Eleven Questions Meme

WANA Blogosphere has been buzzing recently with a fun meme, writers tagging each others to answer 11 questions. I was invited to play by Lynette M. Burrows and Marcy Kennedy. Thank you ladies.

To keep this post somewhat digestible, I’ll save Marcy’s questions (and the Lucky 7 Meme) for tomorrow.

The rules for 11 Questions:

1. You must post the rules.
2. Answer the questions on your blog. Create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
3. Tag eleven people and link to them.
4. Let them know you’ve tagged them.

Here are the questions Lynette asked and my answers.

1. What book or series can you read over and over again without getting bored?

One series that has been with me since teenage is Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children set to Ice Age Europe. The heroine is Ayla, an orphaned girl adopted by the Clan. Her struggle is trying to fit in despite being very different from her new people, physically and mentally.

I’m still blown away by the amount of research Auel has done and shares in the series. Her writing contains info dumps by modern standards but all the background information is still really interesting to me. And to be honest, the sex scenes in the later books (parts 2-4) have something to do with the charm of the books 😉

A word of warning, though. In my opinion the series has only 4 books, not 6. The latest two were atrocious.

Another newer favourite is Diana Gabaldon’s time traveling saga starting with Outlander. Jamie and Claire are such a wonderful couple and 1700s are described in vivid detail. One similarity between Ayla and Claire is that they are both healers and use herbs for their trade.

Oh, and I just have to add L.M. Montgomery’s Emily series and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Timeless classics both. Emily is a heroine this introverted writer can perfectly identify with and Elizabeth has spunk, especially for a lady of her time.

2. What TV show character do you hate and why?

Hmm, I don’t watch much TV these days but I really disliked ditzy Cordelia in Buffy and Angel series. And I was irked by Alexander Skarsgård’s bad acting in True Blood season 4. He is perfect as an arrogant hunk but he can’t do sweet and romantic at all. He just looked goofty to me.

3. If you were a super hero, what is your super hero name and your special power?

Right now I would be Super Mommy and with a snap of my fingers I’d clean every spot in the house and manifest cooked, delicious meals. Also, I could magically stop kids from bickering and get them excited to play quietly for a while.

4. What is your favorite ear worm (song that gets stuck in your head)?

Most ear worms currently in my head are children’s songs and they get really annoying fast. I’ve been listening to a lot of Adele lately, especially Rolling in the Deep and Someone Like You.

5. If you could be any character of the opposite sex in any story, who would you be and why?

I’d be the previously mentioned vampire Eric Northman from Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire series. First of all, he is a 2000 year old Viking and I could access his memories and experience history first hand. And second, I’d find out what it was like to be a vampire and still enjoy life with zest like he does.

Shannon Esposito put it really well when answering the same question: “I could see myself shirtless when ever I wanted to.”

6. What was the worst job you’ve ever had and why?

That would be my first job as a hotel cleaner. Cleaning is not very pleasant job (although hotel rooms rarely were very messy) and the rubber gloves dried my hands to parchment.

7. What was your favorite TV show when you were growing up?

Moomins based on Tove Jansson’s books.

8. What mode of transportation (horse, automobile, bus, train, boat, airplane, space plane, etc.) would you never want to use and why?

I actually like traveling in all modes. My favourite is trains since there is usually enough foot space and decent light to read. Long trecks on horseback would propably get really uncomfortable as I haven’t ridden since teenage.

9. What job/occupation would you never want to try?

I would hate being a nurse or a doctor. I wouldn’t cope well with being responsible of people’s health and it would be tough seeing terminally ill people (especially children) and dealing with all the body fluids. My hat is off to the people working in the health care. The wages of nurses especially don’t reflect the importance of their jobs.

10. If you could tweet a warning or encouragement to one person in history, what would you tweet to whom and why?

The first thing that came to my mind was ‘Beware of Ides of March’. According to stories, a soothsayer warned Julius Caesar, even stating the location of danger, but he didn’t believe her. Maybe something more supernatural like getting words spoken to his mind would have made him reconsider.

“Yo Jules, the senators will really murder you in Theatre of Pompey. Brutus is in it too. Don’t go there.”

11. Tell us about one thing on your bucket list.

I want to travel to every inhabitable continent of the world. So far I’ve been to Europe, Asia and North America. But there are dozens of places in the three afore mentioned I want to go to.
Now, those were my answers but the show must go on. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone whose blogs I’m following has been tagged at least once already.

I love coming up with questions so here are my 11 for you all:

1. What is a recent book you liked and why?
2. How long have you known your oldest friend? How did you get to know each others?
3. Which word starting with letter M is important to you? What’s the story behind it?
4. Name three songs you are listening a lot right now.
5. What are your favourite ice cream flavours?
6. If you could have any one person (historical or current) as your mentor, who would you choose and why?
7. What’s the best way to jumpstart your creativity?
8. If you could listen to the music of only one artist/composer for the rest of your life, who would you pick?
9. I’m happy right now because…
11. Google quotes or aphorisms + a random word, and share a saying that speaks to you right now. What does it mean to you?

Everyone is welcomed to play. Go ahead and answer one or all of the questions in the comments. Or if you want to answer them in your own blog, consider yourself tagged 🙂