Twenty questions (5)
More Formspring questions. Posted 3/9/10.
Are the daffodils up/out in Alabama yet?
I haven't seen any, but this is usually the time of year they are, yeah. Our forsythia at the old house used to start blooming the last week of February.
Which is TLE's favourite My Little Pony?
Butterscotch, of course.
You get HBO right? Can you proffer a possible explanation as to what ANYONE (the network, the participants, etc.) were thinking with "Cathouse: The musical"? It's just all sorts of bad.
The--what? Cathouse: The WHAT?
How many people do you reckon honestly believe that you look like your purple user icon?
It was worse when I had a purple icon that was a picture of Frances Farmer, and people thought it was actually me.
What scares you more: spiders, snakes, heights, or explosions?
Heights, by FAR.
Do you ever feel bad about dissing things that people are so passionate about (e.g. Twilight, Avatar?) I think you are nice, but have you ever written something, and afterwards thought "If this were about something I loved, I'd hate to read this"?
Every now and then I've said something that, in retrospect, was really tacky or unusually harsh, and I do wish I hadn't said it. I don't feel bad about critiquing things in general, though, because I also feel like I'm quick to say when a part of whatever it is did work. Like, I don't feel bad about criticizing Avatar because I freely said, "Zoe Saldana is really good in this." There's "honest" harsh and there's "below-the-belt" harsh, and the latter kind of thing is what I feel bad about. Because honestly, I love a lot of things that get a lot of shit from people, and it's not necessarily pleasant to read, but if it's a fair, honest opinion, I can't really begrudge them.
Favorite alcoholic drink?
I like margaritas and Long Islands, although if I'm at a bar and people are drinking serious, non-girly drinks, I tend to get whiskey sours. (I don't like the taste of liquor.) If we're drinking out of bottles--I don't like the taste of beer, either--I try to get a Woodchuck Amber if I can.
What kind of links and/or comments shouldn't be sent your way (aside from the whole hair-sniffing, sleep-watching bollocks)?
Hm. Well, it's not that you *shouldn't* send Twilight-related links my way; it's just that the odds are that I've already seen it. Other than that, I'd say to just keep the general tone/content of my journal in mind (and the fact that I follow 220+ blogs/sites on Google Reader, so really, I've probably got most links covered). I mean, yes, I have posted what we will call The Horrors of Twilight, Some of Which Were Sexual (Oh God, Why Would You DO That?!), but generally? I try to stay away from politics/religion to keep the peace, and I don't post sexually explicit material very often. (And even if I do, it tends to be related to movies and entertainment.) A few people linked me to--well, go to lulu.com and search for "Natural Harvest" and be weirded. That is not the kind of thing I would put up for discussion, quite honestly. And then there was someone very early on who emailed me to say, "I saw this and it looked like the kind of thing you'd post," and it was a link to an article about a leather-bound book up for auction. Except that the leather was human. Yeah.
As far as comments go, as long as they stay civil and away from politics, religion, and books bound in human skin, we'll probably be okay.
How much do the cartoony pictures posted by your LJ name resemble you - if at all?
Those are from avatar.yahoo.com--as such, I tried to pick the options that looked most like me: medium-long curly brown hair, blue eyes (well, they were blue at the time. For some reason, they've become green over the last few years), glasses, and the facial expression that looked the least not-like me. I'm nowhere near as thin, though, so in addition to not being a cartoon, I would be very disappointing in real life if you were relying on me to look like those icons.
Did you ever go through a goth phase?
Kind of? I mean, not a full-on respectable goth phase where I wore all black or heavy makeup or anything. I liked wearing purple nail polish and black granny boots with my jeans, that was about the gothiest I got. I think a lot of kids go through a period in their early teens where they're finally old enough to start looking into "grownup" stuff, like scary movies or "adult" books, so they dive into a lot of that. I went through the Stephen King period, the vampires and Victorian era period (well, I never really got out of that), the Jack the Ripper and serial killers period--basically, the time that young teenagers spend exploring darker stuff because they're not "babies" anymore and they want to make up for what feels like lost time. But I didn't go through an outwardly goth phase or self-identify as one, no. I was too shy for that.
