You don’t know…..?
“This is the problem with LJ, we all think we are so close, and we know nothing about each other. I’m going to rectify it. I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don’t know about you.”
skinglist wrote:
How did you choose the marathon, among other events, to donate your time and efforts to?
I like this meme :steals:
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 1:02 am | Permalink
jackola wrote:
What do you call Pepsi?
Soda, Coke, Pop, Soda Pop, or ___ ?
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 1:38 am | Permalink
fraggedone wrote:
Why?
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 1:45 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
I call it Pepsi.
If I’m referring to carbonated sugar drinks in general, I call it “soda,” because I grew up in Illinois.
Usually, though, I go with specifics, because I can’t stand colas and always have to specify a lemon-lime soda or ginger ale.
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 2:06 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Because it’s a meme. More specifically, it’s a meme that satisfies my incredibly huge ego by telling people to be interested in me.
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 2:07 am | Permalink
cathouse_blues wrote:
How did you choose your husband?
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 2:51 am | Permalink
fraggedone wrote:
Oooo, that’s a little specific.
I was thinking more along the lines of “Because”.
Ok, here’s something: Why do you keep your hair shorter?
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 2:52 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
I like it short. My hair is very thick, and it takes forever to dry when it’s long. Plus, I have “scalp issues,” so when it’s long, it just gets tangled and dandruffy and split ends and such. When my hair is long, it’s not as healthy, and I’m constantly pulling my brush through to find several strands come with it. What’s more, the nature of my hair is that, when it reaches a certain length, it can grow no longer. I never get to have really long hair; mine stops at about bust-length.
BUT, my loving husband likes long hair. I don’t know why– it’s not like anyone in their right mind would mistake me for a boy, no matter how short my hair gets. But he does. Long hair. Check.
As a compromise, I wear it just above shoulder-length, and then forget to have it cut for about 2 months, during which time it gradually creeps longer and longer. I like being able to pull it back into a ponytail, but I like the convenience of raking my fingers through it after a shower and being done with the hair care for the day.
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 3:00 am | Permalink
elegantelbow wrote:
I was just thinking this one this morning:
Is your marriage polyamorous or monogamous?
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 3:33 am | Permalink
layer wrote:
what (if you attended) was your major in college and why? if you didn’t, why not?
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 3:39 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
*points to userinfo, where there’s an Education bio*
I went to Hampshire College, Cabrillo College, and UCSC, where I majored in Pre- and Early-Modern Literature.
My Master’s Degree is from SJSU, in English.
My certificate from UCSC Extension is in Technical Communication.
So, basically, English, English, and English. Just in different directions.
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 3:44 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
I chose a marathon because, at the end of training for a marathon, if you’re not “in shape,” then you never will be.
I chose to do a Team in Training/LLS marathon because I wanted to train with a team and be committed in a way that simply signing up might not get me to.
I chose the Maui Marathon because it’s relatively flat, and, well. MAUI.
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 4:03 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
We’re monogamous, but the door isn’t locked. In other words, if we met the right person or couple, that could change, but we’re one-on-one now.
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 4:05 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Hmm…. I don’t know that I chose him. I think it was kind of a mutual “choosing,” if you will.
At the time we decided to be exclusive, I was dating two other men. One was my ex-boyfriend, with whom I had previously lived. That was a relationship that was definitely ending, but it was taking its sweet time to die. I had also gone on a couple of dates with a guy I met on the Internet, but we weren’t serious and I knew I was scaring him with my nerdy lifestyle.
But John and I fit together, had many similar interests, had terrific chemistry, balanced my weaknesses to his strengths and vice versa, and generally were falling in love. We shared mutual long-term goals, and agreed on certain fundamental issues that are important to me (like not smoking, and not having kids).
About a year and a half later, when we were living together and shopping for a house together, he finally proposed. Mind you, I had proposed several times, but he never, apparently, thought I was serious. I guess since I couldn’t afford a ring, I wasn’t serious enough, but I was. Serious, but broke.
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 4:11 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
I forgot to answer the “why.”
