Answers!
In which I talk about myself.
1. About you:
• Pirates or ninjas? Actually, neither. I'll need to examine why.
• What's your favorite pizza topping? Anything; I'm mostly GF, so I eat the topping and leave the crust.
• What if anything do you listen to while driving? I switch between NPR and sports talk radio, with occ. clicks to Top 40.
• How do you take your coffee? I love gas station coffee; I apply lots of milk and sugar.
• What's the best/weirdest fancy dress or Halloween costume you ever wore? I dressed up as a Hydrosweep system once.
• Interests and favorites in all sorts of things: pets, hobbies, fandoms, music, books, food, movies, etc... Oh, golly. I'm an engineer; I've got two daughters; I'm trying to build a church in Somerville, MA; I'm on the board of my kids' school; I'm playing on a womens over-30 soccer team; I do a weekly review of mentions of fanfic in mainstream media… This doesn't leave much time for media consumption, but I read as much fanfic as I can, and of course I love writing.
• Have you done/do you do fandom meet-ups? Do you have a place where you are willing to meet people (and if so, where)? [for example, if you attend X Con every year, or winter holidays in Taiwan - i.e., not asking for your street address here!] We go to Arisia (Boston) as a family every year; I've also gone to the past several Muskrat Jamborees. I went to a con in NJ every year for a few years, but that con's no longer happening. I'd like to be more fan-active, but there's nothing close that I know of. I'm always up for meeting anyone, anywhere.
• Would you like to live somewhere else and why? I'd like to be able to dodge the worst 6-8 weeks of winter; other than that, we're happy in eastern MA.
2. About your creative processes:
• How did you get into writing fanfic/creating fanart? How long have you been creating fan art or writing fan fiction? I've been involved in fandom, and reading fanfic, since ~1980, but I didn't really consider writing fanfic myself until I wanted to join a Sentinel list with a fic-as-dues requirement about 10 years ago. Once I started writing, I was hooked.
• As far as creative processes go, what type of writer/artist are you? Do you create an outline/find photo references/make maps, etc., or do you jump in and go with the flow? I sometimes need some sort of spark to get me going; things like mcshep_match help with this quite a bit, other times I'll realize I've been worrying over some story idea for weeks without really meaning to and it's been eating all my creative space. Once I get an idea isolated, everything else falls into place quickly, and when life allows I start handwriting/typing the general flow of the story as fast as my fingers can move. Then I'll fill in particular pieces of dialog, then start from the beginning and rewrite properly. During the rewrite, I often find that my whole concept doesn't really hold together, or needs to be changed, but that's okay, as long as I'm going I don't care where I end up. I do look at maps when I've got characters moving about some place I'm not familiar with, or when I want to make sure timing makes sense; but this doesn't happen all that much.
• Do you write original fiction (poetry, screenplays)? Do you create original art (comics, photographs, quilts, wedding cakes)? Care to share? I'm not the least bit crafty. I can see a time when I wrote original fic, but fanfic suits me much better.
• How do you write? With planning at great length with notes and spreadsheets? Get a bunny and just launch into it? Handwrite on yellow legal pads, or always on a word processor? With music going, or in a cafe, or quietly when there are no distractions? Do you procrastinate? How do you manage that? Especially when the kids were little, I did a lot of writing at playgrounds and McDonalds playlands. Now it's mostly done early in the morning, or when I've convinced everyone else to go someplace else. I like quiet, though stranger-noise is fine. I prefer to use my laptop, but have scrawled notes on napkins in crayon. I've just gotten a keyboard for my iPad and have done a little writing on that.
3. About SGA:
• Is SGA your main squeeze, or are you poly-fandom-ous? I'm poly. When the pinch-hit request email came, I was most of the way through a Ghost Adventures story, and I have an Avengers story in waiting.
• Why did you decide to participate in this year's McShep Match? I pinch-hit last year and really liked the story I wrote; it's something I never would have written otherwise.
• Best thing about McKay/Sheppard: go! I love the friendship, and the geekiness. And I think I feel a bond because they're almost exactly my age.
• Who's your favorite, John or Rodney (or both)? How come? Rodney; I love how truly heroic he is, despite himself.
• Where can people find more of your work (McShep or otherwise)? My LJ, or at http://www.murphnet.org/fanfic for older stuff.
• What got you into fanfic/SGA/McShep? Dues for SentinelAngst.
4. Hiiiints! C'mon, you know you wanna! Just a bit of squee about your Match entry…(Remember to keep your answer vague, please!) The best part of fanfic is that it's nothing like what the world thinks it is.
6. Team Captains' Question: Okay, redshirt, you've signed on for a very dangerous mission to go back in time and it could be a one-way trip. I should add that while every effort will be made to keep you within the dawn of civilization - we really don't know where that dial will stop. But you are allowed one personal item… name it. I can't think of a thing. I'm assuming I could take my glasses, right? A pen would be handy… otherwise, it's people and stories that matter, I guess.
