FanFic Ask Me Anything ~*~ Version 3.0 Daily Questions (See list on pg 164 or 1)

Since I don't have the book I was reading last week about the Black Death, I pulled a random book down from my closet instead. Book in question: Guinevere by Norma Lorre Goodrich

1.Queen Guinevere died in Scotland, before the dawn of history there.

2. If before going forward we take another backward glance at Queen Guinevere's journey to the Grail Castle on the Isle of Man, we understand that she had gone to the Otherworld.

3. How strange it is this one, lone presence has survived.

 

1. Describe the scent of the hand soap in the bathroom nearest to you.
I'm at work so it's scent-less... everything is pretty much scent less. It's a very bland existance.

2. Tell us about your favorite plant-based odor. It can be from a flower, a fruit, a shrub, the smell of freshly cut grass—anything as long as it comes from some kind of natural plant matter.
The smell of freshly cut grass makes me sneeze, even though I do like the smell. I'd have to say some kind of herb, probably basil or thyme.

3. Are there any smells that bring back memories of the past, your youth, etc.? If so, what are they, and what aspect of your past (or youth, or whatever) do they recall for you?
Oh smell memory, how I love thee! There are several: One of my very favorites is the smell of my dad's workshop which always smelled like paint, wood shavings, with a slightly damp undertone. But paint and cut wood usually takes me back to hanging out with my dad, wanting to help him build sets, work on the cars, build random other things. He'd let me take the scrap wood pile and let me build whatever I wanted and paint it. Those are some of the best memories of my childhood. My parents just recently sold the house I grew up in (and the business that went along with it) and while I was sad to not see the house again, I was devastated to not be able to go into the shop one more time.

Also, when I was really little (they quit when I was around 5 or 6) my parents were part of a dirt track racing team and I loved it. I didn't really know the power of smell memory until I went to a dirt track race in my 20's and as soon as the smell of wet dirt, oil and gas hit my nose I was right back there at the races with my parents.

 

1. Pink grapefruit.

2. My lawn used to be infested with wild chives. I liked the smell of the chives when I mowed the lawn.

3. One day when I was in the Army I lost my hat. I had to go to the PX and purchase a new one. When I put the hat on the next day I kept reminiscing about Basic Training. I didn't know why I kept thinking about boot camp. Eventually I realized I thought about my initial training only when I was outdoors. I figured out it was the new hat smell. We don't wear our hats indoors, so every time I went outside and put on my hat I would smell the distinct smell of the new hat. I don't know why the hats had something similar to a 'new car' smell to it, but it did. I first smelled it in Basic Training and smelling it again brought me back to those days.

 

1. Basic "floral" scent.

2. Garlic, mint, watermelon...anything that comes from a really well-made pasta dish (pasta being made from processed plant matter).

3. That old, sweet, slightly musty smell you get in old houses, old, well-tended libraries, and any place with real history to it.

 

Lily of the valley and bergamot. I love it.

There's a variety of Mediterranean jasmine whose flowers open only at night and whose scent is a little sweeter and headier than regular jasmine. I wish someone would make a perfume out of it.

Also, fig trees. I love the smell of fig trees, it makes me feel like I'm on holiday.

The small of old, leather bound books reminds me of my father. He liked to have "important" books bound in leather, and there was a distinctive smell in his study at work. It was mostly medical books that we gave to the university when he passed away, so we don't have them anymore.

On a less pleasant register, my paternal grandmother was obsessed with eradicating cockroaches and ants, even though she lived on the third floor and cockroaches and ants don't usually come that high. She kept spraying Baygon pesticide all over the place, and the smell reminds me of her.

 

Just plain soap scent.

I love the scent of flowers, but my favorite plant smell is definitely fresh-cut grass. It's pure summer.

I haven't ridden regularly in years, but even now when I walk into a barn, it brings back so many memories. There are a lot of odors associated with horses and riding - the horses themselves, hay and straw, leather, dust, and of course, poop. But what I remember most is the scent of riding on a summer day. It's horse, leather, sweat, hayfields, grass, flowers, and just the air itself. Those were some of the happiest times in my childhood and early-teen years, and I don't think I'll ever forget them.

 

1. Sweet and salty, with umami close behind.

2. I honestly have no idea.

3. McDonalds food certainly has a lot of charming memories of childhood...

 

Sweet and salty.

