and the cars are all french kissing in some lonely traffic jam
That interview meme was going around and 
ignipes asked me some questions:
1. What's your favorite alcoholic beverage?
At this stage of my life, probably sangria. Though I do love a good sauvignon blanc. Mostly what I actually drink at the bar though is pints of Blue Moon.
For a long time, my answer was a Bombay Sapphire gin and tonic, because gin and tonic is clearly the best drink, so crisp and refreshing! But for a long time I was unable to tolerate even the smell of gin, and even all these years later, I'm still afraid that I'll order one and be unable to drink it and that would make me sad.
The newest thing I've discovered is sweet tea vodka + cranberry juice (+ seltzer and a slice of lime) - it's a delicious twist on a Cape Cod (which I'm also fond of, and I will always order a Sea Breeze if they're offered on the brunch menu).
2. If you could force the creator(s) of one of your favorite on-going canons to make one change for you, what would it be?
I would make DC Comics toss out the reboot and bring back all the things I loved - Dick's FINGER STRIPES, Oracle, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain, Renee Montoya, Clark and Lois's marriage, Wonder Woman's origins, Donna Troy's existence, Starfire's characterization, Wally West as the Flash, all of the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle's actual charm, Tim and Kon's relationship, etc. And while I'm at it, I would make them uncancel both Tiny Titans and the Superman Family Adventures and the YJ cartoon, and bring back Lian Harper. #DC LOOK AT YOUR LIFE LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES.
3. What is your favorite baked good to make for yourself? (Or to share, I guess, but I'm not going to make you share.)
Right now? It's biscuit cinnamon rolls, though I'm also very fond of Smitten Kitchen's raspberry buttermilk cake. Om nom nom. SO TASTY. And so easy.
If we include 'ice cream' in this (and though it's technically not a baked good, why wouldn't we?), I would say mocha chip, Nutella, or lemon sour cream ice cream, all of which I make semi-regularly because they are my favorites.
4. What fictional place (or time; alternate histories count) would you most like to visit as a tourist?
The Shire. Food! Beer! Dancing! Fireworks! More food and beer! I am very attached to my creature comforts so I don't want to visit any place where I don't have some semblance of them.
5. What's a surefire way for a novel to pull you into the story right from the start?
Action! Beginning in medias res is always good - but not the kind where you then flashback 36 hours or whatever. Tired trope is tired.
Or snappy conversation. I don't need to know the characters to enjoy banter, and through it you can convey a lot of information (what types of sense of humor they have, how they relate to each other, what they're interested in, what obscure types of knowledge they have etc.) while not droning on with exposition.
I tend to give books a good 50-100 pages to engage me (depending how long they are), so I don't need it to be slam-bang right off the mark, but it's preferable for me. I distract easily.
An infodump at the beginning is going to be useless to me as a reader - I'm going to skim it until I hit dialogue or action. (I often have to page back to reread descriptions because I skim them until they become important because ugh, I find it tedious to read about physical descriptions or room layouts or what have you.) So unless you've got something exciting happening, or some snappy dialogue going on, I'm already going to be distracted.
(as a corollary, for fanfic, please do not ever begin with descriptions of the characters and their full names and titles and functions. I KNOW WHO THEY ARE. YOU ARE BORING ME. And 99% of the time, people who do this have atrocious prose.)
*
Here's a fun meme:
Tell me about stories you think I should write. I mean, if you could sit me down for a day or whatever and say, "Vic, I want you to write this story for me," what would that story be?
I'm not actually promising to *write* any of these, mind you, but it's fun anyway. And who knows if I'll be inspired!
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/544027.html.
people have commented there.
ignipes asked me some questions:
1. What's your favorite alcoholic beverage?
At this stage of my life, probably sangria. Though I do love a good sauvignon blanc. Mostly what I actually drink at the bar though is pints of Blue Moon.
For a long time, my answer was a Bombay Sapphire gin and tonic, because gin and tonic is clearly the best drink, so crisp and refreshing! But for a long time I was unable to tolerate even the smell of gin, and even all these years later, I'm still afraid that I'll order one and be unable to drink it and that would make me sad.
The newest thing I've discovered is sweet tea vodka + cranberry juice (+ seltzer and a slice of lime) - it's a delicious twist on a Cape Cod (which I'm also fond of, and I will always order a Sea Breeze if they're offered on the brunch menu).
2. If you could force the creator(s) of one of your favorite on-going canons to make one change for you, what would it be?
I would make DC Comics toss out the reboot and bring back all the things I loved - Dick's FINGER STRIPES, Oracle, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain, Renee Montoya, Clark and Lois's marriage, Wonder Woman's origins, Donna Troy's existence, Starfire's characterization, Wally West as the Flash, all of the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle's actual charm, Tim and Kon's relationship, etc. And while I'm at it, I would make them uncancel both Tiny Titans and the Superman Family Adventures and the YJ cartoon, and bring back Lian Harper. #DC LOOK AT YOUR LIFE LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES.
3. What is your favorite baked good to make for yourself? (Or to share, I guess, but I'm not going to make you share.)
Right now? It's biscuit cinnamon rolls, though I'm also very fond of Smitten Kitchen's raspberry buttermilk cake. Om nom nom. SO TASTY. And so easy.
If we include 'ice cream' in this (and though it's technically not a baked good, why wouldn't we?), I would say mocha chip, Nutella, or lemon sour cream ice cream, all of which I make semi-regularly because they are my favorites.
4. What fictional place (or time; alternate histories count) would you most like to visit as a tourist?
The Shire. Food! Beer! Dancing! Fireworks! More food and beer! I am very attached to my creature comforts so I don't want to visit any place where I don't have some semblance of them.
5. What's a surefire way for a novel to pull you into the story right from the start?
Action! Beginning in medias res is always good - but not the kind where you then flashback 36 hours or whatever. Tired trope is tired.
Or snappy conversation. I don't need to know the characters to enjoy banter, and through it you can convey a lot of information (what types of sense of humor they have, how they relate to each other, what they're interested in, what obscure types of knowledge they have etc.) while not droning on with exposition.
I tend to give books a good 50-100 pages to engage me (depending how long they are), so I don't need it to be slam-bang right off the mark, but it's preferable for me. I distract easily.
An infodump at the beginning is going to be useless to me as a reader - I'm going to skim it until I hit dialogue or action. (I often have to page back to reread descriptions because I skim them until they become important because ugh, I find it tedious to read about physical descriptions or room layouts or what have you.) So unless you've got something exciting happening, or some snappy dialogue going on, I'm already going to be distracted.
(as a corollary, for fanfic, please do not ever begin with descriptions of the characters and their full names and titles and functions. I KNOW WHO THEY ARE. YOU ARE BORING ME. And 99% of the time, people who do this have atrocious prose.)
*
Here's a fun meme:
Tell me about stories you think I should write. I mean, if you could sit me down for a day or whatever and say, "Vic, I want you to write this story for me," what would that story be?
I'm not actually promising to *write* any of these, mind you, but it's fun anyway. And who knows if I'll be inspired!
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/544027.html.
people have commented there.