Fortunately for us all, Roger and his blog will not — as Susan put it<\/a><\/strong> in the comments section of the aforementioned Mitali link — brush past you in the hallway, shoving you into a locker and giving you the ‘ol brush-off. He has agreed to an interview in our fledgling Seven Impossible Interviews Before Breakfast series. <\/p>\n With the previous interviews, we’ve written a here’s-why-we-love-so-and-so’s-blog introduction. How to do that now without, frankly, looking like we’re sucking up (seeing as how we both enjoy The Horn Book’s<\/em> reviews and articles and since his blog happens to be our dreamiest blog-crush of all)? Well, you’ll just have to believe that we’re not being phony when we say: Roger is sharp and funny; he’s not afraid to speak his mind and never minces words; he doesn’t tend to ramble on his blog and does a fine job of throwing out ‘lil thought-provokers into his corner of cyberspace and then directing the discussion in a productive manner. And he never takes himself too seriously. Good things all. We likey (did we just say “we likey”? How’s that for a statement to impress our one, true blog-crush).<\/p>\n He also is very evidently a good sport, ’cause he answered all our weird questions and even the obvious-for-him ones (specifically, we mean “what do you do for a living?” AS IF we all don’t know, but he responded anyway).<\/p>\n Wait, two more things: he totally kicked Dr. Ruth’s ass<\/strong><\/a> on Scarborough Country<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n And he’s been cartoonified<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n So, let’s get right to our profile of the respectable Mr. Sutton. Two quick matters of business, though:<\/p>\n First, as for Mitali Perkins’<\/a><\/strong> intriguing suggestion (mentioned here<\/a><\/strong> in the comments section of our most recent interview) that we ask bloggers what their most controversial post has been or<\/em> one they most regret publishing or<\/em> if they’ve ever significantly edited or deleted a post and why . . . well, we likey that, too. But these questions were zipped off to Roger before<\/em> that suggestion was made. Hence that omission. And he’s a busy editor, we’re sure, so we weren’t about to email him again<\/em> to grill him further.<\/p>\n Secondly, here’s our Perfunctory Curse Word Disclaimer<\/em>: Remember that we use the Pivot Questionnaire<\/a><\/strong> in our interviews. Remember that it includes the what-is-your-favorite-curse-word question. It’s optional for folks to answer, but if they do, we will not edit their responses in any way; yup, we’ll post their responses exactly<\/em> as they send them to us. Some people might not use “*”s to edit their saucy words. If you’re easily offended, just don’t read that question.<\/p>\n We now present to you Mr. Roger Sutton, and we thank him kindly for taking the time to play along — especially for sending the wonderfully surly photo, which is entitled Angry Irish Poet (for, um, whatever reason). Really, though, it does look like he could totally take Seamus Heaney<\/strong><\/a> down in a bar fight, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n What do you do for a living?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: Editor in Chief of The Horn Book, Inc.<\/strong><\/a><\/em> since 1996.<\/p>\n How long have you been blogging?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: I guess a bit more than a year.<\/p>\n Why did you start blogging? Why do you continue to do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: We started it as both a marketing tool and a way to cover news that would be stale if served in the bimonthly Horn Book<\/em> Magazine. I also find it a great place for trying out ideas I might later develop more in print and for shooting off my mouth.<\/p>\n Which blog or site would you take to the prom {or, in this case, to the junior high dance} to show off and you love it so much you could marry it?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: I love to read “The L Word”<\/a><\/strong> recaps at afterellen.com<\/a><\/strong>, and I get my gossip from datalounge.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n What are your other favorite things to do, other than reading and blogging?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: Reading for pleasure gets a bit complicated when it\u2019s what you also do for a living. I love to run (slowly but steadily), read road maps (although I don\u2019t know how to drive), and watch t.v. with my boyfriend (our favorite is “24”).<\/p>\n What’s in heavy rotation on your stereo\/iPod lately?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: On my iPod, I\u2019ve been listening a lot to Alexandre Desplat\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> score for “The Queen”<\/a><\/strong> and the new Bird and the Bee<\/a><\/strong> album. At home I almost always listen to classical: lots of opera, Messiaen<\/a><\/strong>, Elgar<\/a><\/strong>, and I\u2019m working my way through John Eliot Gardiner\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> Bach cantatas.<\/p>\n If you could have three (living) authors over for coffee or a glass of rich, red wine, whom would you choose?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: Um, I\u2019ll go with movie stars, Alex: Julia Roberts, George Clooney, and Catherine Deneuve.<\/p>\n What’s one thing that not many people know about you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: I was once touched by an angel. Yup. Really.<\/p>\n The Pivot Questionnaire:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n What is your favorite word?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: “Both”<\/p>\n What is your least favorite word?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: Any transitive verb used intransitively, like \u201cline-and-wash pictures illustrate.”<\/p>\n What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: Rain.<\/p>\n What turns you off?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: High School Musical<\/em><\/p>\n What is your favorite curse word? <\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: \u201cfucking\u201d (adj.)<\/p>\n What sound or noise do you love? <\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: Traffic.<\/p>\n What sound or noise do you hate? <\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: You know, I think I like them all.<\/p>\n What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? <\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: Weatherman.<\/p>\n What profession would you not like to do? <\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: Concert pianist.<\/p>\n If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger<\/strong>: \u201cGood dog.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To run with Mitali Perkins’ analogy of middle school (or junior high school) crush-like feelings and someone on a blog you really admire mentioning your name or your blog (the so-called blog-crush phenomenon), Roger Sutton’s blog is the coolest, hottest guy sweeping past your shoulder in the hallway (okay, we feel weird just having called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}