you know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more

 from Sunday Stealing 

1a. What kinds of things do you like to write?  lately, I've been into writing essays (or sometimes short stories) about some of the important people in my life. How we met, things we've done, why they're important. Why I don't know them anymore (some, anyway). 

    I also really like to blog. That changes from time to time, so I'm writing as much as I can while I'm in the mode because once I'm out of it, it's like needles under my fingernails.

3a. What is your favorite song?  this one has been rolling through my head for a couple of weeks

Tears for Fears "I Love You But I'm Lost"

3b. If you're going to be arrested, what do you want your crime to be?  some dashing property crime, I suppose. Nothing involving hurting a person. 

    But I'd really, really, really rather not be arrested. I think that would be profoundly bad, particularly right now.

4a. During what situation do your eyes shine the brightest?  when I'm in love, when I'm debating—or when I have a migraine

6a. What do you do when you are angry?  I used to cry, and turn it all inside. 

    Then I went through a period where I yelled and threw shoes. 

    Now I write it out, walk it out, and sometimes even talk it out.

7a. Sleep with the lights on or off?  off

7b. What historical event do you wish you'd witnessed?  John Kennedy's speech on the steps of Michigan Union, founding the Peace Corps. The University of Michigan is a grand, dramatic campus filled with buildings that evoke feelings, memories, and history without words. The Union is especially so. I've been to that place, and stood in that spot. Felt it with my own hand, that place where he stood, that launched the futures of so many good people—including some of my dear friends. Politics aside, to have been there that day would have been profoundly moving.

 

John Kennedy's Peace Corps speech in Ann Arbor, Michigan

8a. Are you OK with eating alone in a restaurant?  absolutely fine

8b. Who has had the best influence on your life?  Fluffy K

9a. Texting or calling?  texting—except in very, very special, limited circumstances

10a. What is your favorite thing about yourself?  the chicken pox scar in my eyebrow

10b. Would you rather sleep with no blankets or no pillows?  no pillows, easy. I do that pretty often.

11a. How do you act when you're scared?  I fight like a cornered wild animal

11b. What's your favorite rain memory?  followed out of the grocery store a couple of years ago into a warm, drenching rain by a guy who was whistling "If I Only had a Brain..." There was something carefree and charming about it that made it stick with me.

12a. When you look at the sky, do you first look at the moon or the stars?  stars

13b. If you had $3 to spend in the dollar store, what would you buy?  M&Ms or a cat toy

[a combination of this (a) and this (b); the title quotation is by Michael Connelly, from The Castle]