Questions from Timprov

[mrissa]

People want to answer questions, but no one seems to want to ask them. Except timprov! Here are his questions and their answers.

(I will give you one of my secret methods for questions. yhlee said she wanted random distractions, so I hit "random entry" on Wikipedia pages to see if they reminded me of anything that might be a coherent question for Yoon but would not feel too directed/non-random for her taste. "How do you feel about Carver County?": not a coherent question for Yoon. "What's the furthest north you've ever been?": coherent question for Yoon.)

1. Does Angela get to blow something up? Pretty please?

Heh. timprov is showing off. He has read the recently-finished manuscript of The True Tale of Carter Hall. Angela is Janet's best friend from college. And no, I'm pretty sure she does not get to blow anything up. She's a social worker from Minneapolis! Where is she going to get the stuff to blow stuff up? I mean, if she was a social worker from Thief River who was living in Minneapolis...and anyway, mostly what she's got to go on is Janet's uneasy feelings; I don't even know what she could usefully blow up. That's the problem with dealing with Faerie: it's not where you can blow it up.

Dammit, that's the first line of a Carter story, isn't it: The problem with dealing with Faerie is that it's not where you can blow it up, and all the other solutions are less satisfying. That one is totally on you, Prov.

Also I am not changing Angela's profession so that she is a demolitions expert from Minneapolis instead. Or the kind of landscaper who gets to take out stumps and stuff. I might do a story wherein Carter and Angela have to take out stumps and also fight crime Faerie forces and stuff. If you're nice to me.

2. Am I actually impossible to encourage, or does it just feel like that from in here?

You're, uh. Pretty difficult. I might say impossible if I was good with impossibilities, but you know how I am on that front.

Because I'm uncreative: 3. If money was not a consideration, what would you do/where would you go if you kidnapped Rob for a week? How about Lily? (You're allowed to bring helper-grownups in this scenario.)

I think Rob could have a field day in Washington DC with the Smithsonian and like that, and we could take day trips out into the Virginia countryside to look at plantations and stop at the roadside and things if he got overstimulated in the city. Also it is not so distant from visiting a jonsinger, which Rob would also like. I'd want to take Lily somewhere with a lot of flower gardens and good chocolate, so...well, Montreal actually. There are lots of good kids' parks in Montreal even aside from the Jardin Botanique, and she could practice her French and discover where she could usefully know more French, and she could ask papersky questions about everything under the sun and zorinth would probably argue with some of his mother's answers and Lily would like that. And so would I.

4. I found that The Weepies were pretty much the ideal music for Pt. Reyes. Can you come up with other unexpected music/location combinations?

My most recent music/location combination was entirely predictable: "The End of the World As We Know It" came on the music at the Berkeley Whole Foods, and alecaustin and I rocked out and joked that everyone in their 30s in the entire store had just said, "Leonard Bernstein!" in unison. That is not the least bit unpredictable. That is demographic.

I think Josh Ritter on the plains south of here is entirely predictable also.

Now I want to listen to Meg Hutchinson in the fog in California hills, though. I don't know that that counts as unexpected. But I think it would be nice.

5. What's a cool, unboring thing for me to do with a race of semi-intelligent commensals?

Architectural structures from the weird things their partner race does? Or quasi-architectural at least? I don't just say that because I know you like architecturalnessitude.

Comments

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I could ask some, if you wanted. I'm all willin' and stuff.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sure, that was part of the offer on the original post.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I'm reading a little vaguely lately.

I'll whip some up once I'm back from work later.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

1) When you’re roadtripping (which I suppose you kind of are but I understand this more as a visit than a roadtrip), do you prefer a) car, b) train, c) something else? Why?

2) Do you have any beloved stuffed animals, still, or is that gone by the wayside?

3) What’s the best drink ever? Or anyway, right now?

4) Did your route to interest in Bletchly Park come via Turing, or something else? (This was originally "What's your idea of misery," but I decided that wasn't really a useful question.)

5) Is there a historical period you’re specifically fond of? (Or, rather, I know there are, but which one would you focus on?) Any that you’re not as fond of? Why?

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Today my new co-worker who's a bit of musical snob said something along the lines of, "I preferred the Sugarcubes to Bjork's solo work." I piped up and said, "I saw them in concert."

"How OLD are you?" he asked.

Yeah, about that old.

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

Hee.

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

How strange. I find The Weepies to be perfect music for overwintering in Vermont and/or driving across Idaho but not the two things simultaneously.

Pt. Reyes always makes me think of Big Big Love, a Bay Area Pixies cover band. But I still acknowledge and respect that we are working from two different maps here.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

That one is totally on you, Prov.

Look, I'm not the one who put the Westing Game reference in the book.

And it doesn't have to be something faerie. Besides, everyone should have a hobby.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Angela knits!

I have forgotten where I put the Westing Game reference. I will have to look again on the next revision pass.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

It turns out that Anne Hills' Follow That Road is also good for the Northern California hills. That's probably because I kept expecting to see the house from that song around every next bend.

Having had spotty internet access, over the past few days I missed the earlier post.

1. Do you have a favorite thing or type of thing to bake / cook, or is variety the key?

2. Our musical tastes seem to overlap some though not entirely. Are there any specific songs you'd recommend to me? (Come to think of it, if Bear ever does this meme, this is a song I should ask her.)

3. Is chemistry really a subset of physics or is it a separate thing entirely?

4. What are some of the best stories to read to a very new person? (Maybe once they're into the stage where listening to the words is more important than chewing on the pages.)

5. What are some things you especially like writing about other than fiction? (Or are there any?)

Feel free to ask me some, or weigh in on the questions I just asked Tim for.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Oh, did you want questions? I can do questions.

1. What is an interesting object you have out on display in your house somewhere? Why is it interesting, and where did it come from?

2. Why is five the canonical number for LJ? Five questions, five things make a post, five times such-and-such a character did X.

3. What is the most recent bit of art you've traveled somewhere (a museum, a theater, a freeway overpass) to see? What is the most recent bit of art you've stumbled upon accidentally? Which approach do you generally prefer?

4. Do you any particularly cute/funny/dramatic Ista stories?

And I'm going to steal one you asked me, because it was interesting:

5. What part of your life would be hardest to explain to your 20-year-old self? your 10-year-old self?

[aedifica]

I hadn't been asking anyone for questions because I wasn't feeling up to coming up with questions to ask others, but since you have shared your Secret Method it doesn't sound as huge an undertaking. So I would like some questions, please!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, such an aedifica.

1. What thing that other people find ordinary really makes your skin crawl? (Mine is nail files. Haaaaate.)
2. The converse: what thing that other people find creepy or gross is no big deal to you?
3. What is your favorite body of water?
4. What is the hardest thing you know how to cook? Do you like cooking it?
5. How do you feel about films in languages you don't speak?