Thank You, Fireblossom!

I received this award from Fireblossom, a new friend in this remarkable blogosphere, whose personality and whose verse are as flamboyant as her name. Thank you, Fireblossom! I am deeply honoured.

The rules are: post seven bits of trivia about yourself. (That’s scary!) Then pass it on to seven people. (That I kinda like!)

So, in totally random order, I give you:

1. I keep a notebook – an old elegant notebook bound in red silk embroidered with arabesques of gold – in which I write the titles of all the books I read every year. It is a precious thing to me for it helps me recall moments in my life, and more than moments, feelings and nuances… I remember how I was when I was reading such and such book, what season it was, if I was content or sad… At the same time it brings me a feeling of anxiety or hopelessness when I see how little I can scratch of the vast surface of literature.

2. I’m in love with a certain vampire. ’Nough said. :-)

3. When I write, I fully immerse myself in my story. It’s so “bad” (or good!) that my pulse quickens, my vision blurs, my breathing becomes ragged, my head spins… I wonder what I looked like if anybody were to see me.

4. During my university years, I smoked. Not much, probably not more than ten cigarettes a day, mainly less. Strong ones though, mostly Camel. And then, a few years later I abandoned it. It was easy. One day I smoked, the next day I didn’t. I admit I was a bit disappointed. What? Can’t I even keep an addiction?

5. I love all life and believe that everything that’s alive has a right to live.
One day, as I was driving through a new development zone, where all natural life has been disturbed to make place to a bunch of overgrown houses, I saw a snake trying to cross the road. I can’t even think about it, let alone write about it. It was already halfway through the other half of the road when a car coming from the opposite direction just crushed it. My heart cringes even now, so many weeks later. I know that countless tragedies happen every minute all over this world, but it doesn’t mean that that snake’s is less important because of that.
Did I mention I’m a vegetarian?

6. Baroque music is among my favourites. Bach, Albinoni, Telemann, Marcello, to name just a few who take me from the peaks of joy to the abysses of despair, and back.

7. I like to drive and I like to drive very fast. I like the “high” that I get from this speed… Unfortunately, watching out for cops takes away some of the fun…

And now I get to pass the award on to other people. It wasn’t easy to decide upon only seven names. Some of you have it already, and if you don’t want to do the meme (again) that’s all right, but it’s just my way of showing how much I appreciate you. All of you are fantastic writers and amazing blog friends.

So,

Aniket
Kaye
Karen
L.A.
Marilyn
Miladysa
Rick

please pick up your award.

Times Four

I really had to “steal” this from Charles Gramlich because I liked it so much and because he doesn’t do any tagging actually… :-)

I think I needed something light to match the summery mood brought on by longer, sunnier days, and by the approaching holidays.

So, here goes… (in alphabetical order, wherever possible)

Four Movies You Can See Over and Over

The Birdcage
From Dusk Till Dawn
The Party
Pulp Fiction

Four Places You Have Lived

Europe
Montreal, Canada

(sorry, I only have two…)

Four TV Shows You Love(d) to Watch (I watch extremely little TV now – I used to be addicted to it years ago but, luckily, the arrival of my first daughter cured me of that)

Cheers
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
Seinfeld
Star Trek – Enterprise (the last in the series)


Four Places You Have Been on a Vacation

Florida
Italy
Mexico
Prince Edward Island


Four of your favorite foods

Cheese
Cherries
Corn on the cob
Mushrooms

Four Websites You Visit Daily

Google
The Internet Movie Database
Amazon
As many blogs as I can

Four Places You Would Rather Be

The seaside
Manhattan
At home, writing
On a sailing boat, sailing the seven seas


Four Things You Hope to Do Before You Die

Publish a story
Go to Easter Island
Visit the pyramids of Egypt
Walk in the Amazon jungle


Four Novels You Wish You Were Reading for the First Time

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
Dracula, by Bram Stoker
Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne
Rendez-vous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke


