Just heard from my Mom. She's doing a lot better. She won't need surgery and her gallstones aren't worse either. But we've rescheduled Thanksgiving until tomorrow because she had chest pain and they won't let her go today because they have to hold her for observation, legally. I'm relieved she's feeling better and it's not too serious.
Anyway, I have to be up in 45 minutes to feed & walk the dog and I can't fall back to sleep. So I thought, as long as I'm up, I'd post this:
Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
Here are my responses to
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x_posed_again's incredibly awesome but difficult questions:
1. Who is your favorite original character you have ever come up with and why?Wow. Right off the back, a really difficult one!
I'm tempted to say Jamie Decon (Deeky), from my Strokes series, because there's so much I love about him and can do with him. I really respect him for being an out hockey goalie, trying to make it into the national league. And I love the commitment and passion he puts into his career and the Gay Youth Hockey League he created to give kids a discrimination-free environment to play the great sport. He's also got a damaged past that he constantly struggles with, which is fascinating to explore. I was volunteering at the library a few weeks ago and came across a book on a shelf entitled something like
How to Love Your Man Who Has Been Hurt and I'm totally going to have to take that out because a quick leafing through it made it look very useful. I really hope one day I get around to really pounding out the novel-length prequel about him, "Under Lock and Key," that I came up with in 2006.
But Tala is also up there on the list because I adore his heart and compassion and capacity for caring. There are a lot of awful things that happen in the Star Wars 'verse and it's nice to have a character who has committed his life to make things better, even if it means being discharged from the Jedi. It's fun having him walk that line (and, of course, interact with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon). And in all my time, I have never written a more asexual character. Which is just fascinating to me when he's interacting with others.
I sort of feel required to put Prince Nels on the list as well. He was a character I came up with... oh gods... so many, many moons ago. 1993, I think. Volume 5 of Procathian History remains the first novella that I have ever actually completed. He's a prince who has to deal with his parents' troubled pasts, literally, when it turns out his most trusted mentor and fighting instructor is actually his demonic half-brother who later kidnaps a woman he falls in love with, flushing Nels out and requiring an epic battle where the fates of several lands hang in the balance. He's sensitive and brave and a very good ruler when he becomes king. Some other adventures include: a long sea voyage, having twins (or triplets, if you're talking about the alternate reality I set up), battling for control of other kingdoms, etc. It always felt so comfortable when writing Nels.
I'm officially going to say Jamie... but Tala & Nels are strong contenders. And there are a dozen other characters that jumped into my head immediately when I thought about answering the question. LOL
2. What first made you fall in love with hockey? This one is easy! Sort of. During the 1998 winter Olympics, I knew some people who were watching the hockey and a few of the other sports I didn't traditionally watch. So I gave hockey a try and found myself immediately hooked. I was staying up until all hours 3am, 4am, etc. to watch games. What really clinched it were the goalies in one of the match-ups. It was Dominik Hasek and... I can't remember. Possibly the Russian goalie? It was one of the preliminary rounds where the goalies were spectacular (and slinky-ish, LOL). I was amazed. After the Olympics, I discovered that many of the players from various teams were in the NHL and I could watch them on TV any time I wanted. So I started rooting for teams associated with players I'd loved in the Olympics (like Hasek on the Sabres).
And then, when I looked at my home team, the Washington Capitals, they looked really good. In fact, a few months later, they won the Eastern Division and tried for the cup. Even though the Red Wings crushed them in a painful defeat, there were some amazing moments (like Joey Juneau with a game winner in overtime against the Sabres) that really made me see that hockey was so entertaining and so special. I couldn't resist the constant game play, the toughness, the skill, the sacrifice, the culture (handshakes, beard-growing, superstitions, hugs after goals scored, etc.). Sometime during that year I realized that hockey was just plainly the most amazing sport ever created. I can't really pinpoint the exact reason or the exact moment, but it happened some time between January 1998 and May 1998. And I've been in love ever since.
