Simple You Tell Me today.
Which writer would you most like to meet?
Let’s go with one dead and one living.
For me:
Dead – F. Scott Fitzgerald. He’d know the trendy spot to hang out and we’d have a great time until he stuck me with the bill at the end of the night. (Kidding! I would have insisted on paying. My imagination is quite thorough.)
Living – J.K. Rowling. SO MANY QUESTIONS.
How about you?
Nikki says
Dead: Oscar Wilde
Alive: Toni Morrison
Anonymous says
Dead: Mario Puzo. Come on, The Godfather! Living: Harlan Coben. Such a great sense of humor.
Michael Clutton says
Dead… Edgar Rice Burroughs or Robert Heinlein
Alive… Charlaine Harris
Nancy Thompson says
Dead: Jane Austen
Alive: Colin Falconer
Shell says
Dead: J. R. R. Tolkien. I hope he's still writing.
Alive: J. K. Rowling. I hope she's still writing too.
And I did meet Lloyd Alexander, who was one of the kindest, most generous people ever, so he's on the list of authors I wanted to meet and got to.
Lillian Grant says
I would have loved to have met Hunter S. Thompson
and to meet
Stephen King
KareeniaRN says
Dead: Ernest Hemmingway, his writings were so though provoking.
Alive: Tim Lahaye, he stirs my soul and makes me want to read more.
Anonymous says
Would like to meet in person – no one. But I meet them everytime I read what they write. It is all about their thoughts and words.
Robert says
Dead: Homer
Living: Brandon Sanderson
R Elland says
Hmn, Good question.
And it has its history.
I've already met Kathryn Kurtz, who I love for the Deryni Chronicles. I had a chance to sit down nearly one on one with the lady. And it was talking with her that led me to start actually writing.
Sadly it was the death of Marion Zimmer Bradley that led me to "want" to start writing. Because I didn't want to just sit around wishing for such meetings with my favorite writers. I wanted to be one of them someday.
As for one living that I haven't met. That would be Jim Butcher. Happily he lives in the same state I do, and it's his Dresden Files that has inspired me to do my own type of series of modern day sci-fantasy style of books.
P.A.Brown says
Dead — Raymond Chandler. Drink at his favorite L.A. bar.
Living — Joseph Wambaugh hands down.
aurorio says
dead: margaret mitchell
alive: bill bryson. i have a feeling he'd have me rolling with laughter.
kdrausin says
E.B. White and Sue Monk Kidd
Cornell Deville says
So many choices. Must choose wisely.
Dead: Jules Verne
Living: Stephen King
Daphne Wedig says
Dead: Hemingway … although I'd probably end up flirting with him.
Alive: James Patterson. He seems like such a nice guy!
Katie Ford Hall says
Living — Mary Oliver. How she gets so much mileage out of nature is beyond me. Dead — Zora Neale Hurston. Serious groundbreaker.
Joanne Sheppard says
Dead: George Orwell. If he wasn't dead already, he probably would be by the time I'd finished asking him all the questions I've got for him.
Alive: Alan Garner. I'd like to ask him how he manages to say so much in so very, very few words, and to discuss his views on psychogeography.
mshatch says
Stephen King, because whether you like him or not (I do) you have to admit he's doing something right and Marion Zimmer Bradley, because the Mists of Avalon was brilliant and I loved the Darkover series.
Southpaw199 says
Dead: Douglas Adams
Living: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Patti Struble says
Dead – Chaucer. All that commentary; I wonder how he really feels.
Living – Christopher Moore. I laugh 'til it hurts.
Brad says
Stephen King and Dave Barry. Both have been very influential in my work.
Henriette Power says
Ian McEwan. But I met him last night, which was amazing. So now I resort to dead writers: Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. Preferably together, over a pint.
lodjohnson says
Dead – Tolkien – the master of all
Alive – Stephen King
ElizaJane says
I'd give, well, some spare finger or toe perhaps, to have met Antonia Forest.
Living authors… well, I did get to meet Ellen Klages (she read my first three chapters! She loved them!). I suppose I'd like to meet Hilary Mantel. Christa Wolf must be a very interesting person but I think I'd find her quite frightening, and not just because she's German!
In real life, I've just been invited to have dinner with Peter Greenaway. Now how cool is that??
Tammy says
Dead: I would go tear it up with Oscar Wilde, not so much for his writing, but we could sip some absinthe and hang out at a brothel.
Living: Caleb Carr. I love his vocabulary.
ElizaJane says
Henriette, You met Ian McEwan last night? Where? How did it happen? He wouldn't be my number one choice but definitely up there.