Because I knew from the time I was 5 that I wanted to be a writer. I love words. I love writing. And reading. I was close to majoring in history (and I did minor in it in college, and took a grad seminar in history for my MA), just to be more rounded, but writing has always been my first love. Since I got rejected from the creative writing programs (BA and MA) every time I attempted to get into one, I stayed in the English literature programs instead.
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 4:14 am | Permalink
layer wrote:
d’oh!
guess i should look at those bios more often…
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 4:24 am | Permalink
angelsk wrote:
Where did you get your icon from? I’ve seen lots of them and I must have missed something.
A proper question though: what do you love about writing, how do you get your ideas?
Posted on 29-Jun-04 at 4:56 pm | Permalink
trelana wrote:
I’m slow to respond - I blame the TSA!
You started writing young — did you always want to be a technical writer (… well, some form of non-fiction, educational sort of manual writer), or did you want to write fiction? What sorts of writing caught your interest from an early age and have held it since, if any?
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 7:39 am | Permalink
halfawake wrote:
Great idea for a meme, I’ll be copying it into my journal shortly. Honestly, I don’t think there is anything that I should know about you that I don’t know. Although I haven’t talked to you all that much, I’ve talked to you enough to know the basics, and I’ve read your userinfo several time so I know your education and all that stuff.
Oh wait, I thought of something. What made you decide to live in Scotts Valley?
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 7:42 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
I did not want to be a technical writer when I was growing up. I wanted to write stories. Without even knowing what it was, I wrote fantasy and science fiction stories. I didn’t actually learn about science fiction until I was in 6th grade, but I was writing it all the same.
I wanted to write science fiction novels and fantasy novels when I grew up (you know, in between being an actress and an astronaut and an historian, of course). From the time I was a kid until this very morning, that’s what I’ve always wanted to write.
I’ve had a span here of 8 years where I’ve been writing technical stuff, all non-fiction (though some of the business docs certainly couldn’t be classified as “fact”). For a while there, I focused on the technical stuff, aiming myself as a “career tech writer,” but reality has returned with each NaNoWriMo, and I rediscover the joy of fiction again.
When I was a teenager, I knew I would willingly sell my craft if it gave me a chance at writing my art– I have never had a problem with the idea of being a “sell out,” writing whatever I could get paid to write. To be honest, writing is both and art and a skill to me, but mostly it’s just too much fun to worry about which one it is. I don’t write ad copy because I don’t have the right sense of humor for it– ads have to have a certain “edge” to them that I just don’t have.
I had good role models for orienting towards writing what you can get paid for. My grandfather was a working journalist, author, and professor. He wrote over 30 books; all but one was non-fiction. His novel was, according to all reports, terrible. My grandmother started out as a journalist. Two of my uncles were journalists and taught journalism at prestigious universities. My best friend’s mother was also a working writer, although she wrote educational materials for McDougal-Littel. I was always amused to find Holly’s name (or even my own) in my textbooks at school, to know that she’d written them, and to realize that her name was *not* on the cover of the book. Holly’s mom also wrote fiction and poetry, but the textbooks were her bread and butter.
It’s interesting, because the comment I have at home for Jo is very similar to this one, although it’s less about what I wanted to write as a kid, and more about what I write now.
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 7:50 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
The house was there. I mean, we knew we wanted to stay in the Santa Cruz area, and we went house-hunting, and this house was in SV. It’s a good location for us anyway, close to freeway and jobs and such.
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 8:07 am | Permalink
snesgirl wrote:
How did you meet your husband?
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 8:09 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
This one’s related to the previous “how did you choose your husband,” I suspect.
I met John at a Dungeons & Dragons game. I was the DM, and John met this woman () online by searching for AOL profiles that had “Santa Cruz” and “sex” listed as interests. My game was held at her house at the time, and she invited him to come play (it was standard operating procedure at the time that I might show up to run the game and have anywhere from 2 to 12 players in the room, no matter what I’d prepared).
Anyway, he showed up, and I kind of dismissed him as another drop-in player. I focused on the other players. But he showed up the next week. And the next. And we were at a Halloween party at the same time (but not together– I was seeing someone at the time). And in time, after the relationship with my boyfriend ended, we started hanging out together.
