Tuesday, December 13, 2016

The Q&A Tag

Hello, everyone! Now that life's calmed down a bit and I don't have a ton of assignments on my plate, I decided I should catch up on some of the posting I meant to do earlier. Today, that means finally responding to the Q&A Tag that Savannah Perran tagged me with back in October. (Better late than never, right?) The nice thing about this, though, is that Emmarayne Redding also (sort of) tagged me with this, so I can just do both tags at once and answer twice the questions.

We'll start with Savannah's questions . . . but first, the rules:
  • Tag the blogger who nominated you. I'm assuming this means acknowledge them, in which case, done.
  •  Answer the questions you were given. I'll do that in a minute. 
  • Write out your ten questions. Almost as fun as answering other peoples' questions.
  • Nominate ten bloggers. Who wants to bet I won't manage ten? 
  • Let them know they've been tagged. That I can do.

1. What is a hyped book that you want to read?
Um. Define "hyped." Anymore, I feel like half of what I've read has either been out so long that all the hype's died down or else is so obscure that there's hardly any hype at all. But I guess Nadine Brandes' Out of Time series qualifies? There is a fair amount of hype for it among the Christian speculative fiction circles.

2. When/why did you start your blog?
I started my blog in January of 2011- well, more accurately, my dad started it for me in response to me mentioning on more than one occasion that I thought blogging would be fun. Then I opened my blog to the public in April of 2013, rather than having it only available by invitation. I started blogging, as I mentioned, because I thought it would be fun and also because it seemed like a good way to get started in the online community.
 
3. Penguins or puffins? (important questions, people)
Penguins. Absolutely penguins

4. Show us a picture of your bookshelf! 
Um. My main bookshelf is at home, but you can see a bad cell phone picture of my bookshelf here at college if you like:

5. What three songs have you had on repeat lately?
Hmm. Good question. I haven't had any songs on literal repeat, and I've actually had more variety than usual in my listening lately, but frequently-listened-to-songs . . . I've listened to Pentatonix's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" a lot since Thanksgiving. I've also listened to Celtic Thunder's version of "All I Want for Christmas is You" more than a few times. And yesterday during Campus Christmas I had to listen (and dance) to "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" for about an hour and a half straight and now I never want to hear that version again for the next five years.

6. If you could live in one fictional world, which world would it be?
I don't like this question. Um. I guess maybe Middle Earth? It's sort of a tie between that, Narnia, the world of Goldstone Wood, and Aralan, one of my own fictional worlds.

7. What are three things on your bucket list?
I don't have a bucket list, per se, but three things that probably would be on it if I did:
  • Get published, even if it's just in an anthology
  • Learn how to swordfight
  • Travel to Europe, New Zealand, or both.
8. Share the last sentence you wrote in your WIP.
Huzzah, another question I can definitively answer! I'm actually giving you the last two sentences, because the literal last sentence is actually a fragment and only makes sense in context of the previous one:
"I can only pray that, somehow, it'll work. That my quest, at last, can end.
Also, that sounds ridiculously dramatic out of context, and in context, it really isn't.

9. What is the best book you've read this month? What was the worst?
So far this month, my reading time has been devoted to finally reading the Percy Jackson series- I'm currently on the second book in the second series. So, the best of those is probably . . . not actually sure. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses. I guess my least favorite is The Lost Hero, though I'm not finished with it yet; the amnesia bit annoys me and I miss Percy very much. My favorite so far is probably either Battle of the Labyrinth or The Last Olympian.

10. What's a fact about you that other people might be surprised to know?  
Despite the fact that I'm an introvert, I hate eating alone. Meals are meant to be shared; they're a time for talking over your day with others, making plans for tomorrow, and enjoying one another's company in addition to the food. The one exception is breakfast- I don't mind eating breakfast alone if I have to.

And now for Emmarayne's questions!

1.  What do you like best about the place where you grew up?

Hmm . . . there's a lot of things I could say. Probably the biggest reason I love Northern VA is the people- but if you're talking about aspects of the place itself, probably the fact that it's so close to everything- and everything includes quite a bit of variety.

2.  What elements do you think were most influential in making you the person you are today?
This needs a whole post to answer, not just a paragraph in response to a tag question. Storms, I could do a series of posts and have more than enough material. But for the sake of time and the question, I guess the top three elements were my family, my church, and books.

