DEVELOPMENT AS A WRITER AND WRITING IN GENERAL

• Did you always want to be a writer?
• What did you read as a child?
• How do you get an idea for a book?
• Do you plan out the whole book before you write it?
• Describe a typical writing day.
• What writing rituals do you have?
• What do you do when you have writer's block?
• How do you balance writing and being a mother?
• Are your books or characters autobiographical?
• Why do you set your novels in the past?
• What kind of research do you do for your books?
• Which is your favorite of your books?
• You studied for an MA in creative writing. How useful was it for you to attend such a course? Can writing be taught?
• Do you consider yourself a feminist writer?
• What advice can you give to writers starting out?
• How do you go about getting a book published?
• Which living author do you most admire and why?
• What writers do you like to read?

QUESTIONS ABOUT GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

• What inspired you to write about the girl in Vermeer's painting?
• Why did you make the girl a servant?
• How much of the story is true? Did Griet really exist?
• How long did it take you to write it?
• How did you research the book?
• Do you paint, or have you ever modeled for a painting?
• Do you have any training as an art historian?
• How did you decide on names for your characters? How are they
  pronounced?
• Why did you end it the way you did?
• Does Griet love Vermeer? Does Vermeer love Griet?
• Who is the father of Griet’s eldest son?
• Did you have an overall message you wished to convey through the book?
• Why has the book been so successful?
• Why do you think there is such a big interest in Vermeer these days? Why do people like his paintings so much?

QUESTIONS ABOUT FALLING ANGELS

• What was it like, writing this book after the great success of Girl with a Pearl Earring?
• Why did you set the book in a cemetery?
• How did you do your research?
• There are several distinct narrative voices in the book. Why did you write the novel in that style, rather than as a straight story with one narrator?
• Which is your favorite character in the book?
• Why did you do that to Ivy May?
• What are mutes?
• Do you plan to write a sequel?

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE VIRGIN BLUE

• Is the book autobiographical?
• Why is the ending so unresolved?
• What happens to Isabelle?
• Why does Jacob go west?
• What happens to Ella?
• Who is Elisabeth Moulinier?
• What about that thing with the hearth?