Terin Tashi Miller says
Dead: Ernest M. Hemingway, because I'm still curious how someone who could write so well, so purely, was by most accounts largely an abusive, insensitve jerk.
Living: Khaled Hosseini, because he writes so well and appears to not be an abusive, insensitive jerk.
Anonymous says
Dead: C.S. Lewis (partly because I love his work and partly because his wife had the same name I do, and I like weird synchronicities like that.
Living: Stephen King (natch) or Harlan Ellison, mostly because I love his writing and because he'd be sure to do or say something inappropriate that I could trade for free drinks at future SF conventions.
KK says
Dead – C.S. Lewis, gotta find out how The Dark Tower was going to end! His writings blow me away, especially his essays. His intellect was beyond this world.
Living – Rowling is awesome in many ways but I appreciate the craziness of Doug Adams as well. What a combination that would be! Hard to pick one.
Jacqui Pirl says
Alive: Harper Lee
Deceased: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John…one of the authors of any of the scriptures in the Bible. Then I 'd write my own best seller after that interview called What really happened in Galilee!
wendy says
I'm enjoying reading these answers; so interesting and identifiable, some so humble. I'm not sure who I'd like to meet. Perhaps alive Anne Rice and departed Emily Bronte and also, perhaps Enid Blyton. The first two are great proponents of gothic lit and Enid's books were my favourite reads as a child, and her method of writing was fascinating. She would see everything unfold as clearly as if watching a TV show, which is how she could create so many works so quickly.
Anonymous says
I'd only bore them .
SueO says
Alive: Terry Pratchett, although it would break my heart to see the ravages of Alzheimer on such a creative writer.
Dead: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Dawn Maria says
Jane Austen all the way. Living author? I've been fortunate enough to meet many favorites like Jane Green, Claire Cook, even Anne Rice, but I'd have to go with Lois Duncan. Her YA books were my favorites growing up.
sally apokedak says
Dead CS Lewis
Living JI Packer
E. L. Psomiadis says
dead – Elmer Kelton
alive – Stephen King
randi says
Dead…going way back – Ovid (I'm a sucker for mythology, and Metamorphoses was pretty brilliant)
Alive…Suzanne Collins.
Loree H says
Dead: Ambrose Bierce and from the opposite end of the spectrum – Jane Austen
Living: Harper Lee and John Irving
-and too many other favorites I didn't mention.
Michelle @ The True Book Addict says
First, I have to admit to being a terrible lurker around your blog! But I do read it…honest. Wonderful advice here!
Now, to answer your question:
living: Anne Rice
dead: Charles Dickens
Madeleine says
Dead: Charlotte Bronte
Living: Kiersten White (I love her!)
Jackie Brown says
Notwithstanding Florida's being the boil on the armpit of the nation, I would have loved hanging out with Zora Neale Hurston on her houseboat.
Living? Richard Price, the king of dialogue.
Laurie Wood says
Dead: William Faulkner – his book "As I Lay Dying" is one of my all time favourites.
Alive: Barbara Erskine – her historicals are beyond amazing.
brianw says
Dead-Robert Jordan. Is he really as smart as I think he is?
Living-JK Rowling. Harry Potter. Enough said.
Melanie says
Alive: Carole Maso because everything she says is gospel to me. She's a contemporary Virginia Woolf with newer tools and a fearlessness about her writing that no one else can match and, dammit, she deserves more recognition.
Dead: Nabokov. (Although I'm pleased to see the Kerouac representation here and wouldn't refuse him a seat at the table. Nabokov might.)
Kate says
Dead – Mark Twain. I bet he was a hoot.
Alive – Larry McMurtry, or Janet Fitch, or maybe even the elusive Mr. McCarthy.
C.C. Harrison says
Brad Meltzer! I'd love to meet and hang out with Brad Meltzer. Maybe have lunch. He's adorable, writes the best emails, and I love his books. He just seems like a great guy, and would be fun to talk to. I'd like to talk to him about how he develops his characters.
Nicole MacDonald says
Michael Crighton – AMAZING writer
and Diana Gabaldon 🙂 Same reason!
https://damselinadirtydress.blogspot.com
bfav says
I'd mix it up with Amy Tan and Alex(and change) Dumas.
scottwbaker.net says
Wow. This is tough. I just met SO many writers a couple weeks ago…who's left?
Dead: Phillip K Dick – I bet he has as many stories about Tim Powers as Tim has about him.
Alive: Orson Scott Card or Piers Anthony, two of my inspirations. If I had to choose one…Piers.
Jasmine says
Alive: S.E. Hinton–just to say thank you for creating a brand new genre
Dead: Shakespeare–just to ask how he got those ideas.