I was reading Michael Hyatt's suggested blog topics for novelists and came upon the fascinating notion of posting interviews with characters from my novels. Why the hell not? Let's try this.
The interviewer scans his notes one more time before setting the smoked crystal tablet back on the desk. Straightening the cuffs of his dark grey uniform jacket, he sits back to wait.
His subject enters: a willowy girl with rose-colored eyes set in a pale face framed by wavy, light brown hair. The single overhead light leaves the entrance bathed in shadow, but the interviewer could swear that the door never opened.
The girl stands halfway between the closed door and the desk: stock still and silent; possibly not breathing.
Interviewer: You can have a seat.
The girl, still in her middle teens by the look of her, promptly seats herself in the only other chair.
I: Thank you. Let's start with the basic facts. Please state your name.
Subject: Which one?
The interviewer pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs, eager to put this formality behind him and return to more serious business.
I: The one the station staff call you by.
Subject: Elena Braun
I: Good morning, Elena.
Elena: Saying that won't make it true.
I: Are you feeling alright?
E: shrugs
I: Not sleeping well?
E: It's not the sleep. It's the dreams.
I: You're having nightmares?
E: Saying "nightmares" implies that they're not true.
I: Fidgeting with his notes. Moving on, please give your age.
E: Be more specific.
I: I don't...how old are you?
E: It depends on what you mean by "me". In a sense, I'm primordial. In another, I'm as old as all of the people who've had pieces of me inside them. The soul in the vas was reconstituted 150 years ago.
I: Sighs. What is your physical age?
E: Sixteen.
I: Now we're making progress. You've been briefed on the upcoming mission?
E: Yes.
I: How do you feel about it?
E: About what?
I: The Exodus Project.
E: What about it?
I: Well for one thing, are you confident of a successful outcome?
E: That's a relative concept.
I: Forgive me for saying that you seem generally pessimistic.
E: It's a bad time for long-term planning.
I: Switches off his tablet and folds his hands on the desk. I think we're done here.
E: Rises quietly and leaves.
He didn't get much out of her. Perhaps he asked the wrong questions. Anybody else care to ask?
Monday, February 11, 2013
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2 comments:
1. What do you want more than anything?
2. If you could fight one horse-sized duck or 40 duck-sized horses what do you choose?
3. What is your least favorite thing?
4. What emotion are you most envious of in others?
5. You're working on a new spell and are several hours into the elliptical somatic component when you notice that a tangental verbal to somatic ration is fixed upon a small variant that could prove dangerous. Do you investigate the possibility or continue with your original spellwork?
6. 5 best ways to enjoy the summer?
7. What would you do with a billion gold pieces?
1. What do you want more than anything? Nothing. Not in the sense that I don't want anything. I want literal, positive, nothingness.
2. If you could fight one horse-sized duck or 40 duck-sized horses what do you choose?
I think that's a false binary option.
3. What is your least favorite thing?
You're assuming that I don't hold all existence in equal contempt. But the "gun to my head" answer is Elatha.
4. What emotion are you most envious of in others?
Envy. I'd like to want something enough to hate those who have it.
5. You're working on a new spell and are several hours into the elliptical somatic component when you notice that a tangental verbal to somatic ration is fixed upon a small variant that could prove dangerous. Do you investigate the possibility or continue with your original spellwork?
Since you didn't specify a Working, glamer, or Mystery, I'll assume it's a glamer.
If you're using the Steersman's Compass (which you are if kinesis is employed as a mnemonic device), ruling out a faulty variant ratio is in your best interests unless you like being anatomically inverted.
6. 5 best ways to enjoy the summer?
There are no seasons in hell, and thinking of ways to enjoy my time there is a futile exercise.
7. What would you do with a billion gold pieces?
Are you asking what I'd do with them, or what I think you should do with them?
In the latter case, you could put several hundred million guilders toward tracking down and abducting a person whose soul contains fragments of a deity you want to reincarnate.
You'd have just enough left over to melt down and cast into Worked gold to reinforce his body against the elemental forces raging to escape.
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