In which we become nervous...
Nov. 20th, 2004 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jesshartleyOkay, here is the interview meme...
1 - Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 -- I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 -- You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 -- You'll include this explanation.
5 -- You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
I got this from the fabulous Pete Woods, but I'm adding a stipulation... Since I have a bazillion people on my friends list, I'm going to only promise to take the first five people who ask to be interviewed. I may take more, but I don't want this to turn into a full time writing project over the next week or two! :)
So, raise your hand to be quizzed!
Oh, and here are the fabulous Pete Woods' interview questions and my answers...
1.- What compelled you to start writing professionally?
2.- I've never quite "gotten" the SCA- what do you enjoy about it?
3.- (The one I'm asking everyone) What's the worst accident you've ever been in?
4.- What person has been the most inspirational to you in your life? Why?
5.- If you could live anywhere/when where would it be?
1.- What compelled you to start writing professionally?
Pat's utter greed and laziness (she says with a level of tongue-in-cheekness that would shred a mortal mouth).
See, for some odd reason he didn't want to be on the "work til you die" plan, and while his job is lovely, it doesn't have a great retirement plan. So, a few years ago when we realized that we were neither one of us going to see the fair side of 30 again, we figured we'd better start planning for our future, if we wanted to have one that didnt' involve living on cat food and working at McDonalds until we were in our 90s.
I went back and got my Associate's Degree, but the money we had set aside for college had run out (child care is ungodly expensive) and I didn't want to take out college loans when I didn't know what I wanted to do with a degree. (I've seen way too many people with a BFA and a Burger King uniform to want to go into debt to get either one.)
So, I got an office job for about six months, but it really wasn't working for the family. My hours were awful (I got up at 4:30am every morning and was constantly exhausted), the pay was not enough to counterbalance the childcare before and after school and the extra expenses of having both of us working, and the job generally sucked. So, after six months, Pat basically begged me to quit and we sat down to decide what I could do from home that would eventually pay decently (we were doing fine on a month-to-month basis, but the goal was to have a decent secondary income by the time he was ready to retire) and would be enjoyable... and legal. (Which put the nix on several of the more lucrative options...)
Having decided against both the glamorous world of envelope stuffing and the financial stability of Tupperware sales, I assessed my skill set and settled on professional writing. I spent about a year writing everything I could get someone to pay me a red dime for, to build up my writing resume. During that time, I discovered that the "bad part" for me was the submissions process, so I decided to try my hand at writing novels, figuring that since I could only write a few novels a year, I would be minimizing the number of times I had to go through the submission process.
I sent some stuff I'd been working on to White Wolf (since I'd been an avid Camarilla Member for 6 years or so) and managed to sweet talk Philippe Boulle into adding me to their fiction writer's pool. My timing was totally lucky, and they announced a call for proposals for their upcoming Exalted fiction series within a week or two after that, and again my luck held when they accepted my proposal and contracted me to write In Northern Twilight...
The rest, they say, is a mystery... er... hysterical... er.. history. Something like that. I'm still just a baby guppy in the pond of writing, but I've gotten my foot in a door or two, and I'm running with it as long and hard as I can. :)
2.- I've never quite "gotten" the SCA- what do you enjoy about it?
I've always been fascinated by playing pretend. I also love myth and legend, and the SCA kind of calls on themes from the Arthurian legends (sometimes even more heavily than it does on historic reality). I love dressing up in elegant clothing and jewelry, the pomp and circumstance of court and heraldry, the honor and chivalry of tournaments, the courtesy, the learning, the creating of things, the bardic arts (I love to sing) and the "leaving the chores and bills and commercials behind and finding a place where we can sit and swap stories, teach and learn from each other, share our abilities and generally enjoy each other's company"... At it's best, it's noble and rich with the ideals that seem almost impossible to pursue in modern times. At it's worst, it's as bad as any other cliqueish group of humans struggling against each other... but at least sometimes, it's more of it's best than it's worse.
