Edgar Allen Poe. He was so far ahead of his time and not fully appreciated until well after his death. I love the tell tale heart, the black cat, cask of amontillado.. and too many others to mention here. The way he was able to weave such an intricately thought out plot structure and put so many dynamics and elements into a short story. He didnt need 300 pages to make his point. He could terrify the daylights out of you in five.


He was the first dead author to cross my mind, but I knew that he would think I was really weird, so I decided not to choose him as the author with whom I'd love to spend an afternoon.  LOVE Poe!


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## Meb Bryant (Jun 27, 2011)

Lisa Lutz~Spellman Files~she makes me laugh!


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## GerrieFerrisFinger (Jun 1, 2011)

P. D. James.


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## Darlene Jones (Nov 1, 2011)

I was lucky enough to spend a week in a writers' workshop with Robert J. Sawyer. He's an amazing man -so willing to share his knowledge and expertize. We all learned so much from him.


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## Steverino (Jan 5, 2011)

I'll vote for a screenwriter, just to be contrary: Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ and _The Empire Strikes Back_.

And I'd invite some TV writers: Chris Carter (_X-Files_), J. Michael Strazcinski (_Babylon 5_), and of course, Joss Whedon (_Buffy_ and _Firefly_).


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## Bailey Bristol (Mar 22, 2011)

I would stand looking over Juliet Marillier's shoulder as she writes another historical fantasy. Such an amazing, lyrical voice, and inventive plotter.


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## EthanRussellErway (Nov 17, 2011)

I'm definitely going with Homer, or Aesop (if he counts).  Modern day- Tom Clancy would be an interesting man to chat with.


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## Todd Young (May 2, 2011)

I'd have to choose Jane Austen, due to her sense of humor. I'd really like to know what she was like.


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Well, I could ask Shakespeare if he was the true author of all those plays...
But I think I'd go with Twain.  He seems like he'd have some good jokes to tell as he knocked back some drinks.


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## Anne Maven (Apr 18, 2011)

Ruskin Bond, and just to see if he really talks like he writes, P.G.Wodehouse.
H.H.Munro, Liz Gilbert, Emily Giffin and Anais Nin. I'd invite all of them to a buffet


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## Beth Groundwater (Apr 6, 2011)

I'm very lucky in that I've spent time with fellow mystery/crime authors at mystery and writing conventions. However, I'd like to step outside my genre and spend time with an author who would make me laugh over a few shared drinks--Dave Berry.


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## harryfreedman (Nov 9, 2011)

Philip Roth or Leonard Cohen (OK, he's not best known as an author but he is.)


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## Sandra Edwards (May 10, 2010)

Without a doubt, Rod Serling.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

After watching "Castle" last night, I'm repeating my desire to spend an afternoon with Richard Castle.


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## Dinasideas (Sep 2, 2011)

I would also have to say Jane Austen. She seems like a great person to share a bottle of wine with.


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## jsmclean (Mar 6, 2011)

Geemont said:


> No living author comes to mind, though I'd stop and chat with a few if I meet them. Nothing too long. However, about ten years ago I was visiting the town where Kurt Vonnegut lived and i really wanted to bum a cigarette from him even I'd quit smoking. Didn't happen.


I totally understand this sentiment--I live near there now and whenever I wander around town I wistfully wish I'd arrived in time to maybe just see him slumping along the street. Amazing.


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

purplepen79 said:


> Clarissa Pinkola Estes -- talk about fairy tales and archetypes with her.


I got to do that! She's wonderful.

I'd pick James Lee Burke or Isabel Allende.


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## jsmclean (Mar 6, 2011)

lacymarankevinmichael said:


> ...But I think I'd go with Twain...


Excellent choice! He was probably a walking talking party all the time.


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## DwayneRussell (Mar 26, 2011)

Oscar Wilde.  But only if someone else could be the focus of his wit.  I'd be turned into a walking comedy routine before school let out.


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## Marie S (May 20, 2011)

Living - Anne Rice, Dead - Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley


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## Miriam Minger (Nov 27, 2010)

Tami Hoag.  Love her books.

Miriam Minger


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

JK Rowling


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## jumbojohnny (Dec 25, 2011)

JK. To ask her why oh why did she allow the HP series to go wobbly and to tot up a body count which would make Arnie, Sly and Bruce gulp and walk away quickly.


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## Adele Ward (Jan 2, 2012)

Kazuo Ishiguro. I love his books and went to see him interviewed at London Book Fair where I also exchanged a couple of sentences with him. His intelligence, compassion, talent, and even unexpected humour, would make me want to spend more time with him. The way he talked about how he writes a book was also an inspiration.


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## Neil Ostroff (Mar 25, 2011)

Stephen King without a doubt. Also, would love to have lunch with Brett Easton Ellis.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

A tossup - Ken Follett or Nelson DeMille.


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

P.D. James who must be a very remarkable person. Sarah Caudwell, to ask her please not to be dead. Gordon Dahlquist, to see what really is in that remarkable mind of his and ask him when he is going to publish a sequel to the Glass Book. Rex Stout because I don't think I've ever met anyone like a man he must have been.  And Peter O'Donnell (the author of Modesty Blaise), to find out who he really was.


