Some "Do you..." questions for The Realm at large. Only answer ones you want to, if you want to at all.
1) Do ya write, blog, or think better if you're in a carefree or melancholy mood?
2) Do ya read more than two novels a month?
3) Do ya prefer JRR Tolkien or C.S. Lewis as a writer of fantasy? Or do you prefer someone else altogether?
4) Do ya sing in the shower?
5) Do ya ever take an overnight trip or longer, just by yourself, to refresh, commune with God or nature, or just get away?
6) Do ya read non-fiction as a practice? If so, what do you read, mostly?
7) Do ya eat yogurt?
8) Do ya have a favorite holiday moment?
9) Do ya have a favorite author? Who?
10) Do ya like running for the sake of running and being fit?
11) Do ya say grace before meals?
12) Do ya like college or pro sports more?
13) Do ya dance in privacy by yourself or with your kids?
14) Do ya have a one favorite movie scene? TV show scene? Book passage?
15) Do ya have a favorite all-time villian or bad guy from a book? Who?
16) Do ya prefer reminiscing about the past or planning for future events?
17) Do ya have a favorite family game? What?
18) Do ya know of other great blogs? Tell us what they are and why you like them.
19) Do ya eat your food one item at a time or all mixed together?
20) Do ya believe that real live dinosaurs still exist somewhere on earth?
21) Do ya like the ELO song Do Ya? It's thirty years old, but I think it still rocks as much as any song today. If you like it, I've hooked on a YouTube recording on the backside of the post. Just hit the "Read More" link. It's okay. You don't have to thank me. Or do ya?
1) Do ya write, blog, or think better if you're in a carefree or melancholy mood?
2) Do ya read more than two novels a month?
3) Do ya prefer JRR Tolkien or C.S. Lewis as a writer of fantasy? Or do you prefer someone else altogether?
4) Do ya sing in the shower?
5) Do ya ever take an overnight trip or longer, just by yourself, to refresh, commune with God or nature, or just get away?
6) Do ya read non-fiction as a practice? If so, what do you read, mostly?
7) Do ya eat yogurt?
8) Do ya have a favorite holiday moment?
9) Do ya have a favorite author? Who?
10) Do ya like running for the sake of running and being fit?
11) Do ya say grace before meals?
12) Do ya like college or pro sports more?
13) Do ya dance in privacy by yourself or with your kids?
14) Do ya have a one favorite movie scene? TV show scene? Book passage?
15) Do ya have a favorite all-time villian or bad guy from a book? Who?
16) Do ya prefer reminiscing about the past or planning for future events?
17) Do ya have a favorite family game? What?
18) Do ya know of other great blogs? Tell us what they are and why you like them.
19) Do ya eat your food one item at a time or all mixed together?
20) Do ya believe that real live dinosaurs still exist somewhere on earth?
21) Do ya like the ELO song Do Ya? It's thirty years old, but I think it still rocks as much as any song today. If you like it, I've hooked on a YouTube recording on the backside of the post. Just hit the "Read More" link. It's okay. You don't have to thank me. Or do ya?
10 comments:
1) Do ya write, blog, or think better if you're in a carefree or melancholy mood?
Depends on what I’m writing about
2) Do ya read more than two novels a month?
No I don't have the time
3) Do ya prefer JRR Tolkien or C.S. Lewis as a writer of fantasy? Or do you prefer someone else altogether?
C.S.Lewis
4) Do ya sing in the shower?
No and your welcome for that
5) Do ya ever take an overnight trip or longer, just by yourself, to refresh, commune with God or nature, or just get away?
Not in a very long time. Are ya ask’n?
6) Do ya read non-fiction as a practice? If so, what do you read, mostly?
Depends on my mood
7) Do ya eat yogurt?
Only if it’s hidden in stuff
8) Do ya have a favorite holiday moment?