When I ended things with Brandon, it was in part because I knew John was there and interested, so I didn’t hang onto a dying relationship out of fear of loneliness. I cut the line and went elsewhere, knowing there were otehr fish biting in the sea.
So, John helped me get over Brandon, and he was sweet and lovely and all. And we fell in love, which wasn’t really part of the plan. I fall in love easily and well, but I’ve come to realize that John’s not like that, and the fact that he fell in love with me in just a month or so is a good indicator of how much I am “the one” for him. When you’re “the one” and you know it, who are you to argue?
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 8:58 am | Permalink
halfawake wrote:
Ah, that’s a good reason.
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 10:00 am | Permalink
skinglist wrote:
yeah, I was on STA’s site today and saw a Maui getaway and thought of you.
Random, what’s the deadline for donating? I haven’t forgotten, I just haven’t been able to yet–waiting some things to come through.
And those all sounds like very good reasons for getting involved.
Here the new me, can me the iconified you
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 10:08 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Well, the deadline I put in my letter was June 15, but that was mainly so I could re-orient my fundraising at that time and figure out what I needed to do next.
The sooner the better, of course, but I can accept donations through August and a little way into September.
BTW: The marathon that Wil and Anne ran was also a fundraiser for TNT; they raised a lot for the cause. Go Wil and Anne!
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 10:19 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
D’oh! I remember you asked before about the userpic, and I forgot to hunt down the URL for you.
Here it is!. I added the bookcases backdrop from a clipart collection, because it seemed fitting. The cat in the userpic is supposed to be Allegro.
What do I love about writing…..
I love putting myself behind someone else’s eyes and observing, making notes, expressing their story.
I love eliciting an “Oh!” response out of others, when a particularly touching moment in a story has really affected them.
I love words, and putting the words together is just fun.
I like to talk. See above about words.
As for where I get my ideas…. I steal liberally and without shame from a number of sources. I get ideas from role-playing games, movies, TV shows, other books, other people. My current novel sprang from an idea I had while talking with other writers about the problem with the “teen prodigy” fantasy novels. See, most fantasy novels have a youthful wizard or witch who is just naturally talented. Nearly all of them have puberty as the triggering time for magical development, at least in their setting and history. In most “Hero becomes a wizard” novel, you’re following the actions of a young teen while they grow up. They’re coming-of-age novels. That would be OK, but not everyone wants to read a bildungsroman. Especially when the author ups the stakes and makes the teen responsible for saving the world and getting the girl.
I’ve read fantasy novels where a seventeen year old, after saving the world, finds their true love, and I have to say that, from my experience, seventeen is just about when most people are finding the loves that are anything but true. I can suspend my disbelief and accept firebolts shooting from someone’s fingertips, but I cannot accept a seventeen year old who even knows what they *want* in love, much less who finds it.
So, this discussion we were having online, and a lot of other writers (also in the genre) agreed that, while they enjoy some teen characters, they felt there was something unreal and would like to have more mature main characters. After all, Frodo was well into middle-age when he went on the big quest, and fantasy was, for years, dominated by grown-up characters facing challenges that make even adult heroes falter.
And that’s when the idea was born. A coming-of-power story where the main character is not hitting puberty. Say, for example, what if magic came during one of the numerous other maturing experiences in life. Childbirth came first to mind, but we came up with many others (like when your parents die; there’s something about that moment that changes you forever). In most cases, power will still blossom in the young, say new moms. But these won’t be people for whom apprenticing is a real option. Your average new witch or wizard is coming to their power when they have other plans for their life. A witch may be nursing a new infant as she tries to learn control, and it is so much harder to learn a new skill as an adult!
So, that’s kind of where that idea came from. One place I rarely get ideas; my dreams. I just don’t have whatever it takes to turn a dream into a good story.
Posted on 30-Jun-04 at 2:42 pm | Permalink
skinglist wrote:
yeah, I knew I missed your June deadline. I’ll get it to you soon, I promise.
Wil and Anne?
Posted on 02-Jul-04 at 2:11 pm | Permalink
jackola wrote:
mmm… ginger ale = A++.
PS to LJ: thanks for sending this comment as well as about 15 others at the same time really late. i
Posted on 02-Aug-04 at 4:12 pm | Permalink