paragraphs | That Getting to Know You Meme Thing

January 2023

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Nick just posted this in his lj, and while I can't think of anything to tell him he doesn't know, yet, which may be a good thing but also could be bad (I am boring? He knows me too well? eek) I thought I'd toss it out here too.

I know very little about some of the people on my friends list. Some people I know relatively well. But here's a thought: why not take this opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's so and so...she likes office supplies." I'd love it if every single person who friended me would do this. (Yes, even you people who I know really well. Then post this in your own journal. In return, ask me anything you'd like to know about me and I'll give you an answer.)

I'm relistening to A CLASH OF KINGS, book 2 of the Song of Fire and Ice series by George RR Martin. I so cannot wait for the HBO production. I so hope it goes on long enough to tie up the series in case GRRM never does. Argh. I love love love this world like crazy beans, and it'll be very intriguing also to see if fandoms spring up (which I bet they do) with lotsa fanfic being written (which I bet there already is). GRRM makes it known he does not like fanfiction. It'll still happen though. Not from me--I'll be busy writing my own epic fantasy, lol.

It is weird--now that I have watched the trailer for Thrones, the actors have wended their way into my interpretation of the characters. I see their faces as I listen. This is okay as I think they did a fantastic job with the casting. Sansa is not quite what I imagined but I haven't seen enough of her to really say this is a bad thing. Daenerys though? Wow. Okay, whoa. Like her very much. Arya! Bran! Caetlyn! (oh dear Caetlyn, oh man), JAMIE!, Jon Snow--wasn't sure at first but I am listening to a Jon segment now and wham, there he is in my head. Good good good. And Ned, OH NED STARK!!! I could cry, just cry for what will come...and Sean Bean is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant for that role. I am verrryyyy happppyyyyyy!!! :)

Ballet boy is sitting safely inside my Dropbox (and on my thumb drive), waiting for attention. I realized this morning that I haven't written anything since finishing it on Sunday and that is why I have been a snarling raving unhappy whiney thing. My evenings are dark and senselessly boring and lonely and it is, I realize, because I really really miss the joy of writing this book in the evenings. I don't now what to do with myself. I love that I finally FOUND that joy--it took awhile--but now I miss it horribly. This weekend will be devoted to it though--got lots of things to work on still, just needed a few days' break before hopping back to the beginning. I did go through the first three chapters and gnash my teeth that it isn't as strong of writing as the last part, but not really surprising given I took so damn long to finish the darn thing. Two years is way too long for a 96k fic.

Yuletide is up next! I got something rather unexpected, so hope I can do well by it.

Back to work. I am not sure why I stopped to write a post--shame on me! Back to listening to CLASH, and plugging railroad crossing information into RIS. Exciting.

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When I was ten, I was in the local Christmas parade and got lost. All of the town's letter carriers and police force were looking for me. I was dressed as a mail box. Maybe I blended in?

What piece of writing are you the most proud of?

LOL I bet you blended in, or maybe you didn't want to be found? How long did it take to find you?

I'm most privately :) proud of something that has not been seen by very many people--and those people are now long gone--my fantasy that I plan to resurrect in 2011. It needs a hell of alot of work, but there are parts within it that I can't believe I wrote back then. I used to be a much better writer, honestly, than I am now.

I'm very proud of my book with Loose-Id too--it's done so well, was so amazing to write, and I have been so surprised by how many people have written me and told me what it has meant to them. Touching lives like that is pretty darn powerful stuff. I don't know that I will achieve that again--it was unique to that story I think, as a coming-of-age story. Definitely proud of myself for writing that though at the time, I wrote it really only for myself.

I have a rather large Dr. Seuss obsession :D

Do you? LOL! Who is your favorite character? The very first book my daughter ever read--happily right with me--was Put Me In the Zoo. Oh my gosh that was so darn exciting when she read that to me! :)

NO ONE'S EVER ASKED ME THAT!!

I think probably Horton. There are a lot of others that I love, but Horton really embodies what's good and pure with the world and I adore that about him.

Horton Hears a Who? Yes? :) Very cute Elephanty!!! And yeah, he is one of my favorites too. Oddly, I did not like green eggs and ham, but the thing he did for graduates totally rocked. My daughter was given a copy of that.

And also Horton Hatches the Egg. His two most famous lines are "I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an Elephant's faithful 100%" and "A person's a person no matter how small". They're beautiful stories.

A flight of mine to Mexico City included a layover in Dallas. My traveling companion had openly gay friends (who were partners) living there who took us to lunch as the most hipster veg diner ever. I was twenty and dumb and naive at the time and it shook all the stereotypes I'd been fed about TX lifestyles.

What do you like about writing fantasy?

