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7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
I have playlists. Playlists upon playlists upon playlists for characters, filled with songs ranging between how the songs make me feel, the sensations the songs inspire in me, or how they remind me of the character's journey. They don't always work at putting me into the character's headspace, but I like making them, because I feel that each song I find for a character sheds a little more light into the character. Like a collage, only built by music and lyrics.
8. What's your favorite genre to write? To read?
I don't have a favorite genre to write, but suspense/thriller and rural/urban fantasy are the easiest to slip into ^.^;;. I'm really struggling with how to write fantasy... which is hilarious, because I have this sprawling, epic fantasy world in my head and no way to get it out without hating what I've done. Oh IPOM. XD
I love reading a good speculative fiction novel, one that explores the human condition within a science fiction framework. And regency romances that subvert the expectations of the genre, give me something zany and crazy and touching and beyond the stale formula, offer wonderful dialogue, and really transform the work into something about the characters, not about the lord and lady getting it on? Oh yeah, I'm on board yo. Just once I'd love to see a story set with a valet and a cook or maid or just any of the servants, really. So much potential yo! ENOUGH WITH THE STUPID NOBLES ALREADY.
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
This is often a great mystery for me, especially as I've gotten older. I think I subconsciously create characters now, building from something I need to write to get something out of my system. Because half of my characters come to me in dreams or seemingly out of thin air these days, and I just wonder where the hell they came from *__*. I dreamed half the characters in Catching Magic, and they feel like they are far more realized than most of my other novel characters. Then you also have me dreaming scenes for IPOM, and having shadowy characters in them that my brain hasn't finished generating the characters, but realizes that there needs to be something there. Hilariously, the characters formed this way? I tend to be able to draw them fifty times better than my other characters. XD
My other characters are based on subverting stereotypes (and frequently failing). I've noticed these characters aren't as realized and I have trouble relating to them. Or, like Keigo, I just can't get them to realistically be what they need to be. So I'm trying to move away from this method, but I'm not sure how to force my brain into character-creation times *__*.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
Kingdom characters! Because daemons are weird yo. All that slime is not normal and so awkward to explain to parents still doing your laundry. Oh Loni XD.
In books? Constant Peril, definitely. Connie is celebrating her sister's one year death-anniversary when she narrowly escapes getting shot and then kidnapped, is saved by her sister's former partner, drives from Portland to San Fran with the guy, gets in a shoot out in San Francisco and breaks her hand (more or less) firing a gun for the first time (her gun is shot and the force of it it slams her hand against a brick wall, ouch), has an emotional breakthrough in the hospital when her mother visits, does the nasty with sister's former partner, finds out the dead sister she's been mourning is really alive and in witness protection because she's a key witness in taking down a drug cartel she investigated undercover, gets kidnapped and finds out the bad guys are trying to kidnap her to get Monica out of witsec, and gets thrown into a really hot and smelly shipping container in Oakland. And that's just in 48 hours and only 3/4ths of the novel-- imagine what I could have written if I'd finished it. Also, please note I wrote over half of the novel in one day, so I was just throwing crap out there and it could have been oh so much worse if I'd drawn it out all month XD
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
BFor books? Gwendolen/Ava/Sam from Catching Magic and Monica Hatcher from Bleeding Mercy/Constant Peril were definitely my favorites. Writing all of them was like slipping into a familiar sleep garment-- comfy and oh so right! Notice how those two projects were my favorite Nano experiences X3. My least favorite would have to be all the characters in the last two Nanos AND my 2007 mess. LIKE PULLING TEETH. Why did I think I could write a western X0.
And for RPG? ^.^;;. I think Dee, Mara, Neve, Loni, Jaime, and even Reed trade off for favorites. It really depends on my mood, what I need to work out of my system, and what my brain is yelling at me to work on. For the most part, I love playing really strong, strident women and exploring the difference between them-- even Loni can be harsh, although that isn't a side I've explored with the current incarnation of the character yet. And then there's Reed, who I view as self-character XD.
