5 Questions

Andi did this ages ago and sent me questions ages ago and I finally got around to doing the answers.   It’s been a lazy few days!

1. I know from reading your blog and book grouping with you for so many years now (six years! yikes!), that you’re a wonderful and dedicated mom. What was your biggest anxiety (besides potential health issues) with Ellie and has it changed now that you’re having a second child?

Has it been six years? Ye Gods I feel old! And thank you, I try very hard to be a good parent. It’s something that is very important to me, probably because I was left by my own mother at the age of 3. I remember back on 9/11 (I was already thinking of kids then, even though I was a newlywed) that there was no way I could bring a child into a world where such things could happen. And I stuck to that for quite some time. Eventually I came to realize that it was my job (and other responsible citizens) to bring children into this world to change it, to make it better, to live with courage and compassion in a time of fear and indifference. So my biggest fear is failing in someway to teach her (and Wesley as well) to treat all living things in a humane way, to show love for her (and his) fellow man, and to be the best person she (and he) can possibly be. I would say that desire has only grown stronger with Wesley on the way.

2. What book has been most influential in your life?

Hmm…now this is a tough question. It’s hard to say, I don’t know that any one book has had a huge impact on my life. There is no one book I live by (except maybe the Bible, in that I try to follow the ‘Do unto others…’ rule).  I know when I read To Kill a Mockingbird during high school that it was the first time I really got into the studying of a novel.  I don’t know that it was the one that lead me to study English is college (I think several books had something to do with that) but it was the first time I found myself interested in hows and whys that went into the book. 

3. If you could live inside any fairytale or fairytale retelling, what would it be and why?

Oh, I love it! Hmm…That’s a tough question.  Fairy tales can be violent and scary!   One of my favorites has always been Snow White, perhaps because I identify with the character in that her mother (because don’t you know in the original tale it wasn’t her step-mother, it was her mother who was the Wicked Queen) abandoned her to the cruel world without a good reason.  Luckily for me (and Snow White) there was someone to take her in and love her.  And in the end, she (supposedly) lived happily ever after.   

4. We’re both children’s/YA lit nuts. Why does the genre appeal to you so?

I think it’s partly because my childhood was something that was sort of taken away from me. My mother took off when I was 3 and not long after my father became very sick. From the ages of 4 to 8, I was forced to watch him get continually worsen and eventually die. I would never take back those years but it did force me to grow up very fast.  Some of the YA lit I have read featured that kind of storyline, growing up and growing up fast, and it’s something I still identify with, even at the age of 29. And reading it now is almost like a way for me to go back and be a child for awhile. 

Another reason I love it is the way the stories are told. They are just that, stories, something with deeper meanings, sometimes not. The main reason I love reading is that I love stories. I don’t always need the deeper meanings, I don’t always want to explore a text for hidden messages and themes. Sometimes I just want a great story and YA lit almost always delivers.

5. If there was one meal you could eat every day for the rest of your life without ever tiring of it, what would it be?

Lo Mein.  Without a doubt.  Probably plain ole Vegetable Lo Mein.  I looooooooove Lo Mein.  I love pasta anyway and I love the flavors of Chinese food.  SO GOOD.

Directions: Want some questions of your own? Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me”I will respond by e-mailing you five questions (if your email is not on your profile, email me your desire to be interviewed so I know your address). I get to pick them, and you have to answer them all. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.