Oh stereotypes--they abound around here, I know. But I am not surprised you were stunned by what you found. Was it the Spiral Diner? There is one here in Fort Worth, too. I wonder how long ago that was...

Fantasy both frustrates me and makes me very happy. I don't really like that many authors in the genre, but those who do hit my buttons, hit hard, and are amongst my favorite authors of all genres. In writing fantasy I absolutely love world building, creating a whole new landscape on which to send my characters to play. I've only actually truly worked on one fantasy story (which I mention offhand above) but in that I've poured in so much of myself, created characters I adore, a world that both mystifies and traumatizes (heh). I've played with it off and on for ten or so years, and may finally know enough to make it work. Maybe. I hope so anyway...

I'm gonna send you something that will make you LOL, hang on.

Do you consider JKR fantasy? I'm struck to ask you since you mentioned world building. Maybe formally she's a bit meh, but her stories within stories are some of the best out there. The appeal is there, as you say, to just create world with your chosen laws.

Yes, I do...fantasy world though it is tied to ours. Lots of fantasies are like that. I do admire the socks off of JK but I think that she just did not see her own character correctly, i.e., Snape. I just do not buy his reasons for doing what all he did, and I think he is the perfect character example of how important it is to be realistic about motives. I have wondered/thought/believed that she had these characters so set in her mind how they would be, that she didn't consider that her initial reasoning for Snape didn't really work. (Of course I am sure she thought it totally worked but I don't think it did).

I could be talking out of my hat here. I just think in writing stories, it is important to listen to your characters. Sometimes they know better than you how things should be. LOL.

Did you send me something?

Augh, I have a picture of me eating broccoli in the restaurant I referred to above and it's so lol, but in the background is its name! I wanted to scan and show you. My thought is I've given it away.

Oh, don't get me wrong! All you say about JKR's treatment of her characters and motivations for behaviors can be cut ten ways to Sunday and your thoughts are super apt. Yet what really affected me when seeing HP 7v1 on the big screen was just . . . wow, the created fairytales for her own 'fairytale' with the Tale of the Three Brothers, for example, and I sorta kinda just believed all of it. That part of her storytelling is so tight.

Her characters? Totally with you. But the consistency of her world kinda boggles the mind.

She rocks the casbah, she really does. I so enjoyed having a daughter who grew up with the books, too--she was their age when the first book came out, and grew up with them. Loved that. I cannot wait for the last movie but then again, sigh, it'll be sad to see it all end. Yet how awesome was it to be a part of watching a classic unfold? Pretty damn cool.

1stly i gotta say EEEEEEEEEEEE i'm almost done with the last book - THEN WHAT WILL I DO, C? WHAT?! so excited for the HBO series!

um, i can't think of things you don't know about me - i mean, there are lots of things, but they aren't interesting things

hmmm... when i was 12, i wrote a short story for school and my 6th grade teacher begged me to become a writer some day - that's stuck with me ever since and by god i've been trying!

question: where/how can i read your books? b/c i have INCOME now and i can totes buy them!

www.loose-id.com, Carolyn Gray. Only the one there so far...my poor dear little mystery is still on Amazon I think, but the publisher axed it ages ago. That is under Carolyn Rogers.

I should have ten out by now, but life has not cooperated. Hopefully another out early 2011, got another one sorta-outlined I also hope to get out next year, but the fantasy will take lots longer. GRRM definitely is an influence with that story, though I started working on it long, long before I ever discovered GRRM.

Same here--there are things, but not interesting things. I have alot of regrets.

oh yay! though fantasy is not generally my go-to genre, i am excited about yours!

my nano orig fic i was talking with you about? yeah, i've done some reworking and i think i have to scrap the 1st person aspect in favor or multi-3rd person... but it's still in idea limbo right now

I heart multi-third. You can see with GRRM's books how powerful and fun it is. LOL.

Yeah--fantasy is not my go-to either...mystery honestly is. But this...this...this I must write.

i think i could do 1st person eventually, when the story belongs to just one character - you know what i mean? but this one is turning out to have too many aspects to it to limit it to just one (or two) ppl

This is a great example of letting the story dictate how it needs to be told. Fighting it does no good! Mayhap another story would be better told first, just not this one. :)

yeah, that was a big part of my problem getting started on this one - i kept trying to make it be something it didn't want to be

I still do that to my stories sometimes. NO NO I WANT YOU IN THIRD NO NO NO! Actually, I haven't written in first in ages and ages. Pout. No one in fandom wants it! POUT! Not that I write in fandom. My editor doesn't like it either...

ARGH!

Someday I will write another mystery and THAT will be in first person. So there! Both books I've sold so far have been in first...it was really hard to write this new ms in third person, at first. I hated it. Now I love it. ARGH!

