Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Tag, I'm It -- Answering Eleven Questions

Well, Danusha Goska of the blog Save Save Send Delete tagged me to answer the following questions, and I'm doing it. . . .


1.) If you could not be a writer, and you had to be some other artist – a singer, a painter, a mime, a puppeteer – what kind of artist would you be and why? (For Kim and anyone else who is primarily a visual artist who also writes: reverse the question. If you could not be a visual artist, what other art would you choose?) 


--I would probably choose to be a singer, if I had that talent. I've always liked singing, and loved listening to good singers. I have a range that allows me to sing about two songs well, and I sing them in the shower with great enjoyment. It's also an easy talent to share with others.

2.) Who would be the dream interviewer to quiz you about your work? Sixty Minutes' Mike Wallace? Fresh Air's Terry Gross? Johnny Carson? Larry King? Entertainment Tonight?


--I'll go with Terry Gross. I enjoy her interviews, and I actually listen to her occasionally, unlike the other choices.
3.) Your favorite childhood fictional hero or heroine.
--Probably Sara Crewe in Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess.
4.) Have you lived up to what you dreamed when you read about your favorite childhood fictional hero or heroine?
--I don't think I would ever have dreamed up my own rather hodge-podge conglomeration of careers and accomplishments.
5.) Your happiest moment as a writer.
--I'm not good at picking favorites in anything, including moments, but candidates include "winning" National Novel Writing Month (by completing the rough draft of my novel) for the first time, actually publishing my first novel, and getting my first rave review.
6.) Are you a tuxedo / evening gown writer, a broken-in jeans writer, a nude writer, a flowing caftan writer … ?
--Broken-in jeans on the weekends, more businesslike slacks during the week; or (in summer) comfortable skirts.
7.) Your personal writing deity?
--I'm not the worshipful sort, but I admire many authors, including Mary Doria Russell and Elizabeth Moon (current), and Jane Austen and George Eliot (deceased).
8.) Hard copy, screen, handwritten in ink, typewriter & whiteout?
Screen, followed by hard copy at the umpteenth-edit stage.
9.) If you had to choose between your writing moving people deeply, or your writing educating people factually, which would it be?
--I feel I should prefer the latter, but I actually would choose the former.
10.) Has being a writer helped or hurt your romantic life?
--Given that I first quit writing as an unattached college student, and resumed it when I'd been married for decades, it hasn't had much effect.
11.) How do you reward yourself? 

--By reading, or by modest amounts of dark chocolate.

I'm also supposed to post eleven facts about myself:
1.) I'm getting shorter as I get older.
2.) I'm getting heavier as I get older, which I should be able to control, but am not controlling very successfully.
3.) My politics have become very different than those of my very political parents, which makes for some awkwardness all round.
4.) I could eat breakfast food for almost every meal without tiring of it.
5.) I enjoy and admire historical fiction, but am intimidated at the thought of tackling it myself.
6.) My most serious and abiding character flaw is impatience, which manages to creep into many aspects of my life.
7.) I'm a first-generation American. (My parents were born in Poland and Germany, and left Europe just in time to escape the Holocaust.)
8.) I'm delighted when one of my daughters masters some skill I never had.
9.) I've read science fiction for so much of my life that I have trouble keeping track of what's actually been invented.
10.) I took sign language (both ASL and Signed English) in college, and might have become a sign language interpreter if I'd been more talented at it.
11.) When I'm bored or irritated, I mumble to myself in fingerspelling (aka the manual alphabet).

And finally, I'm supposed to tag eleven other people. This is the tough part, for me -- tough enough that I'm going to stall, and try to come up with a list in a separate post. (I also break chain letters. So it goes.)

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