pegkerr | Getting to know you (Reply)

I mentioned that at my day job, I edit the web page newsletter. One of the things I do each month is to spotlight one employee: I have the person answer a questionnaire, which I then post along with a goofy picture. This is what I came up with when I answered the questionnaire myself. I'll spare you the goofy picture.

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FAVORITE HOLIDAY OR TIME OF YEAR: May, when there's no snow to shovel and no leaves to rake and the grass doesn't need cutting yet, and the weather is perfect for sitting on my front porch

FAVORITE HALLOWEEN COSTUME: One year I wore a dramatically slit black velvet dress with a toy gun in a garter belt. I was Modesty Blaise

FAVORITE GAME/SPORT (TO WATCH OR TO DO): Professional sports? Pfffft

MEMBER OF: Hope Lutheran Church; SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America)

FAVORITE WAY TO RELAX: Hang out at a bookstore, one with a coffee shop attached

FAVORITE FOOD & DRINK: coffee mocha, Starbucks espresso brownies

FAVORITE GUILTY PLEASURE(S): coffee and chocolate (DARK chocolate). And Jane Austen and Harry Potter fan fiction on the Internet

FAVORITE WEBSITE(S): I have a lot of favorites. Some are: Virtual Reference Desk, Arts and Letters Daily, The Republic of Pemberley and The Writer's Almanac

FAVORITE MOVIE: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

FAVORITE BOOK: Hard to choose. I have thousands of them in my home, hundreds of which are autographed (I know a lot of authors); I especially like Pamela Dean's Tam
Lin, which is one of the best summations I've ever read about the joys of studying literature

FAVORITE MAGAZINE: Cooking Light

CURRENTLY READING: Just finished Wizard's Hall, by Jane Yolen. I read extremely fast and generally finish five or more books a week

FAVORITE MUSIC: I like an eclectic mix of folk and Irish/Celtic. Loreena McKinnett, Eva Cassidy, Enya, Peter Mayer and Ruth MacKenzie's album Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden

CURRENT REIGNING CD: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, by Howard Shore

FAVORITE RADIO STATION: I listen to three, all public radio because I
hate commercials: WCAL, KNOW and KSJN

FAVORITE SMELLS: Coffee and chocolate

DREAM CAR: One that runs, has air conditioning, and is entirely paid
off

FIRST CAR: A Honda Accord that I got as a company car. I named it
Arrietty because it was a borrowed car (the name is a character from Mary Norton's book The Borrowers). They eventually took it away from me because I was in too many car crashes. I've been naming my cars in alphabetical order ever since

TYPE OF CAR I DRIVE NOW: I'm up to G: Ginny the Jeep (named after Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter books). It runs, it has air conditioning, and it's entirely paid off

QUALITIES I MOST ADMIRE: An active, inquiring mind, acting in concert with a moral heart

QUALITIES I MOST DISLIKE: Cruelty, willful ignorance, bigotry

FAVORITE SUBJECT TO STUDY: History, literature

LEAST FAVORITE SUBJECT(S): Statistics

HOBBIES: writing, gardening

PET PEEVE (OR BIGGEST FRUSTRATION): When people try to hold a
conversation with me when I'm obviously reading a book

PERSONAL ECCENTRICITY: I have this irrational fear that I'm going to
drop my keys either down a storm drain or down between floors in an elevator

WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD: When I've said something thoughtless that has hurt someone's feelings

WHAT TIME IS MY BAD TIME OF DAY: Morning, when I'm trying to get the kids out the door for the school bus. They are not morning people, and the school bus picks them up at 6:57 a.m.

FIRST MEMORY: Looking out the window of my first house at my family.
My mom and dad were raking leaves, and my brother and sisters were playing in the yard

A FAVORITE MEMORY: When both my girls were born. And selling my first novel!

I KNEW I WAS REALLY A GROWN UP WHEN: I left college. I had no job and no place to live--and I knew it was up to me and no one else to find a solution and support myself

MY BEST VACATION WOULD BE: About six months in England. I spent some time studying at the University of Cambridge when I was in college, and I'd really love to go back

PERSON I WOULD MOST LIKE TO MEET (DEAD OR ALIVE): Jane Austen (although I'm afraid she'd skewer me with her wit) and William Shakespeare

I COLLECT: Autographed books

GREATEST DREAM (OR: IF I WON THE LOTTERY, I WOULD): My greatest dream is to write a book that will outlive me by several centuries. If I won the lottery, I'd quit to write fiction full time. And I'd set up a bunch of artist grants for all the writers I know who are really good, but can't afford to do it full time, either