3.- (The one I'm asking everyone) What's the worst accident you've ever been in?
I've been really lucky (knock on wood). I have really only been in two "kind of" bad accidents. The first was about 19 years ago while I was pregnant with Nathan and a little sports car T-boned the front quarter panel of my parent's Mercury Zephyr. It totaled the car, but we were both okay (my sister and I). The second was during my last week or so of working at the office before I made the leap to try writing full time. It was really the final straw about my career. I'd basically spaced out at the wheel coming home from work in heavy traffic and rammed into the back of the truck in front of me. I wasn't hurt, but I was heartbroken, because I'd only had my car about a year (it was my first ever new car) and the front was all crumpled. I remember being in a sleep-dep/shock daze and all I could think was... "I broke my car... I broke my pretty car..." Luckily the people at the auto body place did a great job fixing it and I still have her to this day.
4.- What person has been the most inspirational to you in your life? Why?
Patrick. Without a doubt. He has gone from being that hottie viking I couldn't resist to being a man who I admire and strive to emulate constantly. He's noble, honorable, kind, friendly, loyal, sweet, funny, smart and has worked his butt off for years to provide everything his family could want or need. I have to urge him to do things for himself, because he's so giving and thoughtful that he'd put off doing everything he wants to make sure the rest of us can do/see/be/have/experience anything we would like. He's a rock of stability, a fire of creativity, an ocean of compassion and I'm honored to have him as my partner, love and best friend.
5.- If you could live anywhere/when where would it be?
Oh, that's not fair. That's like the "what is your favorite book" question! :) Ultimate, the simple answer is "near Patrick and the kids". The complex answer would be that I'm sure that any era/location I might consider would have as many drawbacks as it does advantages, and that I'm rather fond of right here and now. Life is good, and I am very happy.
1 - Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 -- I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 -- You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 -- You'll include this explanation.
5 -- You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
I got this from the fabulous Pete Woods, but I'm adding a stipulation... Since I have a bazillion people on my friends list, I'm going to only promise to take the first five people who ask to be interviewed. I may take more, but I don't want this to turn into a full time writing project over the next week or two! :)
So, raise your hand to be quizzed!
Oh, and here are the fabulous Pete Woods' interview questions and my answers...
1.- What compelled you to start writing professionally?
2.- I've never quite "gotten" the SCA- what do you enjoy about it?
3.- (The one I'm asking everyone) What's the worst accident you've ever been in?
4.- What person has been the most inspirational to you in your life? Why?
5.- If you could live anywhere/when where would it be?
1.- What compelled you to start writing professionally?
Pat's utter greed and laziness (she says with a level of tongue-in-cheekness that would shred a mortal mouth).
See, for some odd reason he didn't want to be on the "work til you die" plan, and while his job is lovely, it doesn't have a great retirement plan. So, a few years ago when we realized that we were neither one of us going to see the fair side of 30 again, we figured we'd better start planning for our future, if we wanted to have one that didnt' involve living on cat food and working at McDonalds until we were in our 90s.
I went back and got my Associate's Degree, but the money we had set aside for college had run out (child care is ungodly expensive) and I didn't want to take out college loans when I didn't know what I wanted to do with a degree. (I've seen way too many people with a BFA and a Burger King uniform to want to go into debt to get either one.)
So, I got an office job for about six months, but it really wasn't working for the family. My hours were awful (I got up at 4:30am every morning and was constantly exhausted), the pay was not enough to counterbalance the childcare before and after school and the extra expenses of having both of us working, and the job generally sucked. So, after six months, Pat basically begged me to quit and we sat down to decide what I could do from home that would eventually pay decently (we were doing fine on a month-to-month basis, but the goal was to have a decent secondary income by the time he was ready to retire) and would be enjoyable... and legal. (Which put the nix on several of the more lucrative options...)
