30 Days of Writing: #21

21. Do any of your char­ac­ters have chil­dren? How well do you write them?

Not usually, most of my characters are not interested in having children, much like myself.  Obviously in multi-generation series like Nagnomei, characters breed, but I pretty much skip over their childhoods and go straight to teenage and up.  And if characters raise children, they're usually adopted because of some circumstance or another.

I could write them just fine, but quite frankly I don't want to.  I'm not interested in writing for children or about children - with all the sex in my novels, that's just fine, yo!

30 Days of Writing: #20

(thank goodness, 2/3 done)

20. What are your favorite char­ac­ter inter­ac­tions to write?

The easiest way to answer this would be by giving specific examples, but for once I think I'll be a little more ~generic~.  My favorite type of character interactions to write are usually between two characters:  one character likes the other but the "like" is not reciprocated.  It amuses me because it lets me work with wto different emotions at once on a constant basis. I like to keep things interesting for myself, after all.

The only other kind of interaction I look forward to writing are torture and sex. yeah. YEAH.

30 Days of Wriing: #19

Get it?  GET IT?

19. Favorite minor that decided to shove her/him­self into the spot­light and why!

Fixed the sexism okay and thank you. /bitter today.

I don't have an answer for this question in terms of Nagnomei, because I write that one with the idea that every character I introduce is a "potential", as in it's possible they could be used again later in a more prominent role if necessary.  However, I don't take the same idea in CROSS// because one is a huge epic fantasy with a contienent full of players and the other is a smaller urban fantasy with only a few prominent characters.  But like any long-term story that I start on, within a few chapters I've got characters that I realize are going to keep popping up whether relevant or not. 

People who read CROSS// the first time through would probably be surprised to learn that, originally, Miranda was supposed to be a minor character.  The idea was that she was gonig to be the lewd and lecherous commander that kinda flirted, showed leg, and unapologetically slinked around the background for my own amusement (and to annoy the crap out of Danielle).  The running joke was going to be that she was always trying to get some with Danielle, the blonde didn't want none of that, hardy har hurr hurr even lesbians sexually harrass each other.   But within the first few chapters of the first book, Miranda went from minor character to antagonist with a huge background. Oops! And now she's one of three main characters. Oops again!

Lesson:  never underestimate your minor characters! They'll come for you. =(

30 Days of Writing: #18

18. Favorite antag­o­nist and why!

Woo I'm psychic! After yesterday's "favorite protagonist", this was only kinda painfully obvious.  Just kinda.

I'm pretty sure I've already gone on about how much Yumiko amuses me, so I will try to come up with someone else...

...nope, all my other antagonists either just aren't as cool or are too protagonisty. Here's a great idea, Mr. Meme, come up with some less repetitive questions. Jeez.

30 Days of Writing: #17

17. Favorite pro­tag­o­nist and why!

Sooooo how  is this not like the "favorite character!" question?

Meh, I have so many protagonists, it's hard to pick a favorite.  Especially since some of my faves cross over into antagonist category more than once - actually, if I think about it, most of my characters cross between "good" and "evil" so much that sometimes it feels weird to call them protagonist or antagonist.  The bad guys are doing their bad things in the name of good, and the good guys do some bad things to save their worlds.  IT'S LIKE A CIRCLE.

But I guess if I spin it in terms of ~best character that does protagonisty things~ I'll give props to my man Jack, because he was my first (as if) and, even though he's in a total crap situation throughout his entire series, he doesn't whine too much and just kinda takes it like a man.  He's lawful good without the armor, because guys who go out with just a sword in their hand are a-ok with me. And he's a red-head, I mean come on.

I have a horrible feeling I know what tomorrow's is going to be...

30 Days of Writing: #16

16. Do you write roman­tic rela­tion­ships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you will­ing to go in your writ­ing? ;)

Whatevz, romance is one of the most interesting things to write about - adds character development and advances plot. 

And anyone who's read anything I've written? They go all the way. In great detail. Usually with mental commentary!

And that's all I'm saying about that.

30 Days of Writing: #15

This is not an accurate rendering...

15. Mid­way ques­tion! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether pro­fes­sional or not!

Oh God, I don't even know.  Just to say I admire a writer does not necessarily mean I LIKE them or even READ them, right?  Well, believe it or not, there are definitely more writers I admire than necessarily like.  Writers, of course, like the classics in Greek and Rome, whoever the lucky snot who wrote Beowulf was (and I curse him), Lady Murasaki for being both an educated woman in medieval Japan AND wriiting the oldest (or one of)  novels in Japan, or even the world (may I reiterate that she was a woman?)  and virtually anyone else who is way more awesome than I will ever be. If it weren't for writers to idolize, there would be nothing to aspire to.

As for more...recent...writers I admire, that's a harder one.  I admire writers who broke into markets and made something for themselves. But I doubt this is about the business aspect of admiration.  So, in terms of writing style, content, and general badassery, one of the first 1900s+ authors that come to mind for me is Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials.  It's one of the few (fantasy) series from my childhood that I still thoroughly enjoy and look to for inspiration, probably because it's fantasy with religious conspiracy...you know, like Nagnomei...which explains why I was attracted to it in the first place.  Pullman is able to make twists and turns that make me jealous.  He's succinct (something I need to work on) and yet gets all the (fantastical) information across.  He's also really pissing some organizations off that I would love to piss off as well.  The only thing I'm not jealous of is the movie...

Tell me, fanciful readers, who do you admire? And most importantly...are they dead?