Meredith Mansfield, Author

Well, it seems one of those twenty questions things is circling the blogosphere again and I’ve gotten tagged twice in the last couple of days, first by Robin Weeks and then by PK Hrezo. 

The Tag rules: 1. You must post the rules! 2. Answer the questions and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged. 3. Tag seven (because it’s a magical number) people and link to them. 4. Let them know you’ve tagged them.

I’m going to go for a loose interpretation and pick my own eleven questions from both lists.

Robin’s Questions:

1. How many books did you read last year? What was your favorite genre? Oh dear. I don’t don’t keep count. Not as many as I wanted to read. Sometimes I get bogged down in a book and am slow to finish it, but don’t quite want to give up, either. Other times, I go through them way too fast. My favorite genre is fantasy–mainstream (which just sounds better than adult when paired with fantasy), young adult, or middle grade.
2. Which popular genre have you tried and tried but can never really get into? Hmm. Well, I don’t usually keep trying if it just doesn’t interest me. I guess I’ll have to say science fiction. Some of it just doesn’t float my boat. But, now, if it’s a really good story that just happens to be told in the future, I’m there.
3. Which literary character is most like your ideal spouse? Which is most like your actual spouse /  significant other? Why?
4. Besides writing and reading, what is your favorite pastime? Do I have to pick just one?  I garden, embroider, and (though not recently) play folk harp. When such things were possible, I used to love to travel. Some day, I want to get into the mountains again and drive the Northern California coast again, and oh, all sorts of things. Money and family responsibilities permitting (which they don’t right now), someday I want to go to New Zealand and Australia. That’s definitely on my bucket list.
5. If you could play God and change one thing about the world, what would it be? Limitation: you can’t mess with free agency.
6. Which writer’s conferences have you attended? If you had unlimited time and money, which conferences would you attend? Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to go to very many. I did get to SCBWI’s Orange County Agent’s Day last year. If I could go when and where I wanted: At least one of David Farland’s classes, preferably the one on writing YA, Orson Scott Card’s Boot Camp, SCBWI’s Los Angeles Conference and I’m sure I could think of quite a few more.
7. You’re on a talk show, talking about your newest bestseller. The host announces a surprise guest: the author you’ve always been inspired by, but have never met. Who comes out on stage? What is your reaction? Lois McMaster Bujold. And, typical of me, I’m absolutely tongue-tied. I only think of all the things I wanted to say and ask on the way home.
8. If you could design the cover for your WIP, what would it look like? Hmm. Well, it’s not exactly my WIP, but I’ve already kind of done this for BLOOD WILL TELL. 
9. Which literary villain scared you the most? Dolores Umbridge. I always knew Lord Voldemort would be defeated somehow. But Umbridge’s small-time, bureaucratic, self-righteous evil is just the kind that can survive in this world–and do a lot of damage.
10. Pantser or outliner? I’m about two-thirds of a pantser. I used to be a complete pantser, but I actually managed to write an entire 100,000 word book that didn’t actually tell a story that way. That broke me of that habit. Now I write what I call a proto-synopsis before I start something that’s novel-length. (I’ll still just go for it in a short story, though.) I insist on knowing the central conflict, the climax, and at least some idea of the try/fail cycles before I start. The actual ending, the denouement, almost always comes as a surprise to me, though.
11. Which one of your characters would most benefit the world, if made real?

PK Hrezo’s Questions: 

1. Plotter or Panster?
2. Who is your fave character and why?
3. Name 2 things within arms reach. A now mostly-empty cup of tea and my mp3 player.
4. If you could go back and do anything over again, what would it be?
5. Date with a celebrity, who would you pick? Oh dear. Well, there are a few I’ve definitely had a thing for. (cough, cough, Hugh Jackman). But, rather than go for any of them, I think I’d pick Robin Williams. No offense to Mr. Williams. But he’d probably talk enough that the fact that I couldn’t formulate an intelligible sentence wouldn’t even be noticed.
6. What is your fave song?
7. What genre do you write in?
8. Fave thing to do other than write?
9. Coolest thing you’ve ever done?
10. Coolest place you’ve ever been? Okay, for this one I’m going to go with Alert Bay, British Columbia. I was on a small cruise ship (80 passengers) out from Seattle and returning to Vancouver, B.C. There’d been a last-minute replacement of one of our intended guides. The replacement just happened to be the man who had helped to create the written Kwakiutl language for the tribe and his wife, who studied totem poles. When we got to Alert Bay, they took us to the Big House and put on a show of their native dances. At the end, we got to join in the traditonal potlatch dance (badly). That was really cool.
11. Favorite quote? 

If you’ve read this far, consider yourself tagged. Pick your own eleven from the lists above.