1. About you:
• Pirates or ninjas? Actually, neither. I'll need to examine why.
• What's your favorite pizza topping? Anything; I'm mostly GF, so I eat the topping and leave the crust.
• What if anything do you listen to while driving? I switch between NPR and sports talk radio, with occ. clicks to Top 40.
• How do you take your coffee? I love gas station coffee; I apply lots of milk and sugar.
• What's the best/weirdest fancy dress or Halloween costume you ever wore? I dressed up as a Hydrosweep system once.
• Interests and favorites in all sorts of things: pets, hobbies, fandoms, music, books, food, movies, etc... Oh, golly. I'm an engineer; I've got two daughters; I'm trying to build a church in Somerville, MA; I'm on the board of my kids' school; I'm playing on a womens over-30 soccer team; I do a weekly review of mentions of fanfic in mainstream media… This doesn't leave much time for media consumption, but I read as much fanfic as I can, and of course I love writing.
• Have you done/do you do fandom meet-ups? Do you have a place where you are willing to meet people (and if so, where)? [for example, if you attend X Con every year, or winter holidays in Taiwan - i.e., not asking for your street address here!] We go to Arisia (Boston) as a family every year; I've also gone to the past several Muskrat Jamborees. I went to a con in NJ every year for a few years, but that con's no longer happening. I'd like to be more fan-active, but there's nothing close that I know of. I'm always up for meeting anyone, anywhere.
• Would you like to live somewhere else and why? I'd like to be able to dodge the worst 6-8 weeks of winter; other than that, we're happy in eastern MA.
2. About your creative processes:
• How did you get into writing fanfic/creating fanart? How long have you been creating fan art or writing fan fiction? I've been involved in fandom, and reading fanfic, since ~1980, but I didn't really consider writing fanfic myself until I wanted to join a Sentinel list with a fic-as-dues requirement about 10 years ago. Once I started writing, I was hooked.
• As far as creative processes go, what type of writer/artist are you? Do you create an outline/find photo references/make maps, etc., or do you jump in and go with the flow? I sometimes need some sort of spark to get me going; things like mcshep_match help with this quite a bit, other times I'll realize I've been worrying over some story idea for weeks without really meaning to and it's been eating all my creative space. Once I get an idea isolated, everything else falls into place quickly, and when life allows I start handwriting/typing the general flow of the story as fast as my fingers can move. Then I'll fill in particular pieces of dialog, then start from the beginning and rewrite properly. During the rewrite, I often find that my whole concept doesn't really hold together, or needs to be changed, but that's okay, as long as I'm going I don't care where I end up. I do look at maps when I've got characters moving about some place I'm not familiar with, or when I want to make sure timing makes sense; but this doesn't happen all that much.
• Do you write original fiction (poetry, screenplays)? Do you create original art (comics, photographs, quilts, wedding cakes)? Care to share? I'm not the least bit crafty. I can see a time when I wrote original fic, but fanfic suits me much better.
• How do you write? With planning at great length with notes and spreadsheets? Get a bunny and just launch into it? Handwrite on yellow legal pads, or always on a word processor? With music going, or in a cafe, or quietly when there are no distractions? Do you procrastinate? How do you manage that? Especially when the kids were little, I did a lot of writing at playgrounds and McDonalds playlands. Now it's mostly done early in the morning, or when I've convinced everyone else to go someplace else. I like quiet, though stranger-noise is fine. I prefer to use my laptop, but have scrawled notes on napkins in crayon. I've just gotten a keyboard for my iPad and have done a little writing on that.
3. About SGA:
• Is SGA your main squeeze, or are you poly-fandom-ous? I'm poly. When the pinch-hit request email came, I was most of the way through a Ghost Adventures story, and I have an Avengers story in waiting.
• Why did you decide to participate in this year's McShep Match? I pinch-hit last year and really liked the story I wrote; it's something I never would have written otherwise.
• Best thing about McKay/Sheppard: go! I love the friendship, and the geekiness. And I think I feel a bond because they're almost exactly my age.
• Who's your favorite, John or Rodney (or both)? How come? Rodney; I love how truly heroic he is, despite himself.
• Where can people find more of your work (McShep or otherwise)? My LJ, or at http://www.murphnet.org/fanfic for older stuff.
• What got you into fanfic/SGA/McShep? Dues for SentinelAngst.
4. Hiiiints! C'mon, you know you wanna! Just a bit of squee about your Match entry…(Remember to keep your answer vague, please!) The best part of fanfic is that it's nothing like what the world thinks it is.
6. Team Captains' Question: Okay, redshirt, you've signed on for a very dangerous mission to go back in time and it could be a one-way trip. I should add that while every effort will be made to keep you within the dawn of civilization - we really don't know where that dial will stop. But you are allowed one personal item… name it. I can't think of a thing. I'm assuming I could take my glasses, right? A pen would be handy… otherwise, it's people and stories that matter, I guess.