Eleven Questions

So there's this meme going around where you answer eleven questions about yourself. It's kind of a fun meme because instead of everyone getting the same questions, you think up different questions every time (My questions are at the very bottom of the post). Fun! I was tagged by Elizabeth Twist.  These are her questions (copied from her blog formatting and all) with my answers. Enjoy!

1. What are you reading?
Right now I'm reading "the Help". I'm going to watch the movie when I'm done. The book is beautifully written, the characters feel real, and I'm truly enjoying it but next I'm looking forward to reading something set in the future with aliens and robots.

2. What is your favourite creative activity that is not writing?
Lately I’ve been really into Improv. I go every Monday to a drop-in beginner’s class. Not only is it a blast, but it’s also therapeutic because I often pretend to be my tantruming children. I also paint.

3. Where or how do you get your best ideas?
I’m not really sure. I do know that I tend to look at things differently than most people. Any stimuli I receive gets mixed up in my brain and transformed into a story about aliens and/or robots.


4. If you could magically and painlessly change one thing about your mind or body, what would it be, if anything?
I’m pretty happy with myself generally, but I would like to remove my tendency to procrastinate. I struggle with this a lot. Often, I don’t even realize I’m doing it.  Other times, I know I am but can’t seem to help myself.


5. What's the scariest movie, story, novel, or scene you can recall?
There’s an episode of CSI where a kid takes a ride in a dryer at the laundromat and is killed from the extreme heat. Kind of freaked me out because it involved a kid just being a kid, not murder or rape or anything.


6. What's the weirdest thing you believe?
I believe in the future everything will keep getting better. I know that global warming is threatening our way of life, people are starving, animals are becoming extinct, the oceans are dying, and war and greed continue to thrive.  And yet, every generation becomes a little more tolerant, a little more aware, a little kinder to one another.  I believe that there are people right now working on solutions that will allow us to live in harmony with each other and with nature, without sacrificing the luxuries we enjoy.  


7. Super strength or super intelligence?
Super intelligence. Although I’m pretty sure I have that already.


8. You're granted the ability to become invisible. Where do you go and what do you do? (Bonus question: are you wearing clothes? I mean, what about YOUR becoming invisible makes your clothes invisible too? This has always bothered me.)
This has always struck me as the least useful superpower for my day to day life.  I don’t hide. I’m not particularly curious about what people say behind my back. I’m not interested in invading the men’s washroom. If I was being chased by a rapist or something then invisibility might be useful, but other than that no. As for the clothing, perhaps it is what makes me invisible, as in Harry Potter’s magic cloak.  Or, my super power might create an aura around me and make whatever I’m wearing invisible (like how Superman’s clothing is also bulletproof). This would also avoid the whole objects floating in the air problem.  Alternatively, I might need special clothes, like Violet in the Incredibles. I wouldn’t use my power if I had to be naked. It doesn’t matter if no one can see. I’d know. I don’t even like to be naked while talking on the phone.


9. What one change do you think would have the most positive impact on the world as a whole?
The abolishment of dogmatic ideas.


10. What is the crappiest advice you've ever been given?
I once took a career assessment which concluded that I should be an audiologist or a technical writer.


11. What's your favourite song right now?
I don’t really have a favourite song, but I had a blast singing MacArthur Park last time I was at karaoke.

I also got tagged by Avery Marsh. Here are her questions:

1. Who was your favorite author when you were a child?

My Mom has always been my favourite author.

2. If you could put yourself in any book, what would it be?

I would put myself in a Star Trek novel. Since I was a kid, I've dreamed of serving aboard the Enterprise, under Captain Picard's wise command.

3. What is the best writing advice you ever read/received?

Just keep writing.

4. If you were a prescription drug, what would your list of side effects include?

Unrestrained laughter, confusion, and nausea (don't they all cause nausea?) 

5. Name an interesting trait you've given one of your characters.

Scales that change colour with emotions.

6. Edit as you go or edit by the draft?

Both. If I get blocked I go back and edit the last few chapters to get me in the groove. 

7. If you were to write an autobiography, what would it be called?

Super Happy Jen's Super Happy Autobiography

8. Introduce us to one of your villains.

The villain in my upcoming book is a prototype soldier droid who has been retrofitted into a sex slave. She has an unrestrained hatred of humans, and stubbornly denies that her fellow wardroids are not self aware. 

9. How many novels have you written?

Just the one, more to come!

10. What is your favorite writing related website?

I like all the blogs I'm reading during this writing campaign.

11. What other secret talents do you have?

I mentioned improv and painting above. I used to make flash cartoons, when people did that sort of thing. 

Here are some people I'm tagging.  (If you want, you can tag yourself)

Natalie Francisco
A J Mullarky
Brooke Hamilton
Sharon Clare, Sherry Isaac, and Carole St-Laurent
Rhiannon Morgan
Kevin Hiatt
Carolin Seidenkranz
Sherri Lackey
Ruth Schiffmann


And here are my random questions:
1. If there was a movie made about your life, which celebrity would play you?
2. What were you like in high school?
3. Which character in Star Trek: the Next Generation would you be for a day?
4. Karaoke?
5. In the fictionalization of your life, are you the hero or the villain?
6. Vampires or zombies?
7. Children?
8. If you could have a pet dinosaur, what kind of dinosaur would you get?
9. How do you picture yourself in the future?
10. Dogs or cats?
11. Favourite youtube channel?