Yes. One Christmas Eve a dear friend of my father's gave us kids some hay for the reindeer. We knew how to scamper up to reach the roof so we put it up there. That Christmas morning the fireplace had boot prints and the hay was gone from the roof. Cool that it snowed that year sad that dad had a cold night Christmas Eve. Yep that’s what good dads do.
9) Do ya have a favorite author? Who?
Shakespeare is one of many. Oh and Poe is good.
10) Do ya like running for the sake of running and being fit?
Yes and no I miss running plus the time with God. My knee is coming along so soon I’ll be pounding pavement
11) Do ya say grace before meals?
Sometimes
12) Do ya like college or pro sports more?
Not that into the stuff. Unless I'm hang'n with friends
13) Do ya dance in privacy by yourself or with your kids?
Both. I've gotta but a move
14) Do ya have a one favorite movie scene? TV show scene? Book passage?
I have more than one. I love this one-But ya are Blanch ya are.
15) Do ya have a favorite all-time villian or bad guy from a book? Who?
Not coming up with one
16) Do ya prefer reminiscing about the past or planning for future events?
Just yesterday I was planning for today
17) Do ya have a favorite family game? What?
We are working on a family Monopoly game table of places we’ve been. My family is big into cards and we will Trivia Pursuit ya all night
18) Do ya know of other great blogs? Tell us what they are and why you like them.
19) Do ya eat your food one item at a time or all mixed together?
I eat them as needed to be mixed if and when they need be.
20) Do ya believe that real live dinosaurs still exist somewhere on earth?
It depends on what you are asking.
21) Do ya like the ELO song Do Ya? It's thirty years old, but I think it still rocks as much as any song today. If you like it, I've hooked on a YouTube recording on the backside of the post. Just hit the "Read More" link. It's okay. You don't have to thank me. Or do ya?
And I've seen pigs all sitting watching, picture slides
Were they stoned when they wrote this song?
1) Do ya write, blog, or think better if you're in a carefree or melancholy mood? melancholy is great for poetry, but I go back and forth for prose
2) Do ya read more than two novels a month? of course!
3) Do ya prefer JRR Tolkien or C.S. Lewis as a writer of fantasy? Of the two, I prefer C.S. Lewis.
4) Do ya sing in the shower?much to my husband's dismay, yes.
5) Do ya ever take an overnight trip or longer, just by yourself, to refresh, commune with God or nature, or just get away?I wish. The last time I did something like that was over 20 years ago.
6) Do ya read non-fiction as a practice? If so, what do you read, mostly? Nope. I read fiction mostly. Except the Bible and my current research pet.
7) Do ya eat yogurt? only if it's mixed with fruit.
8) Do ya have a favorite holiday moment?Any time we've managed to surprise my dad. lol
9) Do ya have a favorite author? Who?Hard to say favorite. Favorite in what genre?
10) Do ya like running for the sake of running and being fit?Nope. I'm a walking/karate kind of girl.
11) Do ya say grace before meals?Yep.
12) Do ya like college or pro sports more? I like football when I can snuggle up on the couch with my hubby. We probably watch more pro, tho, 'cause we don't have cable.
13) Do ya dance in privacy by yourself or with your kids?Yes, but I embarrass my kids. *evil grin*
14) Do ya have a one favorite movie scene? TV show scene? Book passage? Again with the favorites. It all depends on what mood I'm in. James Stewart has some great scenes in "Harvey". I love the first line of "Scaramouche".
15) Do ya have a favorite all-time villian or bad guy from a book? Who?The bad guy in "18 Seconds" was a very chilling villain, imo.
16) Do ya prefer reminiscing about the past or planning for future events?I love to reminise (sp?) I think I get that from my family. I love to talk to the parents about when they were growing up.
17) Do ya have a favorite family game? What? When my mom, my sisters, and I get together, you know there's going to be a Rummy game. Or three.