I didn't like RPing Ikiro or Akemi, to be honest. Ikiro never gave me anything but empty philosophic babblings and I really had trouble figuring out her POV. No satisfaction there. And Akemi was such a physical character, everything about her filled with energy and movement and just going for things full throttle, that it was really a challenge to get into her head. And trying to keep her in the angstfest mode AND deal with the shoujo AND the fact she was batshit crazy but couldn't really develop within the game due to the epic crawl of things? I have to have a timeline to work with developing my characters, so not organically building that timeline really stiffled me even further. I was so terrified of screwing her up, so worried she was just this mess of a one dimensional idol mary sue, that just the thought of rping her triggered anxiety. I love the character to bits, mind you, but playing her? ANXIETY. Working with her alone has helped, but she's a character I don't think I'll ever be able to transfer to a new game. There's too much baggage.
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share?
My favorite bit of worldbuilding would have to be IPOM, simply because it is my eternal WIP and allows me to research things like japanese swordsmiths, gender studies, language, the city, alien geological features and how they might impact cultures, and the art of war as seen by different cultures. But it isn't complete enough to support a story yet, even if the edges of the tapestry are coming together, so this doesn't work for best job ^.^;;
So I'll have to go with Lost Senshi, though much of it never made it online, and a great deal was lost in George's final crash. But I'm remain proud of Lost Senshi's worldbuilding for two reasons. Firstly, I love what everyone added to the mix with the Cynthion Empire, really breathing life into each of the planets. I loved what Sage came up with for Neptune (and hijacked it for a long short story a few years back). It really added a lot of spice to the mix, and really fleshed out the Empire, even if we didn't get to play with it that much. And then there was Sage's awesome work with Oihan <3.
But what I am really proud of? What I came up with for the Rhombus System. While there was some cultural smushing going on, I did come up with a lot of really cool things, like the Hezen and Oskar's people. I never got to put up all the work on Oskar and his really amazing section of Txarha, and I lost so much when George crashed. STILL PISSED ABOUT THIS. But Oskar's little slice was really well conceived and didn't just explain who Oskar was-- it existed beyond his likes and dislikes and hobbies, there was a real culture there. And while Oskar was a member of it, the whole of it really went beyond him. If we never touch Lost Senshi again, I could really see it working as a world to house a short story.
I have playlists. Playlists upon playlists upon playlists for characters, filled with songs ranging between how the songs make me feel, the sensations the songs inspire in me, or how they remind me of the character's journey. They don't always work at putting me into the character's headspace, but I like making them, because I feel that each song I find for a character sheds a little more light into the character. Like a collage, only built by music and lyrics.
8. What's your favorite genre to write? To read?
I don't have a favorite genre to write, but suspense/thriller and rural/urban fantasy are the easiest to slip into ^.^;;. I'm really struggling with how to write fantasy... which is hilarious, because I have this sprawling, epic fantasy world in my head and no way to get it out without hating what I've done. Oh IPOM. XD
I love reading a good speculative fiction novel, one that explores the human condition within a science fiction framework. And regency romances that subvert the expectations of the genre, give me something zany and crazy and touching and beyond the stale formula, offer wonderful dialogue, and really transform the work into something about the characters, not about the lord and lady getting it on? Oh yeah, I'm on board yo. Just once I'd love to see a story set with a valet and a cook or maid or just any of the servants, really. So much potential yo! ENOUGH WITH THE STUPID NOBLES ALREADY.
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
This is often a great mystery for me, especially as I've gotten older. I think I subconsciously create characters now, building from something I need to write to get something out of my system. Because half of my characters come to me in dreams or seemingly out of thin air these days, and I just wonder where the hell they came from *__*. I dreamed half the characters in Catching Magic, and they feel like they are far more realized than most of my other novel characters. Then you also have me dreaming scenes for IPOM, and having shadowy characters in them that my brain hasn't finished generating the characters, but realizes that there needs to be something there. Hilariously, the characters formed this way? I tend to be able to draw them fifty times better than my other characters. XD
My other characters are based on subverting stereotypes (and frequently failing). I've noticed these characters aren't as realized and I have trouble relating to them. Or, like Keigo, I just can't get them to realistically be what they need to be. So I'm trying to move away from this method, but I'm not sure how to force my brain into character-creation times *__*.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
Kingdom characters! Because daemons are weird yo. All that slime is not normal and so awkward to explain to parents still doing your laundry. Oh Loni XD.
