12 Curly Questions with author Lynette Noni

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.
I fell off my horse when I was 16 and broke a bone in my neck. It’s actually a funny(?) story since I hurt my knee bad enough to need an x-ray, but since my neck was stiff as well, they checked that, only to find it was where the worst damage was, not my knee!

2. What is your nickname?
When I was studying at uni, one of my housemates affectionately called me 'splinter-butt' because I was so bad at making decisions that it was as if I was always sitting on the fence. Thankfully, that nickname didn’t get used by anyone else, haha. To my friends and family, I’m just Lyn — nice and simple!

3. What is your greatest fear?
After way too many traumatic encounters, I have a deep terror of huntsman spiders. I’m okay(ish) with smaller spiders, but those beasties haunt my nightmares. *Shudders*

4. Describe your writing style in 10 words.
I write, first and foremost, what I want to read.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Creative, thoughtful, ambitious, heartfelt, passionate.

6. What book character would you be, and why?
Oh wow, that’s a tough one. Is there a character that can jump in and out of other books? Or, ooooh, actually, maybe I’d choose to be like Mo from Inkheart because he can bring things out of books just by reading aloud — but I’d want that ability without the curse of having to lose something (or someone) into the book every time it happens! Eeek!

7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
Somewhere in the future! I’d love to see how much things have changed in, say, 100 years. Alternatively, I’d love to go back and find out what happened to the Lost City of Atlantis!

8. What would your 10-year-old self say to you now?
Probably some random horse fact — I was obsessed with horses when I was 10, and my entire life revolved around them. My early love of reading even came from my obsession, since I would read anything and everything that had a horse on the cover!

9. Who is your greatest influence?
A lot of people have influenced and inspired me over the course of my life, so this is a difficult one for me to answer. But the first person who comes to mind is my mum, who raised me to believe I could become anything I wanted to be, and gave me her love of creativity in all its various forms.

10. What/who made you start writing?
I started writing in the post-Twilight era, when the YA market began to really gain some traction. There were so many books being released to meet the demand, and all the ones I read had different elements that I loved, but I wanted all those elements combined in one book. So I decided to try and write the book I wanted to read — and Akarnae was a result of that.

11. What is your favourite word and why?
It changes every day, but today, it’s 'effervescent'. Tomorrow it might be 'verisimilitude' or 'serendipity' or 'bubbles'. 'Kerfuffle' is always a good one, too, as is 'mellifluous'… and many, many others! I just love words! *Heart eyes*

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Nooooo, you can’t ask me this! Purely because I absolutely cannot answer! I have this motto: “Life is too short to read books you’re not enjoying.” So similarly, there’s no way I could read just one book for the rest of my life! (*Gasp* The horror!)

Australian author Lynette Noni studied journalism, academic writing, and human behaviour at university before venturing into the world of fiction. She is now a full-time writer and the #1 bestselling and award-winning author of The Medoran Chronicles, the Whisper duology, The Prison Healer and The Gilded Cage. For more information, see www.lynettenoni.com.