3. What is your favorite book of all time?My standard answer to this is
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn because the book totally changed my life. It showed me new ways to look at & think about the world. It reaffirmed my (at that time) recent decision to be a vegetarian. And it just plain made me use my brain. Every so often, I'll see someone on the Metro or at a coffee shop reading a book I've read before, and the only two times I have ever said anything to a stranger about said book were the two times people were reading
Ishmael. On both occasions, the people echoed my sentiments about it being an amazing book. I actually got into a 15 minute conversation at the cash register at a craft store with the girl checking me out because I noticed she was reading it. And I sent a copy to a BookCrosser a while back and she recently read it and posted pretty much my same thoughts. I don't agree with/believe every single thing in the book... but it really made me think and it changed me in a way no other book has ever done.
But, the thing is, I've only read
Ishmael the one time. Whereas I earread
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for something like the 45th time yesterday and was just as much in love with it afterward as I was the first time. Recently I fell in love with the second book in the Lord John Gray series,
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. I thought for sure it should be my "I'm stranded on a desert island with only this book" book because that book has everything I love: gay boys, sex, the honor of military gentlemen, family dynamics, angst, heartbreak, love, passion, bonding, even the main character sneezing and being cared for by his lover. Guuuhhhh! But after another reading of Prisoner of Azkaban... I honestly think that book might be my favorite book ever. I can't imagine not loving it. Seriously.
4. How much do you write each week, on average?Ohh. You picked the wrong month to ask me that LOL November and May are atypical for me and skew things a bit. So... on a normal month I would say I write about 12 hours a week, on average. Some weeks a lot more, some less. During Nov & May it's about 30 hours a week. So that averages out to about 15 hours a week ((12*43 + 30*9)/52 = 15.1153846)
Unless my computer crashed and was just rebooted, I always have anywhere from 1 to 5 stories open on my computer at any given time.
5. What is your favorite story you have ever written and why?OMG How do I answer this?! Usually, my favorite story is the next story I want to write. Right at this moment, my favorite story is one about a man at a Medieval monastery. I write a good chunk of it in my head when I shelve books at the library but I haven't written a single word out yet. I'm really excited about it, though. There's a Firefly fic with Jayne that's also in that category. I have a lot of it written in my head and I LOVE it but I haven't started writing it.
BUT as your question clearly states stories I've actually written... the ones I haven't yet written don't count, no matter how excited I am about them. It's easy for me to make a statement like "I'm most proud of the stories I've written that are different from others I've written." But, honestly, all that really means is that my attempt was good enough to share and the stories stick out in my mind because they're different from the other hundreds. That doesn't necessarily mean they're my favorites.
I'm really happy with The Ondarian Virus, for example, because that was a self challenge series (one fic a day) and I had never tried anything like that before. I re-read my own Scottish Hospitality fic a few days back (just had the urge to read it) and I don't often re-read my own stories once they're posted. I still feel pretty proud about that (it was my first good attempt at Oliver/Marcus and I kind of love it). I've re-read Okay (Strokes series) about a half dozen times since I finished it and am VERY proud of it. I think I managed to write a good character-based story, introduce a character I love now, make some comments about certain social things, drop a MASSIVE CRUCIAL hint about Auntie Al's past, and drop some smaller less hinty hints about Sweetie & Nik's pasts, and explore Jamie a bit more as well. So... I might pick that one as my favorite. But... I also really love my Too Many Cooks story because each chapter is SO much fun to write. I don't think I've giggled more to myself while writing anything (poor James Potter has a LOT of remedies left to endure before I'm done with him). Your question didn't say "finished" story either. So that one totally counts. There are some passages in a novel-length WIP I began in 9th grade entitled "Dum Spiro Spero: The Warrior of Kintail" that I absolutely LOVE (and there are some bits that I absolutely HATE- LOL!). I'm also very proud of the Doctor Who/Harry Potter/other fandom crossover I wrote in May 2008 for pervy_werewolf. I'd never written a successful crossover before and it was both fun, frustrating, and challenging but I put Remus on a journey during that fic that not only did a lot for his character but explained to me a nagging point in canon. I'm actually pretty pleased with the Legolas/Gimli fics Cherishing and In-between, but both stick in my mind because they were attempts at things I had never before attempted. The same goes for the Torchwood fic, Rain, Rain, Go Away.
But just because I'm PROUD of a fic doesn't mean it's my favorite. I don't think I can choose a true favorite. There are a lot of stories I forget about and so I feel like any real attempt would (given my stupid memory) exclude other valid stories that should have made the list.
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