18) Do ya know of other great blogs? Tell us what they are and why you like them.I love to look at cakewrecks.com 'cause it makes me shake my head and laugh. I come to this blog waaay too often. :o) I also visit Nathan Bransford, Cheryl Klein, and Robin McKinley's blog every day.
19) Do ya eat your food one item at a time or all mixed together?mixed up together - as in a bite of this, a bite of that.
20) Do ya believe that real live dinosaurs still exist somewhere on earth?Could be.
21) Do ya like the ELO song Do Ya? It's thirty years old, but I think it still rocks as much as any song today. If you like it, I've hooked on a YouTube recording on the backside of the post. Just hit the "Read More" link. It's okay. You don't have to thank me. Or do ya? Haven't heard it. I'll let you know.
I've got about 2 minutes, so I'll just answer the couple story questions. I love Groundhog Day, and a number of the scenes from it, and I don't have a favorite movie villain.
As a kid I always wanted the bad guy to win, and cool bad guys were the bomb. Now things look a little different. Fantasy stories were all about the hero winning. The better the villian, the better the victory, but the deal was that the hero finished all the herculean tasks required to save the day.
That got boring, so I wanted to see the bad guy win. I suppose some of it was just rot in my soul, but some of it was that I needed to read someone dealing with the day not being saved.
I eventually stumbled on to Steven Donaldson's Chronicles of the Unbeliever. They were a fountain of clear water to me in the middle of a long disaster. People the author troubled to make me really love died. It was awful, and I drank it in like koolaid.
In the end, though, Thomas did save the day. I drank that in, too. I still wanted to see the hero save the day, but I wanted to see failure modeled along the way. These days, I don't think I want to see the hero conquer all. I think I want to start reading some novels that come with realistic endings. The hero doesn't get the girl and he finds out it was because he was a weasel and grows a bit, then finding out life's still worth living. Or he does get the girl, but he finds out he still can't be a weasel and he's got a lot of work to do.
I don't know. Time is short, but maybe some day I'm going to crack some novels. We'll see.
Milly ~
Awesome holiday moment. Yes. That was very, very cool of your dad.
Also, and I'll get into this below (because Wanda mentioned Rummy specifically), there aren't many games that beat just playing cards with family/friends.
Not sure if Jeff Lynne was stoned, but if he was, nice job, Jeff. I liked ELO a lot as a kid, despite them being dragged over the coals by a bunch of critics, but Do Ya is my favorite of theirs.
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Wanda ~
I think I can speak for everyone when I say that you don't come to this blog often enough. Too much? No such thing here.
As far as favorite, whether author or movie/TV/etc., basically what I'm asking is there someone you just read and love each time you read (i.e. like Milly with Shakespeare) or an author that when he puts out a book, you just have to have it (Spinelli comes close to that for me as a kids author, Gaiman comes close as an adult fiction author -- although I don't have the whole catalogue of either). And then with movies, a lot of Passwords ask what your fav movie is? Your fav movies probably have favorite scenes. (Like for instance, I loved The Usual Suspect. When Agent Coulian [sp?] is discovering that he just let Kaiser Soze in the form of Verbal Kent walk up until the part where you see Verbal walking with his fake limp and then th limp disappears -- I just love that scene. Ihave more, but that's definitely one for me.)
Speaking of cards, everytime Doug (DugALug) and I get together, we have the Rummy 500 card battle for the Belt of the Rummy Championship of the World. I hold it, btw, as I ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED Doug last time we play. However, I think he had ABSOLUTELY DEMOLISHED me the two times before, so I was due. Doug should remember, though, he's only as good as his last game. Anyway, I say all this to say, if you ever want a shot at it all, you'll have to bring some cards to one of our Writer's Critique meetings. Until then, everyone else is a pretender. :)
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Kevin ~
Always great to have you chime in. Seriously. This site always benefits when you come.
