(no subject)
Sep. 2nd, 2003 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckHere's another of those interview thingies. These questions come from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scribblemoose. (dagoski, I'm still thinking about the questions you sent me. I will answer them eventually.)
1. Has becoming a mother changed your outlook on life, and if so, in what ways?
I know that it has. How is a bigger question and one that I'm having difficulty defining. Let's see...
I'm a lot more aware now of all of the things that can hurt or kill children. I know that the odds are against any given child falling foul of most of them, but... The ones that do are all *somebody's* babies.
I'm also more aware of the things that I need to do so that, if something does go wrong, it's handled as well as possible. Drawing up wills was part of that. The childproofing that I'm trying to get started on is another segment.
I'm valuing my in-laws more than I did. They still drive me up the wall in many ways, but they genuinely care about both Delia and me. At the same time, though, I'm finding that I want to stand up to them on subjects that never really mattered before-- religion, how my sister-in-law's bringing up her son, that sort of thing. Well, it always mattered; it just... I didn't have to argue with them about it; there was nothing to be gained.
2. Your husband seems to work really long and antisocial hours. If he had six months paid leave, and you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?
First we'd probably start with a few weeks of home improvements. We do need to live here, after all, and there's a lot of stuff that could make life more comfortable that we simply don't have time for under normal circumstances.
After that, we'd visit some of our more distant relatives and friends. Scott's brother in San Francisco. My mother and step-father in Baton Rouge. My brother in Wisconsin. My sister in Atlanta. My grandfather in the Florida Keys. We might even visit my father (it's considerably more likely to happen given that he lives close to my half-sister and to at least one LJ person I'd love to see). We'd have to space out the trips carefully so that I'd have time to recover since I don't necessarily travel well; it tends to disrupt my sleep which in turn aggravates my fibromyalgia.
Apart from that... Well, we'd probably take some trips for science fiction conventions or LARPs that we otherwise couldn't, but I think that, on the whole, we'd stay home and enjoy each other's company. I'd do some writing and reading while he watched the baby, and he'd play some computer games and tinker with our network while I watched her. We'd both have a bit more time for each other and for our friends. Maybe we'd each start running another table top game...
The possibilities are endless, even assuming a limited budget.
3. Looking about the room you're in, which thing (not including people!) would you choose to best illustrate your life at the moment?
Not going to let me wimp out and use my daughter? Cruel, aren't you? Hm... Probably my laptop. It's my lifeline in a lot of ways. It's how I do most of my communicating these days. It lets me get online to order things or research various topics. I can read on my computer more easily right now than I necessarily can a book because I need my hands for less of it. The laptop is also the repository of all my writing, all my role playing characters, all of my LARPs. Anything that's come out of my mind and been recorded lives there.
4. What's your favourite way of pampering yourself? (if you ever got the chance ^_~)
My absolute favorite way to pamper myself is to get someone else to do it for me. Seriously, I crave backrubs, both massages and gentle, stroking rubs. Appeals to my inner cat, I suppose.
In terms of something I can do entirely for my self, I like long, hot baths in a full size (or bigger) tub. I like to add a bit of some sort of scent if I can find one I'm not allergic to. Sigh... Sadly this is not something I get to indulge in very often because our tub is not all that large.
5. Where do your best writing ideas come from?
The very best ones come from dreams and from the semi-wakeful periods surrounding sleep. Somehow, very strange things come together during those periods, and when I think about them and try to structure them in a way that makes sense to my waking mind, I get plots. I seem to do best by synthesis-- I grab a notion here, an action there, and throw them together.
It helps that, in my dreams, I'm not always me. I often become different characters (none drawn from anything I've read or watched for some reason. Although I have had role playing characters turn up there) at various points in the dream. Sometimes, that transition is even clear to me-- almost as if my awareness were passing from one character in the almost story to another.
I tried keeping a dream journal once but gave it up when I realized that it was destroying what I liked most about my dreams. The journal increased the fragmentation, giving me more detail but stealing the story. Since I like the stories, find them useful, the dream journal was a terrible thing. I'll resist strongly any effort to persuade me to keep one again.
As always, leave me a note if you want to be interviewed and are willing to make the same offer to others.
scribblemoose. (dagoski, I'm still thinking about the questions you sent me. I will answer them eventually.)1. Has becoming a mother changed your outlook on life, and if so, in what ways?
I know that it has. How is a bigger question and one that I'm having difficulty defining. Let's see...
I'm a lot more aware now of all of the things that can hurt or kill children. I know that the odds are against any given child falling foul of most of them, but... The ones that do are all *somebody's* babies.