In books? Constant Peril, definitely. Connie is celebrating her sister's one year death-anniversary when she narrowly escapes getting shot and then kidnapped, is saved by her sister's former partner, drives from Portland to San Fran with the guy, gets in a shoot out in San Francisco and breaks her hand (more or less) firing a gun for the first time (her gun is shot and the force of it it slams her hand against a brick wall, ouch), has an emotional breakthrough in the hospital when her mother visits, does the nasty with sister's former partner, finds out the dead sister she's been mourning is really alive and in witness protection because she's a key witness in taking down a drug cartel she investigated undercover, gets kidnapped and finds out the bad guys are trying to kidnap her to get Monica out of witsec, and gets thrown into a really hot and smelly shipping container in Oakland. And that's just in 48 hours and only 3/4ths of the novel-- imagine what I could have written if I'd finished it. Also, please note I wrote over half of the novel in one day, so I was just throwing crap out there and it could have been oh so much worse if I'd drawn it out all month XD
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
BFor books? Gwendolen/Ava/Sam from Catching Magic and Monica Hatcher from Bleeding Mercy/Constant Peril were definitely my favorites. Writing all of them was like slipping into a familiar sleep garment-- comfy and oh so right! Notice how those two projects were my favorite Nano experiences X3. My least favorite would have to be all the characters in the last two Nanos AND my 2007 mess. LIKE PULLING TEETH. Why did I think I could write a western X0.
And for RPG? ^.^;;. I think Dee, Mara, Neve, Loni, Jaime, and even Reed trade off for favorites. It really depends on my mood, what I need to work out of my system, and what my brain is yelling at me to work on. For the most part, I love playing really strong, strident women and exploring the difference between them-- even Loni can be harsh, although that isn't a side I've explored with the current incarnation of the character yet. And then there's Reed, who I view as self-character XD.
I didn't like RPing Ikiro or Akemi, to be honest. Ikiro never gave me anything but empty philosophic babblings and I really had trouble figuring out her POV. No satisfaction there. And Akemi was such a physical character, everything about her filled with energy and movement and just going for things full throttle, that it was really a challenge to get into her head. And trying to keep her in the angstfest mode AND deal with the shoujo AND the fact she was batshit crazy but couldn't really develop within the game due to the epic crawl of things? I have to have a timeline to work with developing my characters, so not organically building that timeline really stiffled me even further. I was so terrified of screwing her up, so worried she was just this mess of a one dimensional idol mary sue, that just the thought of rping her triggered anxiety. I love the character to bits, mind you, but playing her? ANXIETY. Working with her alone has helped, but she's a character I don't think I'll ever be able to transfer to a new game. There's too much baggage.
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share?
My favorite bit of worldbuilding would have to be IPOM, simply because it is my eternal WIP and allows me to research things like japanese swordsmiths, gender studies, language, the city, alien geological features and how they might impact cultures, and the art of war as seen by different cultures. But it isn't complete enough to support a story yet, even if the edges of the tapestry are coming together, so this doesn't work for best job ^.^;;
So I'll have to go with Lost Senshi, though much of it never made it online, and a great deal was lost in George's final crash. But I'm remain proud of Lost Senshi's worldbuilding for two reasons. Firstly, I love what everyone added to the mix with the Cynthion Empire, really breathing life into each of the planets. I loved what Sage came up with for Neptune (and hijacked it for a long short story a few years back). It really added a lot of spice to the mix, and really fleshed out the Empire, even if we didn't get to play with it that much. And then there was Sage's awesome work with Oihan <3.
But what I am really proud of? What I came up with for the Rhombus System. While there was some cultural smushing going on, I did come up with a lot of really cool things, like the Hezen and Oskar's people. I never got to put up all the work on Oskar and his really amazing section of Txarha, and I lost so much when George crashed. STILL PISSED ABOUT THIS. But Oskar's little slice was really well conceived and didn't just explain who Oskar was-- it existed beyond his likes and dislikes and hobbies, there was a real culture there. And while Oskar was a member of it, the whole of it really went beyond him. If we never touch Lost Senshi again, I could really see it working as a world to house a short story.
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I was thinking about LS today, and your thoughts about it...if you ever want to try to do a longer collab story, I would be game for it! I'd probably need to fill out my side with another few characters to match the ones you made, but I'm sure we could work something out. It's something to think about when we are both less busy, definitely.