Q: What do you think the line is between science fiction and fantasy?

A: Fantasy is when one person (the chosen one, the princess, the person who's pure of heart) gets a flying carpet. Science fiction is when EVERYONE gets a hoverboard. So the sf narrative is like our world--any change you make as a writer has to ripple across the entire planet.

Q: Which book of the His Dark Materials series is your favorite?

A: Mmm … the first one probably. The cool stuff just keeps hitting you and throwing you off balance. By the second one, you're ready for what's coming … almost.

Q: If you had a daemon, what would it be like?

A: Probably a cat. One of those ones who always looks bored.

Q: Would you want to have your own alethiometer, like Lyra's in the His Dark Materials series?

A: I wouldn't trust myself to ever put it down. I mean, I lost about five years to Tetris!

Q: If you could (jokingly!) put Philip Pullman on trial for one thing, the way Kathleen Jefferie Johnson does in The World of the Golden Compass, what would it be?

A: I think Kathleen hit the nail on the head: his books can be kind of depressing.

Q: If you could have any surgery done, like in Aya's city in Extras, what would you choose?

A: I'd definitely want lots of different kinds of vision, and probably better hearing too. When you start seeing and hearing in a different way, the whole world changes around you.

Q: Your books often involve invented slang. Why, and how do you come up with it all?

A: Slang tells you a lot about what's important to a culture, so I'd hate to ever do without it. How I invent it is partly mysterious to me. It has to SOUND right, or I can't use it. But I'm not sure why any particular bit of slang sounds right, except that it's fun to say outloud.

Q: What are you working on right now?

A: I'm doing a trilogy that has a few things in common with His Dark Materials. It's set in an alternate history, in a 1914 with very different science and technology. It's going to be illustrated, which is the coolest thing about it.

Q: If you could tell us to read one book this year, what would it be?

A: Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin is quite amazing. It's about a Haitian immigrant family in New York. It has lots of problem novel stuff, like an abusive stepdad, but the point of view is so different from a typical U.S.-born kid that it almost feels like science fiction.