Tag Four People You Believe Will Respond

Absolute Vanilla (& Atyllah)
Catvibe
K.Lawson Gilbert
Laughingwolf

Thank you for playing! :-)

An Award and a Meme

K. Lawson Gilbert from Old Mossy Moon has graciously given me the Sisterhood Award. Thank you, Kaye, from the bottom of my heart! These vibes of sisterhood, I feel them deeply when we interact in the blogosphere.
I’ve never had siblings – although I always dreamt of an older brother – but over the years I have had a few fantastic girlfriends who were to me, by choice, more than any sister, by nature, would’ve been. Physical distance keeps us apart now, but the feeling is still there, that feeling of solidarity, of belonging, of shared secrets, of complicity, if you want.

Much of the same warms my heart now when we exchange thoughts and feelings on our blogs. I’m very grateful for it. And so I’m glad for the opportunity to show a little of my appreciation by giving the award to (unfortunately only) a few of my… sisters:

Absolute Vanilla & Attilah
L.A. Mitchell
Lisa
Miladysa
Sarah Hina

Now for the meme…

Sarah has tagged me with a list of the twenty-five authors who have influenced my writing. Hmmm… It wasn't easy to assemble it, but in the end I realised there were several other writers that I would've liked to add to the list and couldn't.

This is my list, in alphabetical order:


1) Greg Bear (for “Eon”, “Eternity”, “The Forge of God”, and “Anvil of Stars”)
2) Jorge Luis Borges
3) Edgar Rice Burroughs
4) Raymond Chandler
5) Agatha Christie
6) Willkie Collins
7) Michael Crichton
8) Arthur Conan Doyle
9) Alexandre Dumas
10) Thomas Hardy
11) E.T.A. Hoffman (the German Romantic author)
12) Stephen King
13) H. P. Lovecraft
14) Thomas Mann (the German author of “Buddenbrooks”)
15) Daphne du Maurier
16) Margaret Mitchell
17) Edgar Allan Poe
18) Jean Ray (the Belgian master of the fantastic, author of “Malpertuis”)
19) William Shakespeare
20) Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
21) Robert Silverberg
22) Dan Simmons (the “Hyperion” series)
23) Bram Stoker
24) Jules Verne
25) Emile Zola

I think that Sarah has said a very wise and true thing, and I couldn’t agree more with her. I have learned tremendously from my fellow bloggers over my almost two years among them and, for this, I am very grateful.

It’s my turn now to invite Bernard, L.A. Mitchell, and Miladysa to play along.

Have You Ever...

And now on a light(er) note...

I "stole" this from Lisa, over at Eudaemonia For All.

The question is “Have you ever…?”

Bold the things you’ve done and will admit to.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (not sure what counts here)
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community (I'm not counting seeing them downtown shopping)
36. Taught yourself a new language (do video courses count?)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (sort of)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (I'm not counting my nose)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee


36 out of 99! Oh, my, still so much to do, and not necessarily from this list...

How about you?...

A Meme

Taffiny has tagged me for this meme of various things. I’m giving it a try but I’m afraid my answers won’t be too interesting.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

My memory is weird, so much that sometimes it would scare me if I would allow myself to think about it. On one hand I can’t forget a thing - I never write down birthdays for instance - on the other hand there are in it huge gaps that I can’t account for.

I really do not know what I was doing ten years ago. Living. Working. A trip to Germany. Dreaming. Writing. Nothing significant enough, obviously, to be singled out as an event. Only some scenes, and mostly feelings, engraved in memory.

Breakfast in Frankfurt, on a rainy Sunday morning, watching the wet cars on the wet street and listening to classical music… The wonder of German pastries in a little snack bar in Düsseldorf – appreciated with famished senses… Melancholy and beauty on the Rhine, thinking of Heinrich Heine’s poem, “Die Lorelei”…

And, yes, I think we were just starting to look into buying our house.