Peanut butter bees (basically a peanut butter covered in chocolate with almond wings).

Doughboys, Jiggs dinner and fish and bruwis (with SCRUNCHINS!) all remind me of my childhood, growing up in a Newfie family even though I was born on the west coast, particularly when I lived with my grandparents and my grandmother had cancer and all my grandfather could cook was salt fish and salt pork. I don't need to be embalmed when I die, because I was salted as a child.

 

Sweet and salty.

Chocolate-covered bacon.

Pickled and deviled eggs. My grandparents would make them for cookouts.

 

1. your two favorite of those tastes (I know, it's not going to be easy!), and...
Hmmm... that is hard. I can say for certain it's not sour, I'm not a big fan of sour thing (unless it's an ameretto sour, then I like it. )
I guess I'd have to say salty and unami

2. ...a food that you think is a particularly good combination of those two favorite tastes.
I don't really know... maybe some kind of cheese because there probably is one that has the savroyness and salty but I have no idea. I'm sure there are way better examples. I should have picked salty and sweet.

3. Are there foods that remind you of your childhood or any other part of past, and why?
A biscuits with honey on it!
When I was 7 years old I was in 2 musicals that ran 6 nights a week (we alternated which show every two nights) for the entire summer. One of the shows had one of the characters make biscuits and honey for the 'family' (I played the youngest boy) but only one person got to take a bit on stage because... lines. But after the scene, I was always allowed to have one back stage. Anytime I eat that, I'm taken back to one of the best summers of my life where I got to do something that I loved and got paid for it!

 

JadeLotus - Hope you will get to stand in front of that painting someday. If you like it, that is. It's an unique experience.

Catching up with this week, will catch up with the last week at some point, too.

DAY ONE

1. What role, if any, do paper notebooks, journals, or other paper media play in your fanfic writing? Do you use paper just for jotting down notes, or do you draft entire scenes or passages on paper before transferring them to electronic media? And what do you do with your notebooks once they're filled up?
Oddly enough, in my fanfic writing, paper never played a role. When I used to write cringe-worthy Formula One RPF in my late teens, everything was done on the computer. That is interesting, because it also includes a period of time when I had no computer at home yet, as well as five months of using a PC 386 with Windows 3.1x and 5'25" floppy disks prior to finally getting a decent machine. That was fun. I would write in .rtf format because .txt files in 3.1x were of limited size. Then I would take the gigantic, fragile 5'25" to my mom's office where, oddly enough, there still was a reader for it.

This is not to say that I was not using paper for other forms of writing - I believe the paperlessness in writing came with my first smartphone at the end of 2010. Prior to that, it was notebooks and plain sheets of A4 paper.

Also, this is not to say that I didn't try to sketch some layouts for particular scenes on paper in the recent couple of months, but I feel so ashamed around people who can draw well around here, that it didn't turn out well. :/

2. If you do use paper notebooks: describe your current one for us. I'm talking here not about what's in it, since I know that's private, but only the physical appearance of the notebook: its brand, approximate size, color, design, any other characteristics that come to mind. Or, if you feel comfortable doing so, post a photo of it (again, just the outside cover).

If you use only electronic media (e.g., tablet, computer, etc.) in your writing, then please share your recommendations for notes and/or journaling apps, since I may start looking into such things.


When I used notebooks, I prefered standard A4 and A5 ones, lined, sometimes squared. The plain ones made in Italy or, during the economic sanctions, Turkey. Here's an assortment of those I kept, as I used to bulk-buy them each time I would see a pretty one.



Only the top right one is somewhat unusual, as it's artsy and it contains a dedication on the left inner cover. A friend from the Sillicone Valley sent it to me for New Year 2005 and I always wanted to use it for poetry, but somehow I didn't.

My tools of trade are Microsoft Word when on the computer or the laptop, Dropbox when I need to synch between the two and Evernote on my tablet and phone. The latter still has some major flaws and I would not recommend a premium version to anybody. Sometimes things fail to synch and may require more than one refresh AND if you have Premium, the app won't even save the changes prior to that refresh. Not cool.

Lately, you and I have been using Dropbox as a beta tool and yeah, I would recommend that, too.

