Everyone I Ever Was and Everyone I Ever Will Be

“Comment to this post with “I love libraries!” and I will give you seven topics I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list to your own blog with your commentary.”

Zombres gave me:

Greek mythology!
Steampunk!
Werewolves!
OT3s!
Jeffrey Dean Morgan!
Gay rights!
Formative Film Experiences!



Greek mythology:

One of my first loves. The first book I can really remember reading is D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths— the illustrations were just gorgeous and the stories had me hooked. Then I kindof got to rediscover everything all over again as I got older and realized, “Wow, there are a lot of rapist douchebags in these stories”. I will also grumble about Hades not being a bad guy in the stories to anyone within earshot when something like Clash of the Titans or Hercules or … well, 3/4 of Greek Mythology movies come on.

Steampunk:

One of my latest loves. ;) I really started getting into it at an anime convention Ashley took me to last year; they had several steampunk booths in the vending area and I was immediately addicted. I’ve combined my first and latest loves and am working on a steampunk novel about the Greek Gods and Goddessess. One of my main concerns with it is that I’ll accidentally do the literary equivalent of the “stick a gear on it and call it steampunk” thing that seems to be a constant grumble in the craft circles. So research research research.

Werewolves:

I do not care if they’re one of the major standbys/cliches/tropes/what have you of the horror genre, I adore them. In the same way I adore haunted houses and vampires (okay, aside from the Twilight version)— they’re timeless, and so much can be done with the idea. Possibilities everywhere! The ones who can control when they change and the ones who can’t; the ones who keep some shred of their humanity after they turn and those who don’t; full-out wolf or some combination of the human and the animal; gimme them all.

OT3s:

My bread and butter, and I’m constantly finding new ones. Just today I read one of goddamnhella’s fics, which was Tony/Loki/Pepper, and HNGH. I just love the character interaction potential, and OT3 stories tend to have more than their fair share of snark, and I’m big on my snark. That type of romance is starting to show up more and more in my novels, too, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. Though I cannot seem to figure out whether the endgame in the Greek Steampunk novel might be Aphrodite/Dionysus/Ariadne, or Aphrodite/Dionysus/Hephaestus, and I have the sinking feeling that “hey, why not three?” is going to quickly turn into “hey, why not four?” My brain is clearly not going to be satisfied until I write a novel called “First There was Drama but then Everyone had an Orgy”.

((OT3s I love can also be platonic: see zombres’s Weird USA, with Charlie, Olivia, and Ben. There are some characters who are great on their own, fantastic playing off of one other person, but get the three of them together and everyone just SHINES.))

Jeffrey Dean Morgan:

So I have a feeling it would be cheating if I just keysmashed for this entire entry. ;) I first saw him on Supernatural (wish I could still see him there on occasion, AHEM WRITERS) and then in P.S. I Love You. By this time I was in fangirly enough mode that I went ahead and looked up some pictures online, and also found some interviews. He rescued and bottle-fed a two-day old puppy. He saw a guy beating his girlfriend and ACTUALLY INTERFERED instead of doing the whole ‘eh, it’s not my business’ thing that’s so horrifically widespread. He seems to be a genuinely good guy, and see above: keysmash-levels of attractiveness. I’ll basically watch anything he’s in (except Grey’s Anatomy. That I just cannot do. Sorry!)

Gay rights:

Should not be any different than ‘straight rights’. That seems absolutely obvious to me now, but it didn’t always. I grew up (and still live) in the middle of the Bible Belt, and “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” is still considered witty commentary in way too many places here. The “I don’t really care one way or another because nothing they do hurts me, but— ew. I just don’t get it” is really one of the better attitudes I’ve found. ((don’t even get me started on ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ bullshit)) It wasn’t anything that really crossed my mind for a long time, and then during stage setup for one of our plays, a friend of mine put on the soundtrack to RENT. And it was literally like nothing I’d ever heard, told from the pov of people whom I’d always heard spoken about in sneering tones, if they were spoken about at all. I remember thinking, “okay, if I’m wrong about that, what else am I wrong about?” And thus a conservative became a liberal. :)

Formative Film Experiences:

Stand By Me— LOVE ETERNAL. The first Stephen King movie I ever saw. It came out when I was five (yes, I am an Old Lady of Thirty) and I think I saw it about three/four years later. Can still quote it in full, and it remains the movie with the absolute best film-dialogue-to-ending-song transition ever for me.

FernGully— my love of faeries, OT3s, animation, and extraordinarily bright colors can all probably be traced back to this film. First soundtrack I ever bought.

Labyrinth— Given the aforementioned Greek Mythology love, anything about a labyrinth was immediately interesting for me. This was the movie I’d most always put on first any time I was home sick from school (other one was Muppet Christmas Carol). Also, when I first saw it I identified with Sarah so. much. Watched it again recently, thought that she was being such a brat at the beginning. Heh.

Beauty and the Beast— Favorite fairy tale! A heroine who’s a bookworm! SIGN ME UP. The animation and the music are so gorgeous.

My cousin and I also used to build enormous pillow forts on/around the couch and watch a triple feature of The Little Mermaid, Singin’ in the Rain, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang just about every weekend.

