4F Day! Four Questions for Friday

Thank goodness it's Friday again! Here's some light entertainment to help you get through the until lunchtime. After lunch, you're on your own!

Helen Venn

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
I don't think I have a style that is similar to any one writer. It's  more a mixture with my learning from everyone whose work I've ever read. I guess I'd describe my style as tending to the lyrical probably because I also write poetry and love to play with language.

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
I've been influenced by a lot of different writers and they all have  elements of style I'd like to be as good at. Immediately springing to mind are Patricia A McKillip, Jennifer Fallon, C. J. Cherryh, Margo Lanagan, Stephen King, Glenda Larke and Peter S. Beagle but there are so many more that this is by no means a definitive list.

3) Who would you like to be?
I'm quite happy being myself, thank you, but better health would be a
bonus.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
Assuming I could still keep my own brain (I'm quite fond of it) and  they didn't have to be writers, there are a lot of interesting people out there. Among the women - and in no particular order - Dame Julian, Elizabeth 1 and Jane Austen for starters. The men - again in no special order - Mark Twain, John Donne, Rousseau, the writers of the  King James version of the Bible, Gerard Manley Hopkins and yes, Shakespeare. That's only a sample though. Think of all those other amazing artists, scientists and philosophers, each with so much knowledge, stretching back to the beginning of time.

Carol Ryles

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
I think I'm a mixture of a whole lot of different styles. I suppose if  I listed all the books I'd ever read, you could say I was a bit of this and a bit of that.

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
Not sure if I'd wish for that. Though of course, I do not believe I  could be totally unique either.  So to this I am going to answer I would like to be a mixture of all my favourites -- those I listed in the previous 4F Questions.

3) Who would you like to be?
Now that's one of those questions that should be prefaced with: "be  careful what you wish for" or "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know." If I could change into someone else, it probably wouldn't be someone real. Probably someone fictional who has lots of adventures and a seemingly impossible goal that, after lots of
twists and turns, she eventually achieves. When I try and think of  exactly who, I'm thinking "Not her, because of xyz" and not him, because of abc", so maybe, for me, the answer for who I would like to be is unanswerable. I would prefer not to start out knowing who I am, because the pleasure is in the discovery. Once I have everything I
need, I would no longer have any goals. I'd probably want to be  someone else again.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
So long as I could keep my own brain as well, I think it would be neat  to download the memories of one of the first ever homo sapiens sapiens. I'd like to see if there really was an Eve, whether she was mitochondrial Eve or whatever. I'd like to know how it felt to be part of a new species, learning new skills in an old world, telling new  stories perhaps?  Or maybe changing old stories that didn't quite fit any more?  I'd like to see how those old stories began, what they were about and whether they were filled with ideas from our non-homo sapiens sapiens ancestors. I'd like to see how different those stories were from the stories we now consider to be the world's first. How  would it feel living in a world that still felt all shiny and new and seemingly endless and impossible, where the things we now take for granted were totally inexplicable? I wouldn't want to be stuck in that situation, but to know how we all started. That would useful, I think.

Sarah Parker

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
I got told once my style was similar to earl Anne Mccaffrey and Lois Mcmaster Bujold, so as you can imagine it made my YEAR.

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
No one. I don't think anything is polished enough to have a definitive style. I'm working on that right now though.

3) Who would you like to be?
Me! I'm pretty darn happy thanks! Although... Sarah Genge has some rather awesome short stories floating around right now. And Kij Johnson certainly seems to be able to write opening lines that grab your attention.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
I've been crushing on Carl Sagan for a few months now, so I'll pick him. I was going to say Asimov, but apparently Asimov said that Sagan was one of only two minds more brilliant than his. I'd also love to check out Nora Robert's brain.

Joanna Fay

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
My style is probably poetic more than anything else, and stylistically reflects a number of lyrical writers. I enjoy subtleties of syntax and word imagery in both poetry and prose and have unconsciously absorbed a fair dose of 'aestheticism'. My current project is learning how to balance that aesthetic with character, action, tension and the demands of plot, which has meant getting handy with the pruning shears and taking a hard look at where and when to pare back the prose and tighten it up. Still learning.

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
Much as there are many authors I like, it's hard to think of any one I particularly want to emulate. My own reading tastes have changed over time, and it follows that my writing tastes (and therefore style) will change too.

3) Who would you like to be?
I'm quite happy being me...although a slightly healthier me would be nice. I guess I could handle being Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice or, come to think of it, Virginia Woolf's Orlando would be pretty interesting, starting out male and ending up female, with a lifetime spanning several centuries. I'd love to be one of my own characters (of the winged variety) for the thrill of flight, except that such horrible things keep on happening to them. Most offputting.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
Ah, but there have been many admirable brains! How could I choose just one? I think I'd want a whole stack of brains, to make the most of all the different types of gifts. Given my metaphysical leanings, I might end up opting for someone like Deepak Chopra or Karl Sagan, David Bohm or Stephanie Dowrick, for her insight into human nature coupled with her outstanding, forgiving compassion. People I've read and admired. There are so, so many. I feel really inspired just thinking about them!

Satima Flavell

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
Well, one person did say my work was a bit like Jennifer Fallon's, only not as good...

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
William Shakespeare. Sadly, fantasy written in blank verse doesn't seem to be selling terribly well at the moment.

3) Who would you like to be?
Me, only luckier, younger, more talented, and better looking.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
Can I have Shakespeare's? He isn't using it any more. I'll like Ursula K. LeGuin's, too, only she's still using hers.

You!

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?

3) Who would you like to be?

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?


--
Sarah