3. Do you have any favorite writing utensils (pens, pencils, styli, etc.)? This can be either a specific individual writing implement that you keep with you and use all the time (e.g., the Findshusband loves his Fisher Space Pen) or a specific kind of implement that you favor (e.g., ballpoint pens, mechanical pencils, etc.).

I have many pens and pencil in a Tom & Jerry pencil holder and a weird mug with an Ewe painted on it, but only one has a special meaning to me.



Yeah, a plain pen that looks like those vintage-style balloons and marbles. We were on a 1-day roadtrip in August 1992 when I hit my forehead against a high store counter at the open market in a small town. I did not need stitches, there was no blood, but it was so close to my eye and it hurt a lot, that my dad, the type who rarely gave gifts to anybody, went around the said open market and came back with that pen. He got it from some Romanian smugglers. He said it was something that resembled me in so many ways and that he had to get it for me.

It went to school with me for the next nine years or so and I wrote some A-rated assignments and some award-winning poems using it. In 1998, I managed to lose it twice and find it again each time. I retired it when I started university, in order never to lose it, and when I got my dog in 2011, I hid it somewhere where she could not reach it. Last month, I got it a new home - a rustic candle holder in the display case of my new cupboard.

Dad and I did not get along that well until the last two years of his life. He never wanted to write me birthday cards and kept on buying me a single white rose each year, and I kept on asking for something permanent. While I do have so many photos and video, as well as pretty much everything he ever owned (we are yet to clean up after almost five years); this pen and his antique Canon Ftb camera are the only things other than his handwriting that matter to me.



DAY TWO

I did not finish my answers for Mav's round, plus the book I am currently reading is not in English, so...maybe next time.

DAY THREE

1. Describe the scent of the hand soap in the bathroom nearest to you.
There are five of them - one Lush and one stupid soap mom uses because she doesn't know what's cool. So, there are small chunks of Movis, Mangnificent, Parsley Porridge and a large piece of Lily Savon. The latter dominates the bathroom with its strong scent.

2. Tell us about your favorite plant-based odor. It can be from a flower, a fruit, a shrub, the smell of freshly cut grass—anything as long as it comes from some kind of natural plant matter.
Black locust blossoms, early in May.

3. Are there any smells that bring back memories of the past, your youth, etc.? If so, what are they, and what aspect of your past (or youth, or whatever) do they recall for you?
I assume that spending a proper seaside vacation for the first time in 21 years (it's happening, end of the story!) will do that.

I have not smelled this since 1997 and a school trip where three of us used it together. Now that I see that it was not discontinued, I am not sure if I am brave enough to find it and smell it again or not. It would surely bring so many memories of my early teens...

Other than this, while I think of smell as nostalgia fuel, I tend to get more sentimental when particular songs remind me of the past.

DAY FOUR

1. your two favorite of those tastes (I know, it's not going to be easy!), and...
Salty and umami. While the body craves sweet, I often feel strange from it, just like most other pre-diabetics (and, well, diabetics), so this was an easy choice for me.

2. ...a food that you think is a particularly good combination of those two favorite tastes.
Pretty much everything I eat gravitates towards umami, but for example, this Greek pie with feta cheese and kalamata olives paste I'm eating right now fits.

3. And finally, because I can't think of anything else, I'll ask a question similar to yesterday's no. 3: are there foods that remind you of your childhood or any other part of past, and why?
This is a perfect question.

My paternal grandmother used to make a roulade that we are yet to find among her recipes, as my aunt, who inherited her recipe books, has no idea what I'm talking about. I am pretty sure the cake itself had cocoa, but I swear that it was a roulade-in-a-roulade and that the top part had either custard cream, vanilla pudding or buttercream and I preferred that one to the inner roulade, which was made with walnuts.

I also agree with Goodwood. A lot of McDonald's stuff, the special sauce in particular, tends to cause my memories to go wild. We were the first city in a VERY large area of Europe to have a McDonald's and, my parents, being the strange people they were/are, did not take me to one for about two years - even though the above mentioned grandmother had checked it out and said that it would have been something for me. By the time my mom decided to take me there on a day dad went fishing (yeah, that's a hint to him banning fun stuff for no reason other than "teaching me to be tough"), the second restaurant was open, a much bigger one than the first. So, she dressed me up nicely (!) and we went there. At the time, this was actually the largest McDonald's restaurant in the world and the absolute recorder in the number of visitors globally in its first year. It was a fun experience and, of course, once I learned that they host birthday parties, I nagged for one, too.