I did want to ask... I don't think I've ever seen such diametically opposed reviews on books as I have with the Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever series. It's like, either you love them or hate them. I mentioned them on Ken's last post about the book club, but I'm hesitant to suggest one to a group because people are so either in love or in hate with the books.
A lot of it has to do with the main character's (anti-hero?) ongoing unlikable personality (cowardly, whiny, despicable, etc. that readers hate - even if they loved the books) and then also the fact that he rapes Lena (just heard the name in reviews; I haven't read the books), which, I can understand, is hard for some readers to get past.
Ken and I have talked some about having main characters that readers just don't enjoy and may be unredeemable in a fictional reader's eye. It certainly doesn't fit into a formula - which I applaud, btw, if you can make it work. Donaldson has enough of a following to say that he has accomplished what he set out to do.
I guess, I've heard enough reviews, even from readers that enjoyed the series that said they're not for everyone that I probably just read myself. Love to hear your thoughts when/if you have time. Thanks!
It's nice to hear you say that about the diametrical feelings over Thomas. I agree completely.
The rape of Lena is a huge moment in the series. It defines "our hero" as not just a teeny bit self-centered, but as deeply sinful and very possibly evil. You leave that scene wondering just you're dealing with. Frodo was never a true moral risk, and neither was Lewis's Ransom. Thomas writhes in personal, selfish discomfort while the people he should love (we certainly do love them) die. And there's no magical release, either. When Thomas lets Foamfollower or Mahoram die, they're well and truly dead, and it's very much because the protagonist values his own comfort more than their lives.
The "redeeming" point is that Thomas's ugliness comes not from arrogance, but from fear. He's awful toward others because he's afraid. He's afraid to risk death through caring. Precisely as John tells us that perfect love casts out fear, we see Thomas caving in to his fears as an intentional principle. The overarching question of the book is whether it's possible for a fearful soul to ever engage in his calling.
It's an ugly series.
I believe people who feel ugly gravitate toward it and people who feel normal flee. I've felt ugly all my life. I've as desparately a pariah as Thomas, and I've felt as scared to give as him.
The denouement is ultimately a fantasy resolution, though. For all the ugly, real emotion of the story, Thomas rises far above his fears and delivers a resolution that might not be "out of character" but requires vastly more growth than I can ever hope to achieve.
I covet a novel in which the protagonist is truly ugly and goes through all the steps of addiction. He denies he's addicted, and people are hurt. He triumphs over addiction, but people are hurt when he falls back. He blames everyone around him. He takes and releases ownership. He despairs (the primary plot-driver of Thomas's story) and maddens everyone around him. He discovers both that he really is loved and really isn't loved.
The denouement of that story is simply that the protagonist learns life is a massive undertaking and that he has a little strength to pick away at it today, with no promises for tomorrow.
Then that story needs to be paired with the parallel story of codependence, but who even wants to THINK about writing that!?
I know you guys are authors, and you have to write what's in your hearts. I'm really not telling you what I think is the perfect novel or anything. This is just what my heart leaps at, and I think I encompass the smallest target niche ever defined. :-)
Dorkman really did a great job of investigating real feelings and real failures, and its redemption was realistic to boot. I'm not kidding when I say I enjoyed the book. I'd have to reread it to find the details that grabbed me, though.
Love you guys.
Okay, you've done it now! I'm going to invest with fingers crossed! That's an excellent review of some of the themes and why you liked it, and I'm sold, based on what you've shared, enough to procure Lord Foul's Bane and at least get a feel for it, myself. Good job!
Thanks again for more nice words on Dorkman. We revel in free publicity!!! At the same time, I hope you don't feel like you needed to say them. I totally get that we all have different drivers on our insides and characteristics and ideas we favor over others. Even as a writer, I enjoy writing in one genre over another, but that doesn't mean I only stick to the one. Similarly, I enjoy happy endings and likable main characters, but I also don't think that's always realistic. As long as there are satisfying resolutions, even if the ending isn't rosy or the character grows in a different way than one expected, I'm good. Of course, writing with a partner, I have to be cognizant of what Ken's good with as well, and vice versa for him.
