When my first book was published (in late 2012, by Fireship Press), I didn't include a list of questions for book clubs. Silly me, I was new at all of this, and I just figured that people in book clubs could probably think up their own questions.
Well, since then I've been seeing lists of questions for book clubs every time I turn around. So, on the assumption that "better late than never" applies here, I have turned my attention to compiling a list of appropriate questions for any book clubs that might happen upon my book. I can see a trend when it hits me over the head with a sledgehammer.
First, I browsed online for a couple of minutes -- oops, I mean I did extensive research on what should go into such a list. I did find one site, LitLovers, which had a list of general questions that could apply to any novel, and my first thought was to gently parody it, but it actually turned out to be a really good list, so I dropped that idea, even though this is my close-to-April-1 post and therefore you can't expect me to be entirely serious.
Instead, I have come up with this list of 10 questions, specific to A Thing Done. If you've read the book, I'm sure you'll be able to answer them all brilliantly. If you haven't -- well, you didn't think I could get through a post like this one without a buy link, did you? Try here.
1. When you picked up this book, did you realize that it didn't contain a single Tudor? or even a Borgia? Be honest.
2. You have just read a historical novel that does not have either a female protagonist or (probably) anybody you've ever heard of. Did you survive this experience? Would you consider repeating it with a different book?
3. Does the fact that this period has not been featured in a television miniseries suggest to you that it counts as unusual, or off-the-beaten-track? Discuss.
4. Did you think the Fool was a reliable or unreliable narrator, or some of each? If he was unreliable, on what topic(s) did he fail to give us complete and accurate information?
5. Who were the good guys, the proto-Guelfs or the proto-Ghibellines? Did you know that's what they were?
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| Proto-Guelfs and Proto-Ghibellines |
6. Did you notice that the tower the Fool is gazing at on the cover looks a lot like the Palazzo Vecchio (which wasn't even built yet in 1216)? Do you care?
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| Tower of the Palazzo Vecchio |
8. Did you figure out the significance of the title, or did you forget to space back on your Kindle to get to the Dante quote at the beginning?
9. Do you think that sometimes survival is as close to a happy ending as life is gonna get?
10. Would you like some more wine? Red or white?
Images in this post are in the public domain, with the exception of the picture of the Palazzo Vecchio, which is licensed to JoJan via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, and the picture from the show The Borgias, author: Showtime, licensed to IraqChurch via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license, both via Wikimedia Commons.
2 comments:
Clever, clever girl. I love a writer with a sense of humour!
Thanks, Prue. I think that these days a writer has to have a sense of humor, just to survive. I can thank my dad, who had a genius for seeing the inherent absurdity in just about everything. He was a delightfully whimsical man.
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