Funny enough, we're still #1 in Europe in terms of quality in McDonald's restaurants. I think that's one of the rare occasions where Serbia is not topping the worst-ever-in-something list.

 

1. Frangipani.

2. Pomegranate, I have a pomegranate based perfume at the moment and it smells wonderful.

3. A good scent - that old book smell. It reminds me of when my Dad used to take me and my sister to the old libraries so he could do family history research, and we would help him go through the mircofilm and look things up.

A bad scent - eucalyptus. I suffered from terrible car sickness as a kid, especially when we used to visit family up in the hills and driving through the bushland on windy roads. Since then the smell of eucalyptus always makes me nauseous.

I hope so! The book itself was a gift, and I just love looking at it, to see the real thing would be wonderful.

1. Salty and umami I guess (I had to pop over to wikipedia to look up exactly what that was!)

2. Tempura vegetables, or sauteed mushrooms with salt and butter.

3. Tuna mornay with rice - it was my favourite thing for my Mum to cook when I was a kid, and she'll cook it for us every now and them when I go over there for dinner - it's just pure comfort food and always makes me happy.

 

1. Regular antibacterial soap (gold colored, mediciney smell).

2. I used to like the scent of roses, but I haven't smelled any in so long they would probably make me sick.

3. Despite the fact I have a very strong sense of smell, I'm not reminded of anything when I smell something. Maybe that's because I've spent a long time forgetting my past on the conscious level that it affects how my senses work on the unconscious level. (That's a weird concept for normal people...well, I'm not normal and that's not my problem).

1. Sweet and umami.

2. Nothing that I can think of...

3. See answer #3 above, but replace "smell" with "taste".

 

1. Sweet and umami.

2. Pay Day bar.

3. Mushroom soup and rice casserole, beef brauts, and beef jerky. Mainly family gatherings.

 

A) Cool. I'm a big fan of autumn. I'm such a baby when it gets warm, let alone "hot". I guess Northern Canada does that to a person

B) Cold. I pretty much hate every warm/hot drink (I always burn myself), but I force myself to drink coffee because caffeine.

A) Soft. I spend like 16 years on a old, hard mattress, then, by being sarcastic (long story), I got a super-expensive pillowtop soft matress. I will NEVER GO BACK.

B) Chewy/gummy

I don't know if this applies, but I hate sticky stuff and my hands being sticky.

 

Cool weather and cold drinks.

Firm mattresses and chewy candy.

Jiggly stuff like meat fat. Yuck.

 

1. Salty and bitter.

2. Olives. Just any sort of olives.

3. Spanakorizo (spinach rice, recipe here) -- I grew up on that, like all Greek kids, and I loved and still love it, like all Greek kids and non-kids. It's mushy, tasty, lemony and slightly bitter because of the spinach, and it's perfect mom-is-taking-care-of-me comfort food.

1. Warm weather, cold drinks. They go together well

2. Hard/firm to both. One thing I don't like (and that list is not so long) is chewy candy like Carambar or jelly.

3. One thing that makes me literally sick is the texture of wet bread, even to only touch it. It's just...

 

1. Cold/cool or hot/warm? Tell us your temperature preference for (a) weather and (b) drinks.
Weather: Cool to cold. Drinks I actually usually prefer at room temperature. I have bad teeth so cold makes them ache and hot can be hazardous due to my strong jump reflex which leads to spillage and burning.

2. Soft/chewy or hard/firm? Tell us your texture preference for (a) mattresses and (b) candies. (Or any other sort of treat or snack, if you don't or can't eat candy.)

Mattresses I prefer semi-firm because support helps my scoliosis of the spine and helps my back relax.Candy I prefer soft because hard/crunchy can cause my TMJ to play up.

3. Are there any textures that creep you out, disgust you, or otherwise give you the willies?

Jello, raw meat, raw fat.

 

1. My front yard with lawn, trees, detached garage and surrounded by a spooky forest.

2. It is a moving backdrop where it looks like you are travelling through a galaxy.

3. My icon. It was a gift drawn for me by Falconfan. I sent her photos of the shower scene of Black Magic Woman as a model for the drawing of Luke. I can't remember who she modeled Mara after.