My Thread :-)

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

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Not too long ago zombres did a Top 5 post, and one of the subjects was Favorite Fiction Tropes. I absolutely could not resist that one, so here are mine:



1) Father/Daughter, No Relation

Favorite Example: Artie and Claudia on Warehouse 13. Their interactions have me in a constant state of Dorky-Clapping-and-Grinning when I watch that show.

Example of Mine: Jaren and Thiare from Karavan's Dawn.


2) Epic Quest

Favorite Example: The Stand. Always and forever The Stand. I remember lugging that enormous book around middle school and not even caring because I *had* to find out what would happen next.

Examples of Mine: Stealing Time; Jia's Charms; Karavan's Dawn; And This is Fate; Atmidos, to an extent. I think Pale Moon is the only project of mine where Epic Quest isn't used. That might change between now and publication. ;-)


3) Enemies Becoming Friends ((or at least starting to grudgingly respect each other))

Favorite Example: Jake Lonergan and Col. Dolarhyde in Cowboys and Aliens. My love for that movie is all-encompassing. I need fanfic and icons. And a chance to morph myself into the movie and pounce on Daniel Craig.

Examples of Mine: Simon and Finn in And This is Fate.


4) "Have you ever been with a warrior woman?"

Favorite Example: Beckett & Castle. Castle definitely has his badass moments, but when it comes right down to it, Beckett's going to be the one drawing a gun while Castle asks if anyone in the room's heard of a little something called diplomacy. I think she's physically braver than he is, but he's emotionally braver. Which is partly why they balance each other out so well. Why isn't Season 3 out yet I need my fix

Examples of Mine: Jaetina & Kynn from the Karavan series; Stace & Finn from And This is Fate; Maia & Xavierre from Stealing Time.


5) Threesomes (no, not that kind**)

Favorite Example: Zoe, Wash, and Mal from Firefly

Examples of Mine: Kynn, Ki'Rana, and Trader from the Karavan series; Finn, Stace, and Simon from And This is Fate; Persephone, Iris, and Hades from Atmidos.

**except when they are-- Maia, Nayara, and Xavierre from Stealing Time

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Gotten from newredshoes--

List fifteen of your favorite characters from different fandoms, and ask people to spot patterns in your choices, if they're so inclined.


1) Dean (Supernatural)
2) Garcia (Criminal Minds)
3) Hatter (SyFy's Alice)
4) Sayid (LOST)
5) Abbie/Connor (Primeval. I cannot choose between them do not make me)
6) Angela (Bones)
7) Zoe (Firefly)
8) Tessa (The Constant Gardener)
9) Hermione (Harry Potter)
10) Wat (A Knight's Tale)
11) Jordan (Scrubs)
12) Elphaba (Wicked)
13) B.J. (M*A*S*H)
14) Eddie Dean (Dark Tower series)
15) Al (Quantum Leap)

30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!

I tag Kath. :-) I've worked with her for over ten years now, and she's always coming up with fantastic ideas. She's great with description and helping me to pause and think when I'm too far into Tasmanian Devil mode to remember that the scenario I've come up with in Chapter Thirteen completely contradicts something I set up in Chapter Two.

And now I'd like to open this up to anybody reading this-- any question you want to ask that wasn't in the meme, or do you want me to elaborate more on any of the meme questions? I could talk about writing stuff 24/7, so ask away!

28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there's nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.

Haven't done it; it's not something I have personal experience with and I'm not quite confident enough in the research I've done to tackle it yet. I expect my comfort level with it will change soon, and then so will my answer to this question.

I'm not sure if the term for them is really 'disabilities', but Ki'Rana from Karavan is working through a pretty bad case of PTSD, and Lauren from Jia's Charms has depression.

26. Let's talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!

I have tried to draw my characters. Results-- sooooo not pretty. So now I pay other actually talented people to draw them!

Since I refuse to pick just one character portrait, these go below the cut:

( Read more... )

24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What's the most interesting way you've killed someone?

I'm willing to kill a character if I think it's necessary to the plot. To me, 'necessary to plot' means that it's unrealistic for a large group of characters to go through a situation like the one I've got them in with all of them making it out unscathed. Or if a character's in a seriously bad spot and there's no way to get them out of it and it's either kill them or come up with a deux ex machina, then they're toast.

I do specifically work on not killing one character just in order to motivate another. I hate the whole 'fridging' thing and when LOST started to do it is when I had to stop watching. And while I know that sometimes crappy, unexpected things happen in real life fights, I'm not much for Death As Gritty Shock Value either ((I'm looking at you, Serenity)).

It also partly depends on the universe I've got it set in. There'll probably be more death in the Pale Moon universe, with its vampires, zombies, werewolves, banshees, and all the accompanying inter-group battles than there was in the We Were Strangers universe, which was at heart a kids-style fantasy story.

As for interesting ways to kill someone: I did have someone attacked by a Demonic Creepy Thing and then thrown out a window in In the Darkness Find Me.

22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.

Well, there is the fun little conversation where Stace and Simon discuss the finer points of attack strategy.

And I've got a scene in mind in the Pale Moon universe where an agoraphobic alien gets into a heated argument with her spaceship.

I don't know; it's easy to think of stuff I haven't written but a lot harder to remember scenes that I haven't discussed with somebody. :-)