Hey everyone! Clara Kensie here. A few times a month at Adventures in YA Publishing, I post a question for you and the Adventures in YA team to answer. The questions cover all topics important to writers and book lovers: craft, career, reading, books, and more. Join the discussion!

Question of the Week:

If you had the opportunity to visit (or even live in) a fictional place, which one would you choose?

photo credit: andy castro via photopin cc

Katharyn Sinelli: It’s a toss up between Diagon Alley and Lyra’s Oxford from The Golden Compass. In one place I could do some magical back to school shopping. In the other, I’d get to have an animal daemon I could always talk to. Better than talking to myself.

Lisa Green: I know it’s the “cop-out” answer, but come on! HOGWARTS! Who wouldn’t? I loved Hunger Games and all, but I don’t want to be involved. LOL I would just adore a magic castle where I got to actually use magic. Wow. *drools a little* Sorry. It’s total and complete wish fulfillment. Every morning when I leave my house to take kids to school we hear an owl hooting. And every morning I tell them he must be trying to get us our Hogwarts letters, but got lost. Dumb owl.

Alyssa Hamilton: I have a few but one that has always stuck for me is Libba Bray’s England in A Great and Terrible Beauty. I know it isn’t fictional but I’ve always loved the time period and I absolutely love the school. The other one I would choose would probably be Narnia! I’ve been obsessed with that world since I was little and I loved the snow covered landscape.

Martina Boone: Definitely not Panem. Just saying. I’d love to go to Hogwarts, though. Are you kidding? How amazing would that be? As long as it came with a wand and a Hermione-style ability to use it. If not, then pass, because Voldemort. One place I would love to go? The island of Thisby, because fairy horses.

Clara Kensie: Hogwarts, of course. No question about that. I also have to confess that I’d love to visit Derry or Castle Rock. If you know these places by name alone, then you and I are instant friends. These fictional Maine towns are the settings of many of Stephen King’s novels, novellas, and short stories. To name a few: IT, THE DEAD ZONE, CUJO, THE DARK HALF, NEEDFUL THINGS, INSOMNIA, BAG OF BONES, and THE BODY (which became the movie Stand By Me). He refers to Derry and Castle Rock in many of his other works, and it’s always a thrill to catch a glimpse of these towns in his other books (betcha didn’t know that Red from The Shawshank Redemption is from Castle Rock). Yes, Stephen King writes horror, so bad things happen in these places, and I suppose most people would think that’s a turn-off. But I’ve been reading Mr. King’s books since I was eleven years old, and these places are so familiar to me that I feel like a part of me grew up in Derry and Castle Rock. If they were real places, I would definitely love to visit. Even if Pennywise the clown was still there.

YOUR TURN: If you could visit a fictional place from a novel, which one would you pick? Maybe Hogwarts? Narnia? Panem? Oz? Neverland or Wonderland? Bon Temps? Westeros or Middle Earth?