Five things on your to-do list for today

- Pick-up my daughter from school (it’s the last day before the summer holidays) and my other daughter from day care;
- Organise the last details for my older daughter’s birthday party, which – as we did last year – we are celebrating one month in advance for fear that all the friends and schoolmates she wanted to invite would be away in July;
- Spend time in the garden, not working, just enjoying it;
- Watch the second Harry Potter movie with the kids – and hope they won’t get too caught into the action;
- Write (maybe).


What would you do if you were a billionaire?

This is one of my favourite daydreams…

After helping all that I could possibly help, people and animals, within reason obviously, I would:

- Write, write, write, write, write…
- Buy a house on the beach and one in Manhattan;
- Travel to all the earthly places I’ve ever wanted to visit;
- Buy a trip to the International Space Station.

Being a millionaire wouldn’t be that bad either…

What are three of your bad habits?

- Speeding;
- Daydreaming (although not while speeding);
- Procrastination.

What are some snacks you enjoy?

- pistachios, almonds, peanuts;
- dried figs;
- sesame sticks or pretzels.

What were the last five books you read?

This one’s easy. I have a habit of keeping track of all the books I read by writing down the author and the title in a beautiful, silk-bound, old notebook.

- The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony Di Terlizzi (my seven-year old is reading this the second time);
- The Thanatonauts by Bernard Werber (think “astronauts” on the continent of the dead…);
- My Laugh Comes Last by James Hadley Chase;
- Play Now… Kill Later and
- Die Anytime, After Tuesday! both by Carter Brown.

I don’t know if you are familiar with Chase and Brown, or even heard of them.

James Hadley Chase (René Brabazon Raymond) was a British writer, highly influenced by the American crime and gangster writers. He was hailed as “the thriller maestro of the generation”. He died in 1985.

Carter Brown is the pseudonym of the British-Australian author of crime fiction Alan Geoffrey Yates. He started writing full time at 30, in 1953, and wrote about 150 crime stories that sold tens of millions of copies. He died in 1985.

Obviously this is very light literature, with no profound thoughts or feelings, but entertaining. Something I’m not embarrassed to admit that I need and seek every now and then.

What are five jobs you have had?

My actual job plus all the work at home as a mother and a wife.

What are five places where you have lived?

Europe
Canada

I know the answers to the last two questions are not real answers, but that’s all I can offer for now…

And now it’s my turn to tag five people:

Akasha
Ello
Jon
Lisa
Sarah

Good luck!

Six Random Things About Me

Akasha Savage from Aspirations From the Dark Side has tagged me with this meme (Ouch!). The rules, as copied from her blog, are:

Link to the person that tagged you - ie me.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about youself in a blog post.
Tag six people.
Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their post.
Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

Here I go:

1) I love mathematics. I guess it helps to have a mathematician in the family – my father. I find mathematics incredibly elegant and powerful, an art in itself. Some say that the physical world is a mathematical structure and that all mathematical structures could be physical worlds…

2) I remember a scene from when I was about four or five years old. Even then – and I’m still doing it, although I swear I’m not crazy!!! – I used to carry out entire conversations in my head with various characters. I suppose that, unconsciously, my facial expressions reflected these conversations. You can imagine my deep embarrassment - which engraved this memory forever in my mind - when a woman I knew asked me with whom I was talking. Despite my vehement negation, she didn’t seem at all convinced…

3) I still entertain this fantasy about meeting or summoning someone who will grant me three wishes. I often compose in my head elaborate descriptions of these three wishes, legal-style, so that to leave no place for errors or misinterpretations.

4) I doubt everything.

5) I have a huge fear of flying, but, unlike my husband who gets paralysed by his, I’m still able to send mine somewhere in a hidden drawer of my brain. I believe that for me this fear comes from the feeling of total loss of control once I’m in the airplane.

6) This blog is my Secret, my snug place, my boldness, my hope. In real life, only two very good friends know about it.

And now, rubbing my hands in wicked delight, I get to tag six other people:

Bernita
Canterbury Soul
Chris Eldin
Emperor Ropi
Sarah Hina
Szélsöfa

I hope you won’t be (too) mad at me!

