Meme time!

(what a stupid use of such a deep concept, but it's kinda standard, anyway...)

So, what's been of me? Not much, sadly, lots of reading (wonderful reading) but not much writing... Gotta take the thing by the horns, as they say, but I'm too emotionally tired as of late to get my hands on the keyboard... I will probably skip an entire chapter on the novel and simply keep pushing, the missing parts will come later...

I'll let you know when I'm back again...

In the mean time, Scott Oden made this thing (but was so kind of tagging no one), and Gabrielle did it as well, but she was not so kind. However, she didn't tag me, and so I'm doing it (convoluted? Hehe, ever watched House? I'm dead simple... :-P )

Hope you enjoy it, I will try to enjoy it (at least I'll try not to scream and cry in my misery and, ... ahem... I will stop. Now.)

Straight Historical, Historical Mystery, Historical Fantasy, Historical Romance, or Time Travel?
Straight, undoubtedly (ironical, uh?) I enjoy the occasional Mistery or Fantasy if it's well constructed, but I get tired of them pretty soon, even if I'm the writer...

Historical Figures as Main Characters or Purely Fictional Characters in Historical Settings as Main Characters?
I don't mind... Sometimes I really enjoy the real ones, but others I feel them encased, contrived, and prefer the freedom of a fictional PC... In my historical settings, anyway, most of the guys are hypothetical (specially if your only source is Ktesias!) and I'm sure most of my favourite authors are in the same ship...

Hardback, Trade Paperback, or Mass Market Paperback?
Any, although the lighter the better, I commute with my whole writing office with me, enough weight with my own stuff!

Philippa Gregory or Margaret George?
Uh?

Amazon or Brick and Mortar?
Amazon, because Spanish libraries suck... Really.

Bernard Cornwell or Sharon Penman?
Uh?

(Not repeated, it's a different kind of 'uh?' but I got off font faces... Cornwell promises, but after reading Patrick O'Brian, it will be some five-years before I probably read him... no offense intended... as for Penman... mmm... uh?)

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Mmmm... Neither, but I think I would enjoy Borders if I could go to one... Been in B&N in Sheffield, UK, some 10 years ago, it was okay...

First Historical Novel You Ever Remember Reading?
Not really sure, actually... Probably The Three Musketeers, by Alexander Dumas, but who can remember these things (besides Gabrielle, I mean)?

Alphabetize by Author, Alphabetize by Title, or Random?
First time, by author and subject/historical period (title is irrelevant, I order by size, so the bigger ones are in the bottom of the stack, or in the sides of the shelf), then Entropy takes its reign... I guess the right answer, time averaged, would be "organically evolved"...

Keep, Throw Away, or Sell?
Keep, keep, and keep... If I lend you a book, you can wear a badge showing your proud to the world...

Jean Plaidy or Norah Lofts?
Uh? (third kind of "uh?", yeah... lots of blissful ignorance in here, but I reject most books by time period or guts, that's why I gotta write them, nobody else does!)

Read with Dust Jacket or Remove It?
Either, even without covers and even without pages (at least until my Palm battery died horribly last year...) If they come with 'em (dust covers, I mean), I don't usually tear 'em off (but they are usually left in a very pityful state)...

Stop Reading When Tired or at Chapter Breaks?
Stop reading when I am forced (i.e. whe the train stops and I gotta get off, for example). Good contextual memory here... :-)

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
It's still a dark and stormy night, in which hemisphere do you actually live?

Buy or Borrow?
Buy or not read at all... Who has time to visit the Public Library? Lucky you!

Buying Choice: Book Reviews, Recommendations, or Browsing?
Browsing, Guts, and some (very few) recommendations... Remember, I'm the one writing the books I want to read and nobody actually writes for me!

Dorothy Dunnett or Anya Seton?
Uh?

(repetitive, I know... Let's sort this out once and for all: Patrick O'Brian, Gisbert Haefs are my heroes... Stephen Pressfield is very enjoyable, same with David A. Durkheim (at least his "Hannibal" was), and a certain Scott Oden's never failed my hopes, let's see with his Simba of el-Qahira (sorry, couldn't help it... hehe ;-)

I forgot a closing parens, here it is ----> )

Tidy Ending or Cliffhanger?
If I didn't love Stanislaw Lem... This is History, it's never tidy, not ended... But tiying some knots for the reader is nice, after all...

Sticking Close to Known Historical Fact, or Using Historical Fact as Wallpaper?
As close as sources, time, knowledge and hurry allow: you can't get swamped in research, you want to read the damned novel, after all! (this is, you have been forced to write it, at least finish one off, damn me!)

Morning Reading, Afternoon Reading or Nighttime Reading?
Commute time, mostly... W.C. is my second reading place, and the most intimate one, as you can imagine...

Series or Standalone?
I don't mind some series (just a few, and not too close between them), but I guess I prefer standalones... However some series are too good to resist (O'Brian, for example)

Favorite Book of Which Nobody Else Has Heard?
Revolt! Hehe, OK, I was joking... None at the moment, but let me think harder, I'll let you know...

And, for the Grand Finale, I tag everybody: I tag googlebot, Pierre, Queen Megumi, my little brother, Gisbert Haefs (I know you must be reading!), Gabrielle and Scott (again, hehe), and basically all of my 7 readers... Feel free to reply in here if you lack your own blog (liar... tsk, tsk, tsk...) or if you'd prefer it to be kept off my pawns... which sounds like a pretty intelligent thing to do, anyway...

KALLISTI!