Having decided against both the glamorous world of envelope stuffing and the financial stability of Tupperware sales, I assessed my skill set and settled on professional writing. I spent about a year writing everything I could get someone to pay me a red dime for, to build up my writing resume. During that time, I discovered that the "bad part" for me was the submissions process, so I decided to try my hand at writing novels, figuring that since I could only write a few novels a year, I would be minimizing the number of times I had to go through the submission process.
I sent some stuff I'd been working on to White Wolf (since I'd been an avid Camarilla Member for 6 years or so) and managed to sweet talk Philippe Boulle into adding me to their fiction writer's pool. My timing was totally lucky, and they announced a call for proposals for their upcoming Exalted fiction series within a week or two after that, and again my luck held when they accepted my proposal and contracted me to write In Northern Twilight...
The rest, they say, is a mystery... er... hysterical... er.. history. Something like that. I'm still just a baby guppy in the pond of writing, but I've gotten my foot in a door or two, and I'm running with it as long and hard as I can. :)
2.- I've never quite "gotten" the SCA- what do you enjoy about it?
I've always been fascinated by playing pretend. I also love myth and legend, and the SCA kind of calls on themes from the Arthurian legends (sometimes even more heavily than it does on historic reality). I love dressing up in elegant clothing and jewelry, the pomp and circumstance of court and heraldry, the honor and chivalry of tournaments, the courtesy, the learning, the creating of things, the bardic arts (I love to sing) and the "leaving the chores and bills and commercials behind and finding a place where we can sit and swap stories, teach and learn from each other, share our abilities and generally enjoy each other's company"... At it's best, it's noble and rich with the ideals that seem almost impossible to pursue in modern times. At it's worst, it's as bad as any other cliqueish group of humans struggling against each other... but at least sometimes, it's more of it's best than it's worse.
3.- (The one I'm asking everyone) What's the worst accident you've ever been in?
I've been really lucky (knock on wood). I have really only been in two "kind of" bad accidents. The first was about 19 years ago while I was pregnant with Nathan and a little sports car T-boned the front quarter panel of my parent's Mercury Zephyr. It totaled the car, but we were both okay (my sister and I). The second was during my last week or so of working at the office before I made the leap to try writing full time. It was really the final straw about my career. I'd basically spaced out at the wheel coming home from work in heavy traffic and rammed into the back of the truck in front of me. I wasn't hurt, but I was heartbroken, because I'd only had my car about a year (it was my first ever new car) and the front was all crumpled. I remember being in a sleep-dep/shock daze and all I could think was... "I broke my car... I broke my pretty car..." Luckily the people at the auto body place did a great job fixing it and I still have her to this day.
4.- What person has been the most inspirational to you in your life? Why?
Patrick. Without a doubt. He has gone from being that hottie viking I couldn't resist to being a man who I admire and strive to emulate constantly. He's noble, honorable, kind, friendly, loyal, sweet, funny, smart and has worked his butt off for years to provide everything his family could want or need. I have to urge him to do things for himself, because he's so giving and thoughtful that he'd put off doing everything he wants to make sure the rest of us can do/see/be/have/experience anything we would like. He's a rock of stability, a fire of creativity, an ocean of compassion and I'm honored to have him as my partner, love and best friend.
5.- If you could live anywhere/when where would it be?
Oh, that's not fair. That's like the "what is your favorite book" question! :) Ultimate, the simple answer is "near Patrick and the kids". The complex answer would be that I'm sure that any era/location I might consider would have as many drawbacks as it does advantages, and that I'm rather fond of right here and now. Life is good, and I am very happy.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-11-20 09:23 pm (UTC)Er, ask me some questions, please.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 09:36 am (UTC)2. What is the earliest thing you remember from your childhood?
3. Who has been your greatest inspiration as an adult?
4. What do you believe happens after we die?
5. If you had a guaranteed 1 million dollar contract to write any book you'd like to, what book would you write?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-20 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 09:40 am (UTC)2. Who's life do you believe you have had the most positive impact on?
