Hi, Daniel,
Thanks for posting. I’m pleased to hear that my books have been making a hit with you. BTW, there are now 8 books in the SWINDLE series, so you’ve got some catching up to do.
Your questions:
1) I learned that timing is everything in the telling of a story. I learned what people like to read, and also what they don’t. And I learned that anyone intelligent can write intelligently. The trick is to write something that someone else will want to read!
2) A “good book” is, of course, different things to different people. Basically, a book has to be interesting, or your audience is lost after a couple of pages — if they last that long! And, for me, a book has to have characters that people will like, will even root for.
3) I have no favorites among my books, but I’m usually “into” the newest ones. So I guess that makes my current “favorites” the MASTERMINDS series, the new SWINDLE, called JINGLE, and the most recent single, SLACKER. I’d have to pick Cameron Boxer of SLACKER as the favorite character, mostly because I’ve based him pretty closely on my older son, who is a great kid.
OK? Hope all that is helpful for your research project. Thanks again, Daniel.
Best regards,
—-Gordon Korman—-