I'm also more aware of the things that I need to do so that, if something does go wrong, it's handled as well as possible. Drawing up wills was part of that. The childproofing that I'm trying to get started on is another segment.
I'm valuing my in-laws more than I did. They still drive me up the wall in many ways, but they genuinely care about both Delia and me. At the same time, though, I'm finding that I want to stand up to them on subjects that never really mattered before-- religion, how my sister-in-law's bringing up her son, that sort of thing. Well, it always mattered; it just... I didn't have to argue with them about it; there was nothing to be gained.
2. Your husband seems to work really long and antisocial hours. If he had six months paid leave, and you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?
First we'd probably start with a few weeks of home improvements. We do need to live here, after all, and there's a lot of stuff that could make life more comfortable that we simply don't have time for under normal circumstances.
After that, we'd visit some of our more distant relatives and friends. Scott's brother in San Francisco. My mother and step-father in Baton Rouge. My brother in Wisconsin. My sister in Atlanta. My grandfather in the Florida Keys. We might even visit my father (it's considerably more likely to happen given that he lives close to my half-sister and to at least one LJ person I'd love to see). We'd have to space out the trips carefully so that I'd have time to recover since I don't necessarily travel well; it tends to disrupt my sleep which in turn aggravates my fibromyalgia.
Apart from that... Well, we'd probably take some trips for science fiction conventions or LARPs that we otherwise couldn't, but I think that, on the whole, we'd stay home and enjoy each other's company. I'd do some writing and reading while he watched the baby, and he'd play some computer games and tinker with our network while I watched her. We'd both have a bit more time for each other and for our friends. Maybe we'd each start running another table top game...
The possibilities are endless, even assuming a limited budget.
3. Looking about the room you're in, which thing (not including people!) would you choose to best illustrate your life at the moment?
Not going to let me wimp out and use my daughter? Cruel, aren't you? Hm... Probably my laptop. It's my lifeline in a lot of ways. It's how I do most of my communicating these days. It lets me get online to order things or research various topics. I can read on my computer more easily right now than I necessarily can a book because I need my hands for less of it. The laptop is also the repository of all my writing, all my role playing characters, all of my LARPs. Anything that's come out of my mind and been recorded lives there.
4. What's your favourite way of pampering yourself? (if you ever got the chance ^_~)
My absolute favorite way to pamper myself is to get someone else to do it for me. Seriously, I crave backrubs, both massages and gentle, stroking rubs. Appeals to my inner cat, I suppose.
In terms of something I can do entirely for my self, I like long, hot baths in a full size (or bigger) tub. I like to add a bit of some sort of scent if I can find one I'm not allergic to. Sigh... Sadly this is not something I get to indulge in very often because our tub is not all that large.
5. Where do your best writing ideas come from?
The very best ones come from dreams and from the semi-wakeful periods surrounding sleep. Somehow, very strange things come together during those periods, and when I think about them and try to structure them in a way that makes sense to my waking mind, I get plots. I seem to do best by synthesis-- I grab a notion here, an action there, and throw them together.
It helps that, in my dreams, I'm not always me. I often become different characters (none drawn from anything I've read or watched for some reason. Although I have had role playing characters turn up there) at various points in the dream. Sometimes, that transition is even clear to me-- almost as if my awareness were passing from one character in the almost story to another.
I tried keeping a dream journal once but gave it up when I realized that it was destroying what I liked most about my dreams. The journal increased the fragmentation, giving me more detail but stealing the story. Since I like the stories, find them useful, the dream journal was a terrible thing. I'll resist strongly any effort to persuade me to keep one again.
As always, leave me a note if you want to be interviewed and are willing to make the same offer to others.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-02 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-07 03:40 pm (UTC)1) Your parents sound like great people. What was the best thing about growing up with them? What was the worst?
2) In terms of commercially published fiction, who is your favorite author and why?
3) I know that the fictional worlds I touch (whether as reader or as a writer) have a sort of reality for me. Of the worlds you've written which feel the most real and which the least? Why?
4) If you had to live in a different time period (for example, Elizabethan England or Moorish Spain), when and where would you pick? Would your answer change if you were just visiting?
5) Of games you've played in which has been your favorite and why?
no subject
Date: 2003-09-02 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-07 06:32 pm (UTC)1) What would you consider your ideal job?
2) Are there any sports that you enjoy watching? Why or why not?
3) If you had a thousand dollars to spend just on yourself, what would you buy?
4) If you could suddenly have any one superpower (including psionics) what would you want to have and what would you do with it?
5) In terms of commercially published fiction, who is your favorite author and why?
no subject
Date: 2003-09-02 06:22 pm (UTC)