To what lengths will you/won't you go to protect your internet anonymity? Where is it on your list of priorities in your career?
There's a point where I know I'm going to have to go out and about in public and meet people, do a book tour if I'm lucky enough to need one, and that, the internet being what it is, it would be impossible to hide my real name or even my address forever. My IRL identity isn't a secret of Deep Throat proportions to me, but I have a very definite set of boundaries. It's not as important to me that people *can't* find this information (although, obviously, I don't want them to) as it is that they *know* that I don't want them to. They know that I've set this boundary, that I don't want people just calling my house or showing up on my doorstep. I know the information is probably out there, but I don't want people to use it.
How's the mental health stuff coming along? I remember you posted about that a couple of times right when I was starting to struggle with being bipolar, and it really helped. Are you doing ok? (And if this comes off creepy, I'm sorry D:) by dramedyanswers
No, not at all--mental health is one of the personal things I *do* actually talk about, because I view it as just another kind of illness and not something to feel bad about.
This (January-March) is usually a bad time of year for me, probably because the lack of sunlight has really started to catch up, and because there are a couple of days in there that are hard for personal reasons. Some years I get through it better than others (and I do have a full-spectrum lamp). This year, there has been a lot of stress and drama from various sources, and I've been (physically) sick a few times. So the bipolar/depression thing has been unusually bad, is what I'm saying. It's just something you learn to cope with, and the coping itself is a process.
Your frank openness regarding depression is refreshing. Have you had more success ameliorating it via pharmaceuticals, therapy, or the holistic methods (regular exercise, exposure to sunlight, set schedules, etc)?
I will say, first off, that I don't think any one thing is a complete solution, and that most people will probably have more success with a combination of something. Moreover, that combination will probably have to change over time, because (as I understand it), so will your brain chemistry.
I feel like most people would benefit from therapy, even just once in a while, because everyone could probably use someone objective to talk to now and then. I have an hour four times a year, when I go in for my med checks. For a couple of years after my parents divorced while I was in college, I went once a week, and then every two weeks. I got to the point where I just felt talked out--I felt like I knew what my problems were, but some of them, I just wasn't ready to do anything about yet, and someday I would be, but it was pointless to rehash it over and over in the meantime. Some things worked themselves out on their own and some things didn't. Everyone could probably benefit from talk therapy at some point, but not everyone might benefit from it constantly, is what I'm saying.
Anyway, back to the actual question: I personally feel like antidepressants have been the most important element for me, but *as part* of a larger regimen--the therapy, the sunlight, the vitamins, etc. But I've dealt with chemical depression/bipolar issues since I was a child and I'd go up to my mother and say, "I feel bad, but I don't know why," or I'd go up to my teacher every single day and tell her my stomach hurt (not realizing it was anxiety). One afternoon I sat down to write a story, and I whipped out 42 handwritten pages in a fit of energy; I was nine years old. So that says to me that there has always been something different about my brain, and that there probably always will be, whereas other people might deal with more temporary, less cyclical episodes of depression, and that a less pharmaceutical approach might be better for them. The important thing is to be willing to try different things, I guess--and to have a good enough relationship with your doctor that you can say, "This is really not working for me, and we need to stop now," particularly with medications.
Fairies? I was nodding right along until you got to those. What movies will they be in? Also: Norse gods.
As of this writing, they're going to adapt "Wicked Lovely," and I think there was at least one other project that I can't remember at the moment. I thought "Beautiful Creatures" was about fairies, but now I'm hearing not.
Also, this:
http://io9.com/5458542/george-lucas-cg-fairy-musical-mystery-our-theories
Have you considered trying to put together a Secret Life of Dolls book?