Seven (Random?) Things About Me

John Eaton was very kind (or not?!) to think of me for this meme. These are the rules, copied from his blog:

1.Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random [?] people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

Hmmm, suddenly I find it very difficult to come up with one let alone seven things about me. But here we go:

1. When I was about four years old and had just learned how to write in capitals, I heard on the radio about a woman who spoke thirty languages. How wonderful that seemed to me. I immediately started making a list - in my huge, clumsy letters - of all the languages I wanted to learn. Regrettably, I’m very far from getting anywhere on it, beyond the first (very) few.

2. Another scene that stuck to my mind happened at a party. I don’t think I was older than five or six and we used to have these family parties, for various occasions, with relatives gathered around a bountiful table. Oh, I liked them so much, I was all eyes, and ears, and taste buds! There was this uncle by marriage who had a beautiful voice and used to sing these beautiful songs, but they were all very sad, very melancholic. I remember listening to him while huge tears were rolling down on my cheeks. Well, years have gone by, he’s moved to Germany, and – for no particular reason, just life - I haven’t seen him or talked to him in more than twenty years. But just a few weeks ago, an acquaintance of mine has met him in Europe, at a baptism, and he wanted her to give me this message; he said he was still sorry for having made me cry with his song at that party of such a long time ago…

3. One of my earliest memories is the following: I was probably three or four years old and my grandmother was taking me to a lady who ran a sort of morning German day care/school in her home. Auntie Flora, I was calling her. I was walking with my grannie on the street and, as always, I had my head full of the stories and the fairy tales that she was telling me. At some point I said, “What if I were a white peahen…” The gentleman who was walking in front of us turned and looked at me. I was so embarrassed, I guess, that this moment forever remains imprinted upon my mind.

4. I much prefer salted or sour things to sweet things, when it comes to food.

5. I like to cook and I’m good at it – no false modesty here. I like to experiment and I’m not afraid to try new exotic ingredients. Unfortunately my family is rather conservative as far as food is concerned, so I’ll just keep the octopus salad for myself.

6. One of my favourite painters is Hieronymus Bosch. His bizarre infernal visions go intriguingly well with the labyrinths of my mind.

7. I love perfumes. I wear them according to my mood, my colours, and the colours of weather. My favourites, right now and in no particular order, are Bvlgari by Bvlgari, Rock’n’Rose by Valentino, Pure Poison by Christian Dior, and Sicily by Dolce & Gabbana. I was shocked to find out that they’re not making Sicily anymore. I have one unopened bottle and probably will be very reluctant to open it when its time comes.

Now it’s my turn to tag a few people:

1. Bernita
2. Colleen
3. Jeff
4. Minx
5. Pearl
6. Shameless
7. Taffiny (when you have the time)

I have to run and hide now...

Books, Books, Books

Wonderful Absolute Vanilla... (& Attylah) has tagged me for this meme and although I’m usually reluctant to speak – even worse, write - about me, I’m writing this gladly, books being a topic I would eagerly discuss anyplace, anytime.


Total number of books owned

Many, yet never enough. I have several walls covered in bookcases now, in my library, and I grew up in a house that has several rooms with many more of these book-covered walls. I am used to books, I live with books, I couldn’t live without books. I dive in their well of knowledge, and experiences, let myself permeated by strong feelings, and come out transformed most of the times, my soul enriched with a piece of somebody else’s soul. The ones that touch me the deepest also make me cry when I close their covers, as if I were saying good-bye to a dear friend. I have books of science fiction, history (ancient, mostly), just fiction, astronomy, art, children’s books, mathematics, Earth’s enigmas, dictionaries, cooking books, poetry, etc., etc., etc. I have many interests, more than I could list here… I’m still dreaming of the mysterious library at the abbey in Melk (from Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose”)…





Last book bought

I’ve just bought a few from Amazon Canada:
“Holes” by Louis Sachar and “Tunnels” by Rodercik Gordon And Brian Williams, both of these because of Jon (in the best of ways, it’s meant as a compliment, Jon, if you read this), “The Gate of Worlds” by Robert Silverberg, dare I say the greatest?, certainly one of my favourite authors of science fiction and fantasy, and “Roget’s International Thesaurus.”