3.  What fictional character do you identify with most?
It's a three-way tie between Cress, Princess Una of Parumvir, and Jo March. Una and I are both dreamers, we both make (often very foolish) mistakes, and we're neither of us the best speakers. Cress is, like me, a fangirl, and we were both basically homeschooled. And Jo is very like me in her bookish and writerly tendencies, as well as her impulsiveness (yes, I can be impulsive; I just now how to control my impulses) and her unwillingness to fit into social norms just because they're the norms. 

4.  Would you call yourself an introvert or an extrovert?  Or possibly an ambivert?

Introvert. Absolutely an introvert.

5.  If you could be masterful in one skill, what would you want it to be?

Is that actually a question? Writing. Absolutely writing.

6.  IF you were to be born in  a different time period, which period would you prefer?

I would like to be born in the future, when teleportation devices and time machines have been invented and made commercially available, thank you. I'd like to visit other eras, but I wouldn't want to live there.

7.  Where do you feel most free and happy?

I'm not sure there's one place feel most free and happy- it's more a combination of stress, mood, weather, activity, and a little bit location. But if I had to pick . . . either in the library or on the steps of the BTS when there's a bit of a breeze and a hint of a brewing storm and I can just sit and write or read for a few hours.

8.  Do you dream of romance, whether present or future?

Sometimes. This actually relates back to question #3: like Una and Cress, I do often dream of finding a handsome guy to sweep me off my feet or take me on an adventure or what have you. However, I've learned from their mistakes- and even if I hadn't, I'm more than a little like Jo March as well: uncertain about the idea of romance and too fond of my relative independence to consider such relationships lightly. Either way, though, I'm not getting into any romantic relationships this year. I don't think I have the maturity for it, I probably don't have the time for it, and anyway, I'd like to focus on becoming friends with guys before I think about getting a boyfriend.   

9.  And speaking of dreaming, what about your literal dreams?  Do you remember you dreams at night?  And if so, what do you usually dream about?  ( If this makes you uncomfortable, don't worry about it.  ;)

I don't often remember my dreams at night, unfortunately. When I do remember them, it's usually because they were either especially unpleasant or- rarely- especially epic. For example: I had a whole series of dreams a few weeks ago about having forgotten to turn in a group paper for one of my classes (a group paper which, I may add, I wasn't even responsible to turn in personally), and those I remembered quite clearly the next morning. The one thing I don't often dream about, at least that I remember, is fandoms, which is very sad indeed.

10.  If you were going to go down in history, what would it be for?

Realistically? Probably either for something writing-related or because of something incredibly stupid I did. I hope it would be for the former, not the latter, but I don't know.

Now for my questions:
1. What's your favorite type of dragon?
2. If that type of dragon unexpectedly showed up in your backyard (or whatever outdoor area is closest to where you live), what would you do?
3. How many bookshelves do you have?
4. What's your favorite piece of instrumental music? (You can pick a top three if you prefer.)
5. If you could pick three characters from animated movies with whom to spend a day, who would you choose and what would you do?
6. Would you rather have a teleporation device or a time machine? Why?
7. What do you do when you're sick? How do you cope?
8. How stressed are you right now?
9. How do you feel about steampunk?
10. If you could do anything right now, what would you choose?

And my tag-ees . . . I think that I'm going to take a page out of a friend's book and use a more unconventional method of tagging. So, if any of the following apply to you, consider yourself tagged!
  • You've drunk hot chocolate in the last five days
  • You're currently listening to a Christmas song
  • You like dragons
    • Doubly so if you wish you could have a dragon
  • You plan to watch a movie in the next week
  • You need topics for a blog post.
So, how many of those apply to you? Also, what book characters do you relate most to?
Thanks for stopping by!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

1 comment:

  1. I fall under pretty much all those qualifications... though technically, I'm only listening to You're a Mean One, Mr Grinch in my head. ;D
    I think of all the characters I've read, I identify most with Janner Igiby from the Wingfeather Saga. I'm a lot more willing to go out of my way to protect my siblings than he is, but other than that we're very much alike in our interests, virtues, and faults.

    I liked your answers to both sets of questions! Thanks for doing the tag. :D

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear your thoughts! But remember: it pays to be polite to dragons.