People ask that, but I just don't know if it would work. Number one, it wouldn't work at all as a printed book, because of the hyperlinks and the intertextual nature of it. The other thing is, I don't know how the rights holders of the characters involved would take to that. The Tolkien Estate is *notoriously* strict, for example. Sure, you can argue that it's parody or commentary, but Fair Use isn't a *law*; it's a defense. You'd still have to go to court and defend yourself on those grounds, if someone wanted to sue. Between the format issues and the rights issues, I just don't know that it's possible. So for now, I just have the readthrough; I could possibly format that into an e-book, but I'd have to give that out for free (which is fine), to avoid copyright infringement issues.
Can you explain Eva Mendes' fame to me? Attractive visage aside, I have NEVER seen her in a film where her performance made me laugh, cry, gasp, etc.
I know who she is, but I'm trying to think of a film I've seen her in, and I'm not coming up with one.
Victorian England was a nutty place: do you plan on incorporating the Egyptology craze and into "The Black Ribbon"?
I've thought about it, but I'm not sure where it'd go. The story's gone more in the direction of India from the start.
Who is the most long-suffering celebrity wife: Robin Wright Penn or Elizabeth Edwards?
I'm not sure I know enough about their respective marriages to answer that.
I see in the LJ you often refer to your friend and atty in the comments. Is this mostly b/c you guys are pals or is there a significant amount of IP infringement on your work you need to vigorously protect?
Well, we're friends, and over the course of our being friends, she finished law school and became an attorney, and I ended up wanting an agent who had a strong understanding of contract law and negotiation, on the wildly optimistic assumption that I would ever finish anything else. People rip my stuff off wholesale a lot--to the point where I don't go looking for it, because I know I'd find it--but I try to handle those things myself when I can, because getting Darth Junction involved seems a bit like overkill.
You often post about people sending you gifts. Am I an idiot, or is there a secret way to know where to send them?
My PO box address is on my user info, but I don't mention it a whole lot just because that's a really mixed signal. "Here is the address I don't want you to send things to!" Although cards and letters are nice; that's originally what I set it up for.
Are the daffodils up/out in Alabama yet?
I haven't seen any, but this is usually the time of year they are, yeah. Our forsythia at the old house used to start blooming the last week of February.
Which is TLE's favourite My Little Pony?
Butterscotch, of course.
You get HBO right? Can you proffer a possible explanation as to what ANYONE (the network, the participants, etc.) were thinking with "Cathouse: The musical"? It's just all sorts of bad.
The--what? Cathouse: The WHAT?
How many people do you reckon honestly believe that you look like your purple user icon?
It was worse when I had a purple icon that was a picture of Frances Farmer, and people thought it was actually me.
What scares you more: spiders, snakes, heights, or explosions?
Heights, by FAR.
Do you ever feel bad about dissing things that people are so passionate about (e.g. Twilight, Avatar?) I think you are nice, but have you ever written something, and afterwards thought "If this were about something I loved, I'd hate to read this"?
Every now and then I've said something that, in retrospect, was really tacky or unusually harsh, and I do wish I hadn't said it. I don't feel bad about critiquing things in general, though, because I also feel like I'm quick to say when a part of whatever it is did work. Like, I don't feel bad about criticizing Avatar because I freely said, "Zoe Saldana is really good in this." There's "honest" harsh and there's "below-the-belt" harsh, and the latter kind of thing is what I feel bad about. Because honestly, I love a lot of things that get a lot of shit from people, and it's not necessarily pleasant to read, but if it's a fair, honest opinion, I can't really begrudge them.
Favorite alcoholic drink?
I like margaritas and Long Islands, although if I'm at a bar and people are drinking serious, non-girly drinks, I tend to get whiskey sours. (I don't like the taste of liquor.) If we're drinking out of bottles--I don't like the taste of beer, either--I try to get a Woodchuck Amber if I can.
What kind of links and/or comments shouldn't be sent your way (aside from the whole hair-sniffing, sleep-watching bollocks)?
