Welcome back to The Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe, a recurring series here on Tor.com featuring some of our favorite science fiction and fantasy authors, artists, and others!
Today we’re joined by Ginn Hale, a Lambda Literary Award finalist and a Spectrum Award winning author for her novel, Wicked Gentlemen. Ginn’s latest novel, Champion of the Scarlet Wolf (available now from Blind Eye Books), returns to the fantasy world of her previous series, Lord of the White Hell. Read an excerpt from the novel here on Tor.com.
Join us!
You wake up tomorrow morning as the antagonist in your novel, Champion of the Scarlet Wolf, what do you do to change the ending for yourself?
A tough one straight out of the gate. In Champion the antagonists are ancient gods and demons who have survived from ages of lore. The qualities that made them so powerful in their own times are also those that lead to their defeat.
So what to do?
Get with the times! It’s 1356, after all!
Sure, I’m a ten-story snake-demon made entirely of flames, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get involved with my local guilds, pen a scathing play and protest the outrageous butter taxes… or maybe I’ll just stick with what I know and devour everyone in a riot of flames that will shine for days!
Strangest thing you’ve learned while researching a book?
While writing Champion of the Scarlet Wolf I did a great deal of reading up about bears —modern species as well as the short nosed giants of previous ages. Not only did I discover that Polar Bears possess partially webbed feet and that they have black skin beneath their white-appearing fur (it’s actually colorless and hollow), but also, their stomachs can hold 150lbs of meat and they can run 40 miles an hour… which means one could eat my entire body, as well as my faithful husky and still jog along at a good clip.
If you could choose your own personal theme song to play every time you enter a room, what would you pick?
I’d love to claim that my theme music should be something dramatic and moody, like “A Champion Rises” by Kerry Muzzey, but the song that’s running through my head now is “Mahna Mahna” from The Muppet Show.
If you regenerated as a new Doctor, what would your signature outfit be?
Red hoody
Striped socks
Black and white converse…wait, that’s what I’m wearing now—Woah, am I already a Timelord?
Battle to the death, which weapon do you choose: A) Phaser, B) Lightsaber, or C) Wand?
Hmmm, since phasers and lightsabers are fictional weapons, I’m going to go with the wand and sharpen that stick into a handy shank.
If you could name a planet after anyone (other than yourself), who would you choose and why?
I have to choose my wife. How could that not pay off for me?
Having finally established communication with a distant alien species, what’s the first thing that we should tell them about humans?
How bad we taste.
Which language, real or fictional, would you like the ability to speak fluently? Who would you talk to?
Cat. So I could tell mine to stop chewing through all of my electrical wires. Though likely she wouldn’t stop anyway.
Is it too late to change my answer?
What is your ideal pet (real or fictional)?
A cat that doesn’t chew through electrical cables.
