An Interview with... Moi!

Carol, over at Northwest Ladybug, had this really fun activity a few weeks ago. Another blogging friend of hers prepared individual interview questions for regular readers and then sent it out to those bloggers to respond to on their blogs.

And Carol issued the same invitation. And knowing Nablopomo was coming up, I took her up on it! So here are her questions and my answers:

1.) What have you found to be the biggest joys and challenges regarding your writing?

Nothing like starting me off with a bang! The biggest joy is probably those rare times when everything comes together at once. You're "in your zone" with your fiction and your characters and plot are just zinging along. And I'll also be honest here - another big joy is when someone reads your stuff and clearly just loves it. So that brings the challenge thing - getting published. Keeping up with the ins and outs of getting published, the queries, the rejections, the political stuff, etc. Another challenge I have with the writing itself is that second draft. The first one usually flows, but getting the second one down, which is really major revising, rather than editing, is my bugaboo. I do tend to revise as I go along with the first draft, but the second is the BIG PICTURE revising draft, and as I am a very impatient person, I just stink at this.

2.) Can you name an experience in your past that had an immediate and significant impact on your character? Forming it, strengthening it, challenging it, etc.

This was a totally easy one. There are two: living in Soviet Russia and teaching school there for a semester and having my DS and becoming a mom. Hands down, those are the two most character-forming experiences of my life.

3.) Tell me about something that makes you laugh.

My DH. He makes tons of puns and is great at silly jokes. Sometimes they aren't funny, but he's charming about that, too. I've never laughed so hard in my life at some of the things he's come up with.

4.) Tell me about your favorite job. What about your least favorite?

Favorite job is a hard one, because I've really been lucky to love many of them. I'm really enjoying the teaching I'm doing right now. I have two groups of AMAZING high school students whom I really enjoy. I also love (almost) any job that involves writing. I'm really a writing whore. Give me something to write and pay me for it and I'm happy. ;-) My least favorite job - EASY - selling encyclopedias door-to-door to businesses. As much as this job would stink going to homes door-to-door, it was that much worse going business-to-business, because, I mean, aren't merchants all about stopping their work days and leaving paying customers standing there because they totally NEED encyclopedias at their auto mechanic shops, grocery stores, clothing stores, etc.? The Limited, Too staff is so completely in need of encyclopedias to get through their day, for example. (Not meaning to put down or single out those salespeople, I'm just saying the whole enterprise was ridiculous).

So... wanna play? Just let me know via a comment here and make sure I can reach you via e-mail and I will send you some interview questions tailored just for you!