Question meme, round six.

[mrissa]

More questions for me! oursin asks:

1. Is there something you would love to be able to cook, but somehow it just doesn't work for you?

You know, I have alarming amounts of faith in my own cooking skills. There are things I haven't done successfully -- deep-frying, for example, and any kind of decoration that's very fiddly -- but mostly I expect that's because I haven't worked at it rather than because I Just Can't. And nothing particularly important to me has fallen into that category: as long as I'm well, I can do more or less what I want.

2. Do you ever get story ideas that appear to have come to the wrong address because they're not your sort of thing?

Not really, no. I don't have a lot of preconceptions about what's my sort of thing, since I read pretty broadly, so that probably helps.

3. If you didn't live where you do live, where would you like to live?

On the West River Road, maybe? It's really nice there, but there are places that aren't crazy-nice like around Lake of the Isles, which is my if-money-was-no-object place to live. Or maybe Linden Hills. They're kind of joiners in that neighborhood, which puts my teeth on edge a bit, but on the other hand it's got Rice Paper and Sebastian Joe's, and how could that be bad? Also I hear good things about St. Louis Park schools, so if it was a time that was relevant, I might have to investigate that.

4. What historical character would you most like to meet?

Aud the Deep-Minded. Certain Parties have opined that Aud is a perfectly terrible middle name for a child, so I think I'm going to have to do what I did with Nöe and find a story that has an Aud in the middle of it.

5. Mountains or oceans?

Only neither or both in conjunction. Mountains make me nervous. (Things can sneak up on you. Like other mountains. Large foothills. Etc.) On the other hand, if you have good reliable prairie and then ocean, the ocean can sneak up on you, too. But fjords are good. Fjords are about the best thing, if you can't have good reliable prairie.

And the phone just rang to say my dinner guests are on their way, so I'm going to start continue cooking.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

if by find, you mean write, i am no help there. however, if you mean find as in read, i suggest nicola griffith's _stay_, _the blue place_, and _always_, the protagonist of which is named aud torvingen. the books are technically thrillers, but nicola griffith is One Of Us, so dreamhaven and hugo's should carry them. (edgar's certainly does.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Read them. Loved them.

[fmsv.livejournal.com]

Can you expand a bit on the "joiners" comment? As someone who lives in Linden Hills (albeit on the edge) and sees my neighbors, there doesn't seem to me to be much pressure to join in things, but maybe you're seeing things I don't see.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Every time we're at Sebastian Joe's or Rice Paper or Wild Rumpus or the bread store or the liquor store or the wrong Turtle Bread or one of the toy stores or like that, it seems like there are a million fliers for neighborhood thises and thats. Neighborhood picnic this day. Ice cream social that day. Etc.

Perhaps it's just in the businesses and doesn't filter into actual homes. That'd be nice.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Aha. I was going to ask what the matter was with living near people who work with wood.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Lake-of-the-Isles, yes. If I both 1. lived in Minneapolis and 2. was suddenly independently wealthy ... I haven't lived in Minneapolis since I was 4, and haven't visited in over a decade, but the sheer beauty of that area stays with me.

-Nameseeker

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Lake of the Isles is pretty special. A variety of people who have been here seem to remember it, which is gratifying to me because it's one of my favorite places.