The Simple Questions Tag

Rachel at A Girl's Place recently created this tag and tagged me with it.  Thanks, Rachel!  Here are my answers to her questions:

1. How does your morning start? 

Generally with a little person crawling in my bed sometime around 7am and snuggling up to me :-)  Though I've noticed this is only happening about every-other-day lately -- quite often now, my kids wake up and play with each other in their rooms instead of coming to wake me up.  Then I just wake up on my own, see it's time to get up, and off we go.

2. What's your favorite color? 

Purple.

(Violets make me happy.  I did not take this photo, btw, I found it on Pinterest.)

3. What book are you reading right now?

Right now, I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien, Rogue One by Alexander Freed, and Montana Rides! by Max Brand writing as Evan Evans.  I pretty much always have at least two books going, sometimes three.  One upstairs in my bathroom to read while brushing my hair and teeth, one on the main floor to read at random moments, and sometimes another that I couldn't bear to wait to start.

4. What is your opinion about having a mobile phone? 

I like always being able to call for help if I need it, and I must admit I love being able to check my email just about anywhere.

5. Your favorite actresses? (Pick at least two)

Maureen O'Hara and Emma Thompson are at the head of my list.  I also love Myrna Loy, Lauren Bacall, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, and Doris Day.

(Maureen as a Musketeer!  Yesssssss!)

(Emma Thompson.  I didn't take this picture either.)

6. What's your favorite movie right now? 

My favorite movie has been The Man from Snowy River (1982) since I was two years old.

7. Snow or rain? 

SNOW!  I am a snowphile.  Though I do enjoy rain as well.

8. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? 

Mint-chocolate-chip :-9

(Now I'm hungry.)

9. To which countries have you been? 

Obviously the USA, as I live here, but also Canada, Mexico, Poland, Ukraine, and some islands in the Bahamas.

10. What are you doing mostly in the evening? 

Once the kids go to bed, I'm either watching a movie, writing, or spending time with my husband.  Sometimes a combination of those, like watching a movie with Cowboy.

11. How old are you? 

Thirty-six.

12. Which countries do you really want to visit? 

Great Britain and Germany.  I want to go on one of those literary tours of Britain and see all kinds of Sherlock Holmes/Jane Austen/Shakespeare/Tolkien stuff.  And I want to go to Germany and see all the Luther sites.

13. What's your dream career? 

Writing westerns that are so beloved and successful, they get turned into movies.  But I'll settle for just getting paid to write westerns.  Working on that.

(There's no actual reason for this picture to be here except that it has Alan Ladd in it.)
(Also, Olivia de Havilland.  And it's from The Proud Rebel, which was a good movie.)
(Also, puppies are cute.  I like that Alan looks cheerful here.  He doesn't in the movie.)

14. If you were cast in a movie, which character would you love to play?

How about Emma Thompson's daughter?  One of us would have to fake our accent, but it would be great fun to play, like, mother-and-daughter writers who are somewhat competitive, but also very supportive, and decide to co-write a story and then drive each other kinda nuts in the process.  It could be like Alex & Emma where we show the story that's being written too, but like show the same scenes it two very different styles as we try to work out HOW the story will go.  Maybe she writes historical romances, but I write YA westerns (boy, that's a stretch), and trying to meld the two is just awkward and funny at first, but eventually turns out something awesome.

Okay, I like that idea.  Somebody pitch it to Emma Thompson!  And then you can replace me with someone who can actually act, and I'll just write the screenplay instead.  Also, the western our characters co-write must star Armie Hammer, Henry Cavill, Michael Fassbender, Diego Luna, and Ben Mendelsohn because of reasons.

(Look!  Diego has a horse already!)

I'm going to be lame and not tag anyone specifically because my brain is tired.  If you like Rachel's questions, feel free to answer them yourself and say that I tagged you :-)