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## Sean Patrick Fox (Dec 3, 2011)

Not a huge fan of any of the classics, so I'd leave those guys to rest in peace.

For me it would probably come down to one of two authors. Either George R.R. Martin or Ken Bruen. I love A Song of Ice and Fire, but I'd mostly want to spend the afternoon with GRRM so I could pick his brain about the series and finally get some answers that fans of the series have been relentlessly searching for.

Overall, Ken Bruen is probably my favorite author. He has a very distinctive style, and has led a genuinely interesting life. I know that he'd have a lot of good stories to tell, and he seems like he'd be a pretty normal, down-to-earth guy.


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

Living or dead? Jane Austen. Also, Bernard Cornwell.


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## wdeen (Dec 29, 2011)

Mark Twain.


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## Rebecca Burke (May 9, 2011)

Mark Twain's definitely a good choice, re: the commenter before this one. A modern humorist I'd love to hang with would be Bill Bryson, and I think given our Midwest backgrounds, we might even have enough in common to get through a whole afternoon.  Some people would be too intimidating though I admire them or their novels--Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, e.g.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

I'm lucky enough to have had dinner with a few of the authors already mentioned - one of the perks of working one's fingers to the bone running fantasy conventions in the past. And I did once spend an evening which included listening to Stephen King play guitar with his band!


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## digibooker (Feb 18, 2012)

Chuck Palaniuk or Jonny Gibbings. I'm lucky enough to be booked onto one of Gibbings's readings when the paper version is out. Apparently, at one of the kindle readings a guy laughed so much he threw up! His blog is just amazingly funny too (but RUDE!)


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## JEV (Jan 7, 2012)

Jonathon Franzen, but mostly to dish about Oprah.


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## Etienne (Feb 18, 2012)

The late writer, thinker and Sufi teacher, Idries Shah; or JK Rowling. I know that the critics didn't like it, but I found the biopic _Magic Beyond Words_ really moving, and I could really identify with her early struggle.


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## swlothian (Feb 20, 2012)

Without a doubt it would be ....
J.K. Rowling

If she was already on another engagement it would be ...
Matthew Reilly


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

For me, I'd actually love to have a lunch event with Amanda Hocking.  Sure, she's not a mega-star or any such, but one thing about her that strikes me as quite desirable is the fact that in spite of her rise to fame/riches, she seems to have quite honestly stayed very much grounded.  I have seen other writers/people go through similar or smaller rises and they've become quite ... undesirable, so I'm curious to see what it is about Amanda that keeps her abnormally "normal".


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## Miriam Minger (Nov 27, 2010)

Johanna Lindsey...to thank her for the inspiration.

Miriam Minger


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## Shaun Eyles (Mar 25, 2012)

I'd have to resurrect Robert Jordan.


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## Darlene Jones (Nov 1, 2011)

Robert J Sawyer. He's intelligent and witty and caring and willing to share his knowledge and expertise.


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## Shaun Eyles (Mar 25, 2012)

Shaun Eyles said:


> I'd have to resurrect Robert Jordan.


I'd also resurrect Richard Laymon. Does that mean I only want to spend time with dead people? I should have been a mortician.


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## glennlangohr (Nov 15, 2011)

Lee Childs, Nora Jones, Steven King, oh yeah pick one... Um Jackie Collins.


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## Matthew Lee Adams (Feb 19, 2012)

Mark Twain if he were still around.  Otherwise, Stephen King.

I have to say that I often found Stephen King's "Forewords" and "Afterwords" as entertaining as his stories.  The ones accompanying "Skeleton Crew" and "Different Seasons" were especially great.  Wonderful storyteller and great with choice and delivery of perfect anecdotes.


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## brianjanuary (Oct 18, 2011)

Robert E. Howard. Maybe Colin Wilson--he's out there, but he would be very interesting to talk to!


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

Diana Gabaldon


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## JMiddleton (Mar 29, 2012)

Tennyson, without a doubt in my mind. His poetry takes me away to other worlds effortlessly.

For novels I would like to spend an afternoon with Kuki Gallmann, the author of I Dreamed Of Africa. My goodness what a life she has lead and continues to lead. Such an inspiration to me.


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## Shawn Mackey (Mar 28, 2012)

Either Fyodor Dostoevsky or Robert E Howard, just to find out if they were really as nutty as the characters they created.


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## antheajane (Mar 29, 2012)

Faulkner


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## lea_owens (Dec 5, 2011)

Lorenzo de Medici. I have been enamoured of him since studying European History in school back in 1974. Unfortunately, being dead for so long and only speaking 15th Century Italian while I only speak English might be a distinct disadvantage during our afternoon together, but I would show him my English translations of his verse and letters and hope our sign language and pictographs might suffice.


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## Guest (Mar 30, 2012)

Gabriel García Márquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude opened up so many avenues of expression and imagination.


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