Hm. Well, it's not that you *shouldn't* send Twilight-related links my way; it's just that the odds are that I've already seen it. Other than that, I'd say to just keep the general tone/content of my journal in mind (and the fact that I follow 220+ blogs/sites on Google Reader, so really, I've probably got most links covered). I mean, yes, I have posted what we will call The Horrors of Twilight, Some of Which Were Sexual (Oh God, Why Would You DO That?!), but generally? I try to stay away from politics/religion to keep the peace, and I don't post sexually explicit material very often. (And even if I do, it tends to be related to movies and entertainment.) A few people linked me to--well, go to lulu.com and search for "Natural Harvest" and be weirded. That is not the kind of thing I would put up for discussion, quite honestly. And then there was someone very early on who emailed me to say, "I saw this and it looked like the kind of thing you'd post," and it was a link to an article about a leather-bound book up for auction. Except that the leather was human. Yeah.
As far as comments go, as long as they stay civil and away from politics, religion, and books bound in human skin, we'll probably be okay.
How much do the cartoony pictures posted by your LJ name resemble you - if at all?
Those are from avatar.yahoo.com--as such, I tried to pick the options that looked most like me: medium-long curly brown hair, blue eyes (well, they were blue at the time. For some reason, they've become green over the last few years), glasses, and the facial expression that looked the least not-like me. I'm nowhere near as thin, though, so in addition to not being a cartoon, I would be very disappointing in real life if you were relying on me to look like those icons.
Did you ever go through a goth phase?
Kind of? I mean, not a full-on respectable goth phase where I wore all black or heavy makeup or anything. I liked wearing purple nail polish and black granny boots with my jeans, that was about the gothiest I got. I think a lot of kids go through a period in their early teens where they're finally old enough to start looking into "grownup" stuff, like scary movies or "adult" books, so they dive into a lot of that. I went through the Stephen King period, the vampires and Victorian era period (well, I never really got out of that), the Jack the Ripper and serial killers period--basically, the time that young teenagers spend exploring darker stuff because they're not "babies" anymore and they want to make up for what feels like lost time. But I didn't go through an outwardly goth phase or self-identify as one, no. I was too shy for that.
To what lengths will you/won't you go to protect your internet anonymity? Where is it on your list of priorities in your career?
There's a point where I know I'm going to have to go out and about in public and meet people, do a book tour if I'm lucky enough to need one, and that, the internet being what it is, it would be impossible to hide my real name or even my address forever. My IRL identity isn't a secret of Deep Throat proportions to me, but I have a very definite set of boundaries. It's not as important to me that people *can't* find this information (although, obviously, I don't want them to) as it is that they *know* that I don't want them to. They know that I've set this boundary, that I don't want people just calling my house or showing up on my doorstep. I know the information is probably out there, but I don't want people to use it.
How's the mental health stuff coming along? I remember you posted about that a couple of times right when I was starting to struggle with being bipolar, and it really helped. Are you doing ok? (And if this comes off creepy, I'm sorry D:) by dramedyanswers
No, not at all--mental health is one of the personal things I *do* actually talk about, because I view it as just another kind of illness and not something to feel bad about.
This (January-March) is usually a bad time of year for me, probably because the lack of sunlight has really started to catch up, and because there are a couple of days in there that are hard for personal reasons. Some years I get through it better than others (and I do have a full-spectrum lamp). This year, there has been a lot of stress and drama from various sources, and I've been (physically) sick a few times. So the bipolar/depression thing has been unusually bad, is what I'm saying. It's just something you learn to cope with, and the coping itself is a process.
Your frank openness regarding depression is refreshing. Have you had more success ameliorating it via pharmaceuticals, therapy, or the holistic methods (regular exercise, exposure to sunlight, set schedules, etc)?
I will say, first off, that I don't think any one thing is a complete solution, and that most people will probably have more success with a combination of something. Moreover, that combination will probably have to change over time, because (as I understand it), so will your brain chemistry.