I formed a kazoo band in High School. We had about twenty-five loyal members and we would play the school fight song at pep rallies and eventually marched behind the real band when it went around the school on game days (umm, yeah, TEXAS). I think we thought we were being ironic hipsters. I have no idea what others thought.

What's your best piece of parenting advice?

Oh you silly fun thing you! Sounds like you had a good high school experience. I just wanted out.

There is nothing that drives me crazier than to see Respect be nonexistent in families. I have a lot of pseudo-sons and daughters, way too many who have had keys to my house, or just knew they could come here to escape situations that were not so hot. Tiff told me the other day, and I've heard it before and know it anyway, that the reason the kids all like it here is because I am chill, and as long as they respect what I say then I am cool with them being here. Respect is HUGE to me, and disrespect? I won't tolerate it.

I told the kids from when they were little that they could just forget it. I would not put up with them treating me like crap, and that was that, nor would I tolerate them being cruel to others. It just wasn't going to happen, and that was that. And, in return--I give them my respect. I let them have their privacies, and don't interfere unless I feel it necessary. Now that they are almost 19 and 21, I can see I did *something* right with them both. We're a pretty darn solid threesome.

One thing--when Tiff was 12, we went to get her hair cut. There was a slightly older daughter with her mother. I have to say that was the rudest, meanest child to her mom, and her mom just took it. I was appalled. After they were gone, I turned to Tiff and said, "If you ever talked to me like that, I would string you up by your toes. Got that?" And she said, "Oh I've always known that. I would never do that to you!" When people gasp in horror at the thought of having a teenage daughter--because of course that guarantees life will suddenly be hell--I just shake my head. No, it doesn't have to be like that, but you have to start young with them. Respect. That is THE best thing I both taught my kids, and gave to them.

Oh I wanted out of HS rather badly but I did have a core group of good friends and we coped as best we could.

I ADORE your thoughts on respect, both given and required. And yes, if you're not modeling what you want your children to learn how the HECK do you expect them to learn it?

I'm thinking of going to university to study politics. I was born without a uterus due to MRKH Syndrome. I donate blood when I can and I'm O negative. I'm also going to write a story for the Merlin kink meme.

What are you reading at the moment?

That is so cool! There's been alot of talk about blood donation lately for some reason. My blood is rejected due to an illness I had in college, which falls somehow under the tuberculosis label. YAY for kinkmeme--there are a ton I would love to write too but it is just not in the cards--original fiction is where I'm at.

I am reading a MONSTER of a book, The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. It is over 1000 pages, multiple POV, the first of ten. Sanderson is one of my fav authors in fantasy, actually one of the five authors in fantasy I like so much I read everything they have. LOL. It weighs a ton. He is the author who finished out the Robert Jordan series (which I did not read). It'll take me weeks to read this, as slow as I am reading! I am going to get another copy at Half Price to leave at work as this thing is too big to lug around, and I really need to stop working through lunch as it is just not good.

When I was in high school, I was put into a physics distinction programme at the university of western Sydney, where I studied physics with the first year uni students. I never continued physics, but I do have a minor in my degree of the History and Philosophy of Science (from UNSW, which is a much more, erm, academic institution). I'm still in love with the LHC, though. I've been fangirling that thing for years!

I asked Nick where he writes, and I want to know where you do, too. And where you find your motivation from to write, because I want some mojo.

You are so smart. I am surrounded by such smart people. And then there is dorky me!

My preferred place to write is right here at my desk. I plug my laptop into my big monitor, ergo keyboard, and mouse, and speakers, I light my candle, and turn on itunes to my writing mix, and have my big ice tea in my Sonic cup, and there you go. It is a cabinet that you can close the doors to--I just had to have it and paid an ungodly amount for it at a nude furniture shop. Like, over 1000 bucks. I KNOW but I had the money back then (actually every bit of furniture in my house was bought after Kel died, and boy did I need everything replaced).

I really write best here. I like being at home and comfy, with my dogs beside me--I feel bad if I am gone from them too much and like tonight? I didn't get home until 10, and they were so wildly happy it was nuts. I am their Everything, so I like to be at home. Plus, of course, there is the Nick factor--weekends we get to talk lots, and I like to be here alone when we do. Cuz sometimes we'll watch shows and stuff--I tend to write mostly mornings first thing, then afternoons play with Nick (sigh, no more Merlin though! Darn it), and write after he goes to bed.

Mojo--honestly? Until I finally gave in and let my doctor prescribe Wellbutrin, it had been fleeting and invisible. It almost freaks me out what a huge difference it has made in terms of focus, and calming my mind so I can relax and just enjoy writing. Focus, oh man the focus!!! I am stunned, honestly, at the difference. It took a couple of weeks but wow, the last three weeks has been just brilliant.

