The Interview Meme

mut answered an interview meme some time ago, and I thought I'd partake in it since the opportunity arose. Who doesn't love answering questions about themselves at length? I'm not sure these are the official rules, but here they are according to our favorite British physicist:

1. If you would like me to ask you questions, ask unambiguously in comments.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions, plus a similar offer.


And now, the questions!

1) Most important question first: What is your favourite kind of tea?

Hah. Good question! I could say something terrible like all tea tastes the same to me, and I'm generally good with a bag of Lipton. But I don't think you would fall for such blatant trickery

Though I'm worried that my real answer might not be much better. I'm a really big fan of herbal teas, so Celestial Seasonings is something I'd rock more often than not. I love the Honey Vanilla Chamomile, the Madagascar Vanilla Red, and the good old Tension Tamer. Oooh, but if you do a really good lemon ginger tea (and there's a company called Yogi Tea that does), nothing really tops that. I'll have to go with that. Lemon ginger.

2) Who (or what) are the biggest influences on your writing?

My list is constantly changing. When I was a kid, I adored the stuff from C.S. Lewis and The Wind in the Willows. I had such a hard-on for talking animals in Victorian clothing, and my sensibilities are still pretty heavily wired that way. It's what got me in to Alan Dean Foster and (indirectly) the furry fandom to begin with.

The kinds of stories I tell generally have to do with people who are trying their hardest to make sense of a chaotic world, who are doing what's best for them even if it screws the world around them. I'm a *huge* fan of small-town dynamics, because it's so fun to thread interpersonal relationships through to a grander, societal tapestry. David Lynch's Twin Peaks was the first thing I saw that really nailed that to me, and so many of my ideas have been trying to capture that.

Stylistically, I try for the clean, sharp and careful prose that most modern novelists have (ZZ Packer, Peter Orlean) but I think I come off more careless -- like Steven King, only more rambly, less interesting.

Poetry-wise, Charles Rafferty, Billy Collins and Tony Hoagland are my biggest influences. I love poetry that's challenging yet accessible, compassionate with just the right hint of snark.

3) Have you considered adopting a child with Ryan? What are your feelings?

I was adopted, so absolutely I'd like to return the favor with one child. I feel like I have quite a lot of growing up to do before that happens, though. I'm nowhere near fiscally or emotionally responsible enough to have a child. It's so *easy* to get it wrong with parenting, and I'd want to be sure that I was doing more good than harm with raising someone. Having the experience that I did growing up, and hearing about so many horror stories from other people, it's not something I would ever want to take lightly.

Beyond that, raising a child takes some serious cash. With the economic and political climate so strongly unfavorable to gay couples, it might take a little while before we're anywhere near a position where we could do that.

Short answer? Absolutely. But there's a lot of things that would need to fall into place before it could happen.

4) Apart from the Bay Area, where would you most like to live?

This might sound weird, but I have a particular fondness for the Pacific Northwest. I'd love to live in Washington state, which is cheaper than the Bay area (what isn't?) and has actually, honest-to-goodness *seasons*. There's a lot of stuff you could get away with up there (like relatively cheap housing, owning land, doing off-the-grid green energy stuff) that's a lot more difficult to pull off here.

And if I couldn't live there? Australia, definitely. Though I hear that comes with its own bag of problems.

5) A [non-malevolent] genie grants you three wishes. What is your third wish?

I love the phrasing of this question! I wish I had enough land and money to take care of myself, my family and friends for the rest of our lives. I'm pretty sure you can guess the first two!

Anyone else care to play this game? I'll ask you five questions, but only if you ask nicely.