What is your idea of perfect happiness?
MFP: Winning a major literary award while wearing ridiculously fashionable clothes that happen to be sustainable and made by well-paid workers, all while remaining humble and hungry for new writing.
What is your greatest fear?
MFP: Crocodiles… and AI writing.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
MFP: Gluttony. (I blame my grandmother, who stored chocolate bars for us as SNACKS!!)
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
MFP: Gleeful ignorance.
Which living person do you most admire?
MFP: The flesh-and-blood Italian writer—certainly a woman, despite rumours—behind the pen name Elena Ferrante.
What is your greatest extravagance?
MFP: I have lavished the most time, unpaid hours, blood, sweat and tears on my books: two decades’ worth! Save me from myself. Please.
What is your state of mind right now?
MFP: Mixed. I woke up positive and energized… then chipped a crown at breakfast. So, I guess, cautiously optimistic, with a side of “get-real”?