Wordsmithing and Worldbuilding: Attack of the Liebster Award 2015 PART II

This is part II of the Liebster post I started yesterday. At the end, I pass on my

questions to 11 tagged bloggers.

These questions were provided by Paein and Ms4Tune. You can check out their great blog here. Thanks guys!

And now it's time for Paein and Ms4Tune's wonderful questions:

1. If you had to live the life of one character from a book, which character/life would you pick, and why?

This question caused me unnecessary agony. So I will make it much easier on myself by saying Morgan Le Faye. King Arthur is a childhood+ obsession of mine, and I have always been desperate to change how things went down. As King Arthur's fairy powered half sister, I feel like I could create magical mayhem to keep Lancelot and Guinevere apart, probably meddle constructively in King Arthur's business, and hopefully prevent the fall of Camelot (as long as I could remember my previous life as me). If I couldn't remember being me, then I want to be a random side elf from The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit. All of the trees, none of the defined character arcs.

2. Would you like to be an author? If so, what would you like to write?

I am an author, ;). I love fantasy/alternate history best, but I dabble in historical fiction and nonfiction as well. I don't write for specific ages, but the bulk of my fiction probably falls into the YA and Adult categories.

3. How do you organize your bookshelves?

Barely? If I am ambitious, it is by both genre and author. Usually it starts that way and then becomes a mess of whatever fits.

4. If you could choose a book penpal to swap books with, what country would you like them to be from and why?

Anywhere is fine with me. However, I'd really like a penpal from Japan, Korea, or India. I have always been fascinated by Asian countries (I'd like to visit!), history, food, and cultures.

5. What mythological creature would you like to be if you could?

AN ELF. If they count. If I have to be a creature, I suppose I'd want to be a kitsune or a phooka, something clever and dangerous.

6. If you were tasked to re-write a book, what would it be and why?

Hmmm, hard question. Probably Twenty Years After, by Alexander Dumas. I always found it depressing, boring, and not nearly as good as The Three Musketeers. They deserved better. Or maybe Madame Bovary (Incredibly boring book. All I took from it was that you should never get into debt, which I have learned better in other places. I would have added ninjas, or pirates).

7. Choose a character. Who is it? If you could give them something you think they need/want, what would it be?

SO HARD! I will just go with the first thing I thought of: I would give Tom Imura (Rot & Ruin Series by Jonathan Maberry) a second chance at life. But not as a zombie. That, or I'd show both Arthur and Guinevere where their actions lead in the hopes that they'd make different choices.

8. Book before film or film before book?

Finally, an easy question. BOOK! Even if it ruins the movie. I will always pick the book.

9. If you could turn any book into a film (a perfectly true to the book film) which would you choose?

Sabriel, The Hero and the Crown, The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, or the Queen's Thief Series as an epic saga!

10. IF your favorite character was an animal, what would they be and why?

Darn it, now I have to pick a character! Which is impossible. So I'll throw out a few of them (preferably ones that work best as animals): Faramir (LOTR) would be a Timberwolf, a quiet survivor, wise, solitary but loyal to the pack. Gen (The Thief) is a fox - clever, crafty, quick-witted, and really hard to catch. Tom Imura (Rot & Ruin) would be a panther: strong, swift, wise, quiet and deadly, awesome . . . Aerin (The Hero and the Crown) would be falcon: sharp, distinct, a hunter, introverted. Sabriel (Sabriel) would be a cat. I'm not sure why. Thranduil would be a dragon: Aloof, loves treasure, superiority complex, but wise and dangerous. And I'll just stop there, because my favorite characters could fill a dictionary.

11. If you could change something about your society, what would it be?

I'll try to be brief: I think our general society [as a whole] is morally bankrupt in many ways, self-absorbed, shallow, and self-righteous. So I would want us to all realize how big the world is, how many people are hurting and need help, and have the guts and the resources to do something about it. And everyone can do something.

IF I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin	5
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Emily Dickinson, 1924, Complete Poems, Part I: Life, VI

Well, they really ended with a philosophical whammy there. In lieu of writing a blog post answer to just question eleven, I kept it simple. Thanks a bunch for these thought-provoking questions!

AND NOW:

Hooray! It's the part where I get to be the Master of Questions:

Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what? If not, why?

Do you have a certain type of character that you always love/root for? (I. e., the orphan hero, the bad boy/girl with a heart of gold, the loveable rogue). Why do you like them?

Has your taste in books changed much in the past ten years? Do you find that you like a certain type of book now better than you did then?

What literary trope or cliche do you hate the most? Which one really doesn’t bother you?

Name one book that you love that no one else seems to have read. Include a picture and a link so the rest of us can check it out.

Do you prefer contemporary novels or historical fiction? Why?

If you write (stories, novels, poetry, anything other than blog posts), do you write with the hope to publish, or just for fun?

Why did you start your blog? What keeps you posting?

If the internet disappeared overnight, how would you feel? Do you think life would be better or worse, and why?

If you could have tea (or coffee) and a chat with any author living or dead, who would you pick? What would you want to ask them?

What do you like best about your writing or your blog? Why?

That was fun! Now, for nominations. This is hard, because most of the blogs I follow/enjoy have either been nominated for 100+ tags or don't do tags. So I looked through all the blogs I follow by various means, and selected some who haven't done a Liebster post this year (yet). If I tag you and you hate tags, don't feel any pressure. If not, my 11 questions are ones that I'd really like to know your answers to!