3. If you had the choice to live any time and/or place, where would it be?
4. If offered a free skydriving trip, would you accept?
5. Congratulations, you've just won the lottery. But, because it's a rather strange system, you can either win 10 thousand dollars for yourself to do whatever you'd like with, or win 10 million dollars to donate to your favorite charity. Which do you choose and why?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-20 10:55 pm (UTC)Errr. I mean, ask the 5 questions.
*raises hand*
Date: 2004-11-20 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 09:42 am (UTC)2. Choose three adjectives, three nouns and three verbs to describe yourself.
3. What is your absolute favorite article of clothing and why?
4. If you could painlessly, seamlessly, immediately modify one aspect of your body, what would it be and why?
5. Where would you like to see yourself in five years? Where would you like to have changed and what do you hope stays the same?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 09:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 09:49 am (UTC)2. What is your ideal career? What are your duties, what do you get paid, what benefits and why have you been chosen to do it?
3. If you had to choose only one author to read for the next year, who would it be?
4. Would you be willing to sacrifice your hearing completely for a year to earn 10 thousand dollars? (Assuming it would return normally at the end of the time period?) How about for a million dollars? Is there an amount for which you would permanently sacrifice your hearing?
5. If you had free access to the worlds best plastic surgeon, the worlds best fashion designer, the worlds best hairstylist or the worlds best teacher in a field of your choice, which would you choose to take on, and what would you have them do for you?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 11:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 11:50 am (UTC)The best things in life are hard... er... not easy... er... um...
never mind. :)
Too late...
Date: 2004-11-21 11:32 am (UTC)Missed the five window. Let me have it if you wish.
Re: Too late...
Date: 2004-11-21 11:36 am (UTC)1. What do you do for a living? What do you wish you were doing?
2. What activity most makes you feel like you?
3. If you could wave a magic wand and either a) transform yourself physically in some way, b) add 10K to your bank account or c) magically give yourself one ability that someone else possesses, what would you choose, and why?
4. Chocolate or vanilla? Black olives or green? White wine or red?
5. A package arrives in the mail. It's something you've always wanted. What is it, and who sent it?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 11:57 am (UTC)1. What is the single most memorable happening you ever had while working with the carnival/circus?
2. If you were forced to sit in a theater and watch the same movie for a week straight, which one could you stand to watch?
3. You are now your own PR agent. You're trying to sell your client (you) to a prospective employer. They know you're qualified skill wise for the job but so are three other candidates. What do you tell them about you that makes them realize that you are the best one for them to hire?
4. Someone you really want to impress is coming for dinner. What menu do you plan for them?
5. Wow! The bad news is, your great great uncle Ernie just passed away. The good news is, he not only left you 50 thousand dollars, but he also put you in charge of distrubuting his estate. He's left orders that 1/3 of his multi-millions be given to a single charity, another third is used to build some sort of community use building (pool, library, playground, etc.) that is open to the public, and 1/3 is used to set up scholarships for college students.
What is the first thing you buy with your 50K, and how do you distribute the rest of his funds? What charity and why? What sort of building/space do you have built, where and why? And who is eligible for the Uncle Ernie Wants You to Go To College scholarships?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-21 02:58 pm (UTC)Ask, ask...
no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 08:56 am (UTC)2. Is there an actor who's work you'll see even if the premise seems terrible? How about an author who's work you'll read even if the story seems doomed to tank?
3. What is the oldest manmade item you own? (rocks and trees don't count...)
4. Could you not speak/sing/verbalize for a year to win a million dollars? Would you?
5. Given unlimited resources, what one change would you like to make on our society?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 12:43 pm (UTC)2. What was the biggest challenge of being RC and would you do it again?
3. What do you do for a living? What would your ideal job be?
4. What accomplishment are you most proud of?
5. Congratulations! You just won the lottery! 10 million dollars were just deposited in your checking account. What's the first thing you buy?