Interview thingy
Jun. 10th, 2003 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cdybedahlQuestions by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
halimede.
1. What attracts you to SF&F?
Neophilia, I think. That is, an attraction to that which is new. While in some sense every story is (hopefully) new in that it chronicles new interactions between new people under new circumstances (or some combination of those), the settings and situations in "mainstream" fiction tend to bore me. Overly formulaic SF&F also bore me, which is why I've never been able to stand the very popular Lois McMaster Bujold.
2. What are the things that make a character come alive for you the most (any media)? Wat makes a character come alive the most in your own writing?
If I knew the answer to that I'd be a much better writer than I am.
3. I liked the weapon Dayna carried in your story in 'Sleer As Folk'. What's your favorite piece of fictional futuretech (book,screen,audio --again, I'm not picky)? What do you like about it? Which one did you like least, and why?
Farcasters, from Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" books. Partly because teleporters are a neat idea, but mostly because of the excellent way in which Simmons treated them. Other writers have had teleporters, like Niven in the Known Space books or Silverberg in "Tower of Glass" (an excellent book, BTW), but the never managed to step beyond the thought of teleporters as basically really, really fast cars. Simmons thought about it some more and invented things like homes with each room on a different planet, the river that ran through every Farcaster-connected world and the War Room that spread over three planets.
I was also fascinated by the steam-powered cyborgs in China Miéville's "Perdido Street Station" and "The Scar", but I don't think they qualify as futuretech.
As for worst, there just is too much crap out there to pick one. I don't dwell on the failures.
4. Favorite recipe? (Yep, always looking to expand my repertoire, and if you have any good barbecue recipes I'd be especially grateful *G*)
Don't have one. Really. I grow bored with a dish if I have it too many times. Of course, some things last a lot longer than other things. Here's a nice one, which I'm fairly certain is a mutation of an Italian thing by the name of Bagna Cauda. This is the way we've done it, for about four to eight people:
Red wine goes well with it, just don't take a subtle one. This is not a subtle dish. You can expect to smell of garlic for several days afterwards.
5. Hottest f/f couple? What makes them so hot together?
For me, right now, it's one of the pairs I don't think anyone but me has ever written: Faith/Gabrielle. They just go so marvellously well together. Faith's fascination with ass-kicking blondes is quite obvious, as is Gabby's fondness for dark brooding fighter types trying to redeem a an evil past.
halimede.1. What attracts you to SF&F?
Neophilia, I think. That is, an attraction to that which is new. While in some sense every story is (hopefully) new in that it chronicles new interactions between new people under new circumstances (or some combination of those), the settings and situations in "mainstream" fiction tend to bore me. Overly formulaic SF&F also bore me, which is why I've never been able to stand the very popular Lois McMaster Bujold.
2. What are the things that make a character come alive for you the most (any media)? Wat makes a character come alive the most in your own writing?
If I knew the answer to that I'd be a much better writer than I am.
3. I liked the weapon Dayna carried in your story in 'Sleer As Folk'. What's your favorite piece of fictional futuretech (book,screen,audio --again, I'm not picky)? What do you like about it? Which one did you like least, and why?
Farcasters, from Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" books. Partly because teleporters are a neat idea, but mostly because of the excellent way in which Simmons treated them. Other writers have had teleporters, like Niven in the Known Space books or Silverberg in "Tower of Glass" (an excellent book, BTW), but the never managed to step beyond the thought of teleporters as basically really, really fast cars. Simmons thought about it some more and invented things like homes with each room on a different planet, the river that ran through every Farcaster-connected world and the War Room that spread over three planets.
I was also fascinated by the steam-powered cyborgs in China Miéville's "Perdido Street Station" and "The Scar", but I don't think they qualify as futuretech.
As for worst, there just is too much crap out there to pick one. I don't dwell on the failures.
4. Favorite recipe? (Yep, always looking to expand my repertoire, and if you have any good barbecue recipes I'd be especially grateful *G*)
Don't have one. Really. I grow bored with a dish if I have it too many times. Of course, some things last a lot longer than other things. Here's a nice one, which I'm fairly certain is a mutation of an Italian thing by the name of Bagna Cauda. This is the way we've done it, for about four to eight people:
- Peel and chop garlic until you have about half a kilo of finely chopped garlic.
- Pour a litre of cream into a large pot. Put the heat on, and melt a kilo of butter into it.
- When it starts to boil, put the garlic in.
- Let simmer for about an hour, until the garlic is more or less dissolved.
- Put a few anchovies in and let melt.
- While it's simmering, chop lots of veggies, hard cheeses, dryish bread and meats that don't have to be well cooked (not pork or chicken, in other words) into pieces suitably large to be skewered on a fondue fork.
- Pour the sludge into a fondue pot and put on a heater that keeps it simmering. Eat as any other fondue. Top up with sludge when the level in the fondue pot gets too low. Eat until coma.
Red wine goes well with it, just don't take a subtle one. This is not a subtle dish. You can expect to smell of garlic for several days afterwards.
5. Hottest f/f couple? What makes them so hot together?
For me, right now, it's one of the pairs I don't think anyone but me has ever written: Faith/Gabrielle. They just go so marvellously well together. Faith's fascination with ass-kicking blondes is quite obvious, as is Gabby's fondness for dark brooding fighter types trying to redeem a an evil past.