Anyhoo, thanks again! Fantastic stuff! Thanks for the love, and right back atcha!
1) Do ya write, blog, or think better if you're in a carefree or melancholy mood?
>> Sure!
2) Do ya read more than two novels a month?
>> Sometimes
3) Do ya prefer JRR Tolkien or C.S. Lewis as a writer of fantasy? Or do you prefer someone else altogether?
>> Lewis... but a nudge.
4) Do ya sing in the shower?
>> Indeed I do.
5) Do ya ever take an overnight trip or longer, just by yourself, to refresh, commune with God or nature, or just get away?
>> Nope.
6) Do ya read non-fiction as a practice? If so, what do you read, mostly?
>> I read both without predjudice. I read a lot on parenting but I love my fiction.
7) Do ya eat yogurt?
>> Indeed I do... and love it a lot!
8) Do ya have a favorite holiday moment?
>> Indeed... I love Christmas eve.
9) Do ya have a favorite author? Who?
>> Orson Scott Card.
10) Do ya like running for the sake of running and being fit?
>> Nope... never.
11) Do ya say grace before meals?
>> Indeed.
12) Do ya like college or pro sports more?
>> College... without a doubt.
13) Do ya dance in privacy by yourself or with your kids?
>> All of the above... though probably something I'm not too proud of.
14) Do ya have a one favorite movie scene? TV show scene? Book passage?
>> Movie Scene: In Chariots Of Fire, where Eric Liddel is explaining to his sister: “I believe God made me for a purpose,” Eric said, “but He also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.”
TV Scene: Firefly - Wash finally went out on a 'mission' with Mal that went horribly wrong. Wash explaining about the 'code' of leaving no man behind.
Passage: I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalsm 139:???
15) Do ya have a favorite all-time villian or bad guy from a book? Who?
>> Javert from Les Miserables. Amazing image of the law without mercy or grace.
16) Do ya prefer reminiscing about the past or planning for future events?
>> I like the future.
17) Do ya have a favorite family game? What?
>> Sequence
18) Do ya know of other great blogs? Tell us what they are and why you like them.
>> I am partial to The Realm, but Pealie Gates is another favorite.
19) Do ya eat your food one item at a time or all mixed together?
>> Both... depends on the food.
20) Do ya believe that real live dinosaurs still exist somewhere on earth?
>> Yes... I live in Florida. Aligators are alive and well here.
21) Do ya like the ELO song Do Ya? It's thirty years old, but I think it still rocks as much as any song today. If you like it, I've hooked on a YouTube recording on the backside of the post. Just hit the "Read More" link. It's okay. You don't have to thank me. Or do ya?
>> Do Ya is okay... not my favorite.
God Bless
Doug
Ha! Inspector Javert. Great call, Doug. I have to defer there. Maybe I do have a favorite villian. :-)
No Rich, I don't feel like I have to say those words. Dorkman made me think and I enjoyed the whole experience.
Doug,
You were in an "Indeed" mood!!!
Good movie and TV scenes. It's cool hearing what strikes other people.
Javert. I probably should have been thinking of him when I wrote that question. Nice call!
WHAT???!!! You like other ELO songs better than Do Ya? Unacceptable! I like a lot of ELO - which ones do you think are better? (Oh, and I was obviously joking with "unacceptable". Don't want to hurt any feelings here in The Realm. What I meant was "THERE'S NO FREAKIN' WAY! ARE YOU OUTTAYOUREVERLOVIN'MIND? YOU'VE GOT TO BE JOKING! GIVE ME A BREAK!!!" Something like that. I believe I've crystallized my thoughts for you. [in best Bryan Regan voice ;))
Rich,
You like other ELO songs better than Do Ya?
Indeed I do.
God Bless
Doug
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