Last book read

I always read several books at the same time, so that I can switch between them according to my mood, the time of the day, or the place. “The Ants” by Bernard Werber is the one I’ve just finished. More than science fiction, by this very good French author, it is a satire and an invitation for us to consider more carefully the intelligences just beneath our feet…

Five books which mean a lot to you

Ah, this is the most difficult one. Which to choose, which to choose out of so many? In no particular order, this is a list of (only) five:

“Voyage to the Centre of the Earth” by Jules Verne – this I read when I was about ten years old and reread many times since, including once this year. Everytime, it is just as fresh as the first. (Beware of most English translations, though.) This book has instilled in me a love for science, which has never left me since, and has opened for me the road of imagination not limited by the confines of our reality. Anything could happen and does happen in the world of science fiction…

“The Desert of the Tartars” by Dino Buzzati - an existential parabola, the story of Giovanni Drogo and others whose destinies are linked, by their own will or lack of, to this unnamed timeless fortress, at a vague northern border of Italy, where some leave, some die, and some are waiting their lives away. What keeps them tied to that place is the absurd hope of a “war,” of an invasion of “tartars” from beyond the mountainous desert. Although the human existence is ultimately tragic, it matters how you face your enemy, be it the “tartars” or the final one, Death…

“Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell. In my mid-adolescence years, I was Scarlett and Melanie, and fell in love with Ashley, and Rhett, and the rich cruel history of the South. I lived in this book. I still feel like Scarlett…

“The Magus” by John Fowles. I am still astonished by the elaborate, fascinating deception set up for the one of the main characters in this book, in this intense “godgame” in which the border between reality and ireality finally disappears – I often wonder, how much of our own lives are like this…

“Foucault’s Pendulum” by Umberto Eco, this amazing manipulator of semiotic material. This philosophical tale embraces everything that, over the ages, has been given the rank of mystery: gnosis, secret orders, white and black magic, astrology and alchemy, the Hebrew Golem and the philosophers’ stone… all intertwined in a text of an amazing richness. It takes a strong will and desire to go past the first pages, but once you do that, you’re irremediably caught in it…

And now it’s my turn to “challenge” somebody:

Bernita, Dewey, Jon, Pearl, Poetess, you’re “it”!

5 Strengths as a Writer

Dear Colleen at Loose Leaf Notes has so graciously tagged me for this meme. At first I was scared, I admit. Wait, I thought, am I a writer? Yes, of course you are, I said to myself, this is what you think of you, but what scares you is to be called that in the outside world without the credentials of at least a published story, as if, by doing that, others were somehow going to call your bluff. Having recognized this fear, though, I started thinking about extracting something positive from my insecurities. I thank Colleen for the challenge.

So here it goes:

1. I can hear well my voice, my writing voice, and I think – without false modesty – that it’s not such a bad one. This voice comes to me, it sings to me, and it flows. I might have to dress it up or clean it up a bit, but I still think it flows quite well.

2. I am very determined, very stubborn. I will not give up. If kicked down, I will not stay down for long. A rejection slip will give me a sinking feeling for a day or two, and then I’m up and fighting again (that is, writing again!). I have an utter faith in my abilities (I am an Aries, remember!).

3. I am willing to learn all the time – from books, from people. I welcome constructive criticism, and can put my ego aside, relatively easily, for the sake of learning how to improve my craft.

4. I am a good listener and have an intuition that allows me to see, quite accurately, behind the façade of people, reach their soul, understand their real motives, and use the knowledge in creating my characters.

5. There is nothing I like more than writing. I couldn’t imagine life without writing. It is like air to me; I look in amazement at people who have no interest in it and wonder how they can possibly live like that.

I’m tagging for this:

Canterbury Soul at Doors Left Open
David, at Witnessing Am I
Jason, at Clarity of Night
Seamus (the Lion Tamer!), at Shameless Words
Taffiny, at To Taste a Peach