Random Five Question Meme

Christine did a meme where you get asked five questions, like an interview and then asked if anyone else wanted to. Never one to shy away from talking about myself (I know, I know), I volunteered. So here's Christine's random five questions for me, and my answers to them:

Who was the inspiration for your first hero? Well, I'm not sure anyone was the inspiration for the character's internal workings, those were my own and given where my head space was at during the time I wrote it, I'm sure there was a saved therapy bill in there somewhere. But physically I was picturing Brett Cullen from the tv show The Young Riders where he played Marshal Sam Cain. Although now that I think about it, that wasn't even my first hero. My first hero would have been in the young adult murder mystery I wrote right after graduating high school and he was based on Kevin Bacon from Footloose.

Have you ever had a lightening bolt moment with your writing where everything was clear? If so, what was it? Yes, especially with the series I'm working on now. It usually ends up being about the character's motivation or internal workings where something just clicks and I realize why they do what they do. Now why the heck they don't tell me this when I start the book and make my life that much easier I will never know. I can't pick out just one incident though, it happens fairly frequently. A lot of times while I'm driving. Which means I have to recite the info over and over until I can stop the car and write it down. You can imagine the looks I get from passing motorists.

If you could meet anyone from any point in history, who would it be and what would you say? I would probably pick either Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill. As for what would I say? Probably, "Pull up a chair, I think we have a lot to talk about."

White or dark chocolate and why? Milk chocolate. Creamy milk chocolate. Which I suppose in a way is a combination of both white and dark. See what a diplomat I am? You see dark chocolate is too bitter. And white chocolate is just...well chocolate as a color is brown. So you can't have white chocolate. It's like jumbo shrimp. It's an oxymoron. So I'll stick with my creamy milk chocolate.

What is your favourite book and why? Good lord I wouldn't even know where to start. My favorite book growing up was Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune. Our library had two hardback copies and I would just return one and pick up the other. For ten years I did this. And god help the library if the other copy wasn't available because I would sit there until they processed the copy I brought back and then take it out again. I'm a huge dog person, so reading about this dog (which was based on a true story of the author's actual dog) just drew me in like nothing else. I could practically recite it by the time I moved out of town.

Other books would be the Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith and any of Christopher Pike's earlier books. I read those in my late teens/early 20s. The Vampire Diaries was about this forbidden love and angst and all that good teen stuff. Same with a lot of Pike's stuff, only with his there was no guarantee of a happy ending, which I also liked.

More recently would be The Winter Mantle by Elizabeth Chadwick. There was a part in this book that left me so distraught (I didn't realize at the time I was reading it that it was based on actual historical characters) I nearly threw it from one end of the bus to the other. As it was, I had to clamp my hand over my mouth and stare out the window until the tears dried up. Any book that can move me to tears on public transit has my vote. The One Wore Grey series by Heather Graham. Took place during the civil war, one of my favorite historical periods and yet one of the most tragic. And probably most recently, The Time Traveler's Wife that my critique partner let me borrow and which I'm still recovering from. Oh, and The Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon because Jamie Fraser is still one of the best heroes I've ever read. I'm going to stop now or you guys will be reading this list all day...

So if anyone else wants to take part in the five random question meme, let me know and I'll give you you're five questions!