I feel like most people would benefit from therapy, even just once in a while, because everyone could probably use someone objective to talk to now and then. I have an hour four times a year, when I go in for my med checks. For a couple of years after my parents divorced while I was in college, I went once a week, and then every two weeks. I got to the point where I just felt talked out--I felt like I knew what my problems were, but some of them, I just wasn't ready to do anything about yet, and someday I would be, but it was pointless to rehash it over and over in the meantime. Some things worked themselves out on their own and some things didn't. Everyone could probably benefit from talk therapy at some point, but not everyone might benefit from it constantly, is what I'm saying.
Anyway, back to the actual question: I personally feel like antidepressants have been the most important element for me, but *as part* of a larger regimen--the therapy, the sunlight, the vitamins, etc. But I've dealt with chemical depression/bipolar issues since I was a child and I'd go up to my mother and say, "I feel bad, but I don't know why," or I'd go up to my teacher every single day and tell her my stomach hurt (not realizing it was anxiety). One afternoon I sat down to write a story, and I whipped out 42 handwritten pages in a fit of energy; I was nine years old. So that says to me that there has always been something different about my brain, and that there probably always will be, whereas other people might deal with more temporary, less cyclical episodes of depression, and that a less pharmaceutical approach might be better for them. The important thing is to be willing to try different things, I guess--and to have a good enough relationship with your doctor that you can say, "This is really not working for me, and we need to stop now," particularly with medications.
Fairies? I was nodding right along until you got to those. What movies will they be in? Also: Norse gods.
As of this writing, they're going to adapt "Wicked Lovely," and I think there was at least one other project that I can't remember at the moment. I thought "Beautiful Creatures" was about fairies, but now I'm hearing not.
Also, this:
http://io9.com/5458542/george-lucas-cg-fairy-musical-mystery-our-theories
Have you considered trying to put together a Secret Life of Dolls book?
People ask that, but I just don't know if it would work. Number one, it wouldn't work at all as a printed book, because of the hyperlinks and the intertextual nature of it. The other thing is, I don't know how the rights holders of the characters involved would take to that. The Tolkien Estate is *notoriously* strict, for example. Sure, you can argue that it's parody or commentary, but Fair Use isn't a *law*; it's a defense. You'd still have to go to court and defend yourself on those grounds, if someone wanted to sue. Between the format issues and the rights issues, I just don't know that it's possible. So for now, I just have the readthrough; I could possibly format that into an e-book, but I'd have to give that out for free (which is fine), to avoid copyright infringement issues.
Can you explain Eva Mendes' fame to me? Attractive visage aside, I have NEVER seen her in a film where her performance made me laugh, cry, gasp, etc.
I know who she is, but I'm trying to think of a film I've seen her in, and I'm not coming up with one.
Victorian England was a nutty place: do you plan on incorporating the Egyptology craze and into "The Black Ribbon"?
I've thought about it, but I'm not sure where it'd go. The story's gone more in the direction of India from the start.
Who is the most long-suffering celebrity wife: Robin Wright Penn or Elizabeth Edwards?
I'm not sure I know enough about their respective marriages to answer that.
I see in the LJ you often refer to your friend and atty in the comments. Is this mostly b/c you guys are pals or is there a significant amount of IP infringement on your work you need to vigorously protect?
Well, we're friends, and over the course of our being friends, she finished law school and became an attorney, and I ended up wanting an agent who had a strong understanding of contract law and negotiation, on the wildly optimistic assumption that I would ever finish anything else. People rip my stuff off wholesale a lot--to the point where I don't go looking for it, because I know I'd find it--but I try to handle those things myself when I can, because getting Darth Junction involved seems a bit like overkill.
You often post about people sending you gifts. Am I an idiot, or is there a secret way to know where to send them?
My PO box address is on my user info, but I don't mention it a whole lot just because that's a really mixed signal. "Here is the address I don't want you to send things to!" Although cards and letters are nice; that's originally what I set it up for.