Frequent flyer, things I do (not already mentioned by others):

Thank you all very much for hosting and for asking such fun questions! Hope you have a lovely week. If you'd like to follow my blog it's here: http://gailcarriger.livejournal.com/ and http://gailcarriger.blogspot.com/ . I'm also on Facebook and Twitter where I fritter away far too much time posting about Victorian…

It is. I believe in leaving a party while I am still enjoying it, and, perhaps more importantly, while others are still enjoying my company. I've never been a "beat that dead horse, beat it!" kind of author.

I believe I already answered this question at the beginning?

I wrote Soulless to stand alone, and it was only during contract negotiations that I realized editors were interested in two books. I went back through on rewrites and changed it to be more open and drop in threads to pick up later. Luckily had that almost a year of contract negotiations and could tinker as I liked.…

No. No. No. And, um, no. Oh good, that was an easy one!

They are all parodies: Soulless = Victorian romance (ah la Gaskell); Changeless = classic Gothic (a la Walpole); Blameless = Boy's Adventure (ah la Haggard); Heartless = Cozy (ah la Doyle); and Timeless = fictionalize travel (ah la Kipling). Soulless is on the nose romance template for the time, those are some of my…

Gail is the name of the train upon which my Grandfather came home from WWII. Carriger is the street next to my favorite vineyard. I created it because I thought I woudl stay in academia and continue publishing academic articles, and I thought a separation would be good. I'll keep it for now, it's serving me well. And…

No magic, as it were. In my world that's the rather pooh-poohed occult. But there are other variants of vampires, werewolves, and ghosts all over the world. Darwin has is analysis of the supernatural as well as the natural, so to speak.

Well, she's very practical in all her responses. So her instincts are cerebral, even culturally scientific. But she still has a heart and loves. I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. I hope not, or I'm in real trouble. I guess I relate to her, although she does annoy me at times, so I hope readers do too.

My greatest fear is obsession, so my villains tend to be obsessed. Vampires are villainous because if one lives long enough one is going to get funny about the head and rather disconnected with the world. Werewolves in my universe don't tend to live nearly as long, so they are slightly less psychopathic. Also this…

No, but I worked for years at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose. New Kingdom Egypt is one of my favorite times in history. The Etruscan site in Blameless is based on one of my first excavations.

This is very similar to the first question, and my answer is similar. Because I wanted to read it. I was frustrated that Urban Fantasy and Steampunk was usually so dark. I saw a lack of humor in SF/F and of women writign humor in particular. They are there, but not common. I like to read funny, watch funny, be…

Thank you kindly, but I do slip up. And the internet usually lets me know. I do my best by immersing myself in primary sources and BBC costume drams to try and color the voice when I'm writing the draft. It isn't fully Victorian because I do want it to be readable and assessable to a modern reader. I have a number of…

I say it: Ak-el-DA-ma

From the very beginning. I knew the only accessory a lady always carried (at this time) that was big enough for me to steampunk up into the Swiss army knife I imagined was the parasol. So parasol it had to be.

I'm a militant outliner. For Soulless I even had page numbers where events had to take place. Lately, I'm a little less strict, but I always outline. I usually start with about a page of bullet point notes (in plot sequence) from what I handed in on proposal. Then I brainstorm and reread for a few days to get that up…

Architect. I can't even go out for a bike ride if I don't have a goal and a reason and a plan of action. I'm also one of those readers who picks up a book and flips to the last page. I read all the spoilers for movies. I have to know everything will turn out OK or I won't engage.

I don't think it would have occurred to Alexia to be mercenary. She's also not very motherly. I suspect that until there was a reality of Prudence, she didn't really think of her as an actual human entity. Which, for Alexia, makes the unborn child a viable bargaining ship. Also I suspect her of always planning on…

Four books total. And I'm rather enjoying writing a series knowing exactly how many books there will be!