1. Which fictional language would you most like to be real?
The version of Linear A I created for my fictional universe (I wouldn't mind if the real Linear A were deciphered, either, finally giving the Minoans their own voice).
Érih káethe adíh, ir yerán. Tásen eráni sorihén, Ánassa? Dhi kéri ten sóran, táira -- sírathen Perihán Adhirén énis adáir.
2. Sky burial or catacombs?
Sky burial… or, better yet, resting in the arms of the sea.
3. What does your favorite color make you think of?
My beloved color, that nacreous band that unites sea and sky at dusk and dawn, makes me think of journeys to worlds where the stars are strange.
4. What musical instrument would you make for yourself to play?
A cousin of either the bagpipes (with a smaller ascus) or the Cretan lyre (with more strings).
5. Which historical figure would you most like to have known as a person?
Emily Brontë… and Crazy Horse. I think they would understand each other well, too, the two stoic fierce mystics.
6. Where would you like to live that you've never visited?
My third lodestone after the Aegean Islands and the Scottish highlands: Aotearoa.
7. What tree would you turn yourself into?
Perhaps a rowan, with its bright berries standing out stark against the winter twilight.
8. Who would you sing back from the dead for a day?
My paternal grandmother, my namesake. She would be likely to follow the thread of my song... and I have so many questions to ask her.
9. What instrument sounds most like the language you know best?
The sinuous laments of the folk clarinet, like a dark human voice singing by the sea.
10. Who's the first fictional character you can remember liking?
I wouldn't mind living as an Amazon, the way they are depicted in Ellen Frye's Story Bones.
15. What artist (contemporary or historical) would you like to have done your portrait?
Rembrandt, though I wonder how unsettled I would be by the result.
16. What shape would you take, knowing you could never change back?
I am usually a mountain lion or falcon in my dreams. So...
17. What fictional planet would you most like to live on?
Gethen of The Left Hand of Darkness -- as a Gethenian, but after the second Hainish contact, so I could travel to the other planets, especially Ki-O.
18. What bird reminds you most of home?
Swallows -- they are graceful yet indomitable and travel very far. When I was young, almost every house had a swallow nest… they were symbols of both exile and homecoming.
no subject
The version of Linear A I created for my fictional universe (I wouldn't mind if the real Linear A were deciphered, either, finally giving the Minoans their own voice).
Érih káethe adíh, ir yerán.
Tásen eráni sorihén, Ánassa?
Dhi kéri ten sóran, táira -- sírathen Perihán Adhirén énis adáir.
2. Sky burial or catacombs?
Sky burial… or, better yet, resting in the arms of the sea.
3. What does your favorite color make you think of?
My beloved color, that nacreous band that unites sea and sky at dusk and dawn, makes me think of journeys to worlds where the stars are strange.
4. What musical instrument would you make for yourself to play?
A cousin of either the bagpipes (with a smaller ascus) or the Cretan lyre (with more strings).
5. Which historical figure would you most like to have known as a person?
Emily Brontë… and Crazy Horse. I think they would understand each other well, too, the two stoic fierce mystics.
6. Where would you like to live that you've never visited?
My third lodestone after the Aegean Islands and the Scottish highlands: Aotearoa.
7. What tree would you turn yourself into?
Perhaps a rowan, with its bright berries standing out stark against the winter twilight.
8. Who would you sing back from the dead for a day?
My paternal grandmother, my namesake. She would be likely to follow the thread of my song... and I have so many questions to ask her.
9. What instrument sounds most like the language you know best?
The sinuous laments of the folk clarinet, like a dark human voice singing by the sea.
10. Who's the first fictional character you can remember liking?
Captain Nemo, as I described in The Multi-Chambered Nautilus.
11. What landscape scares you the most?
Landlocked places make me claustrophobic with the exception (so far) of New Mexico where the endless sky compensates.
12. What book do you love that no one else has read?
Ann Arensberg's Sister Wolf.
13. What museum would you choose to live in?
Amid the middle-class Minoan ruins at Akrotiri (Thera) for reasons I discussed in The Hyacinth among the Roses.
14. Which myth would you want to be part of?
I wouldn't mind living as an Amazon, the way they are depicted in Ellen Frye's Story Bones.
15. What artist (contemporary or historical) would you like to have done your portrait?
Rembrandt, though I wonder how unsettled I would be by the result.
16. What shape would you take, knowing you could never change back?
I am usually a mountain lion or falcon in my dreams. So...
17. What fictional planet would you most like to live on?
Gethen of The Left Hand of Darkness -- as a Gethenian, but after the second Hainish contact, so I could travel to the other planets, especially Ki-O.
18. What bird reminds you most of home?
Swallows -- they are graceful yet indomitable and travel very far. When I was young, almost every house had a swallow nest… they were symbols of both exile and homecoming.