I was really blue last night and realized why--I hadn't written since I finished my ms on Sunday and my brain and I were just aching to be creative. So tonight was just wonderful to go to #writersdatenight as we call it (lol silly twitter hashtag) and be with my writerly friends and just work. Cid worked on her Sony ereader on her novella, Linda wrote reviews, and I worked through 20 pages of my rewrite. It felt great to get out and do that. They have been a huge huge huge part of my return to writing enthusiasm though. Cid is pretty darn infectious in her adoration of writing and books and reading, and has this stare-thing going that makes one get to work. LOL!! We don't crit each others' work, rather we encourage each other in our work, and that is huge huge huge to me. It's a different kind of affirmation, having friends who believe in you like that. I am lucky to have found them, that's for certain.

I collect things with hibiscuses on them, particularly bags.

What's the best gig you've ever been to?

LOL best best best ever? To see Rufus Wainwright. My daughter and I took one of her friends--he'd just come out to her, and that was his first time just being out and openly gay in a gay atmosphere and man, it was just wonderful. (I knew he was gay 3 years before he told his parents). Rufus was fantastic, the atmosphere just wonderful fun, and it was simply awesome. :)

WINTER IS COMING!!! YESSSSSS!

You know a lot of shit about me, C. So here's something silly: I have puked while holding both my nieces. Priscilla freaked out and wailed. Later, she had a good time announcing to everyone that I had "made a mess." Lydia slept through my pukage.

You are definitely the most unique of people I know, Blue. You did not ask me a question though! What's up with that, huh? LOL. Poor Priscilla--scarred for life! And I want a cool Game of Thrones icon. Pout.

My apologies! I hadn't read the instructions well when I started replying to these. As an apology, here are my attempts to iconize WINTER for you. I believe you like Arya and Ned a lot?

(http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg51/fossoway/?action=view&current=ARYAICON.jpg) (http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg51/fossoway/?action=view&current=NEDICON.jpg)

I can also send you the pics if you can get someone to make you good icons out of them.

I once got lost in the ocean at night in middle school. I was with a group from my school on Catalina Island and we were doing a night snorkling thing led by counselors. We were each assigned to partner and my partner, a guy named Josh, refused to hold my hand or keep track of me, and somehow, I managed to lose my group. I swam around by myself for awhile, found someone else's group with a different school, realized that it wasn't my group, then swam around some more and somehow managed to find my group again. Considering how dark it was and how I really couldn't tell where the island was or where was open water, it could've gone sooooo much worse. And the weird thing is, when it happened, I wasn't really scared of drowning or anything like that, I was just annoyed that I had somehow gotten lost and pissed at my partner for being a jackass. XD

I would be pissed too! And if I'd been the adult in that group, I would've walloped that boy HARD across the back of the head. (Ok just figuratively, but this could've been very very bad indeed).

I still haven't read the books. And I've just checked: the audiobook of the first one will be released in spring next year. *big sigh*

I first wanted to start reading when the fifth book was published, but that way, I might wait forever. ;-) Now I will try to read the first one before the series starts.

Released in the spring? German version then as I've had the English for ages. LOL and yeah, forever is right. ARGH! *shakes fist*

No, the English version! I don't get it at all!

Maybe they didn't think it would be interesting for the German market before the release of the HBO series?

But it's totally unfair!

fashionably late, as always.

for the last six weeks, i've been involved in covering a story that has had a huge impact on my university campus and the larger fredericton community. back in october, a student who goes to my school and was a member of our volleyball team took part in a hazing party, drank too much and ended up falling down the stairs of his apartment building and dying. he was 21 years old.
because st. thomas university is such a tiny school, even if you didn't know andrew, you know someone who did. many students who knew him are journalism majors, like myself, and consequently we have all learned how difficult it is to tell stories that need to be told when you're so close to it. my sports editor ended up taking two weeks leave from the paper because he was so upset by the situation and i've comforted many classmates during story meetings who could not keep it together anymore and simply broke down. although i didn't have a byline on this story until yesterday, when the university announced the volleyball team would be suspended from the acaa's for the hazing that happened before andrew died, i've been buried in this story from the start as the editor of the campus paper--the paper that ultimately broke the story. without a doubt, this has been the most significant thing i've been involved with as a journalist, and one of the most significant events that has happened on campus since john mackendy ( a sociology prof at our school) was murdered two years ago.

...yup.

when you answered the "where do you write?" question, you mentioned a writing playlist. what's on that playlist?

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Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~

That Getting to Know You Meme Thing

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