Answers!

And heeeeerrreeee we go!

From Kat:

Why did it take you so long to finish that bag of candy? Sheesh, it shoulda been gone before you hit 'Publish'.

In my defense, it was at least 1/4 of the way gone before I hit 'Publish'. Blame my slow-eating family, who did not help me devour it nearly as fast as I had hoped.

How many queries/partials/fulls did you send out for Stream Pirate?

*insert ten minute break to count up the tallies...*

*picks jaw up from floor, as I'd forgotten how many queries I'd sent*

*twiddles thumbs, hoping the question will go by unnoticed*

Oh, um, you're still here? You, um, still want that answer? Oh, yeah, well, about that...

Suffice to say, I sent a lot of queries. As far as partials go, I got 5, and as far as fulls go, I got 4. I was a bit of an obsessive-compulsive querier. For being so anti-numerical, I'm obsessed with odds; and the more queries you send, the greater your odds of requests/interests. I had a statistics class a few semesters ago that has haunted me ever since. Argh, mathematical probabilities, you fickle things, you...

A demon shows up at your door and tells you he's going to destroy the world. Upside? He lets you choose the apocalypse. How do you want the world to end?

This should be obvious: piratic takeover. And the fun pirates. Not the real Somalia pirates. I'm not sure how pirates taking over would end the world, but hey, that's for the demon to figure out.

From CKHB:

What's the best Halloween costume you've ever seen on a real person (no t.v. costumes or brilliant-but-unexecuted ideas)?

I'm going to be selfish: it was one of mine. A few years ago I was a non-survivor of the Titanic. Victorian dress, life preserver around my neck, white face paint, white hair dye, blue lip stick. I looked wicked dead.

What book makes you think, "dang, why didn't *I* write that?"

Inkheart. A book about books. Everytime I see it, I think of how much fun it would've been to write it, and I get really sad that I don't get to have that much fun. But then I think about how much fun I have with my characters, and I don't get quite as sad.

What would entice you to "follow" my blog?
Done.

From Mariah:

How long were you secretly talking with Agent Kate before we found out about her?

*insert five minutes to email-search the date*

Since the beginning of the summer. I did some revisions, sprucing it up a bit, tweaking things here and there, to make it as shiny and editor-ready as possible. Let me tell you, it was so difficult to not say anything about working with Agent Kate; her suggestions about which parts to spruce and her excitement about my story made me want to write a bunch of exclamation marks all over my blog. It still does, actually. So here:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why aren't you allergic to adorable puppies? I am.

I'm allergic to adorable kitties, which is almost as sad. Though I secretly believe cats are plotting a worldwide takeover. They just know too much. Sneaky.

From Renee:

I'm bouncing off of CKHB's question. What are you going to be for Halloween?

I'm a hermit. No, not I'm going to be a hermit; I am a hermit. Thus, I have nowhere to wear a Halloween costume (*pity party* *end pity party*). But, fingers crossed, I may get to wear a costume to work on Halloween. If that pans out, I will be a pirate. I have a dress I just realized is very pirate-appropriate, and pirate buckle boots, and a pirate belt. Just need to get me an eyepatch, mate. Best day at work ever.

Also, tell me more (or what you can say) about crocpeople. (I guess that's more of a request than a question, but I figure I'm within boundaries.)

Dude, talking about my story is one of my favorite things to do, so request granted. Without giving some major spoilers: Crocpeople are half-man, half-crocodile beasties in Stream Pirate. They're nasty, bad-tempered, and just all around not something you want to run into whilst splashing in a lake. Fangs, claws, yellow eyes -- not fun, folks. Not fun. But they sure do make for fun battle scenes.

From Carrie:

What is your super sekrit pirate name? I promise I won't tell.

*casts a wary eye to the tavern corners and leans in close* Ye sure yer, trustworthy, mate? Eh, ye look fit for sekrit-bearing. Me pirate name is Machete Jackie Scabb. Fearsome, aye?

I'm half-tempted to answer the rest of the questions in pirate-speak. Too. Much. Fun.

From inthewritemind:

Do you have a "theme song" or "songs" for Stream Pirate? I'm one that needs music to write and I often try to search for songs that capture my story. Wondered if you did the same!

Just remember, you asked for it...

I have a very, very large collection of songs that inspired Stream Pirate and are helping to inspire its sequel Rechanneled. The songs that I listen to the most are: Storm by Lifehouse, I Remember by Damien Rice (but only the first half. The second half is -- weird), My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion (don't judge), Watch Over You by Alter Bridge, Running Up That Hill by Placebo, and New Divide by Linkin Park (which would KICK A** as a battle scene song. Just sayin'). Oh, and Your Guardian Angel by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Oh, and one more: Audience of One by Rise Against. OHHOWDIDIFORGETTHISONE: My Skin by Natalie Merchant.

And, FYI, the music service I use and love and adore because it's all completely FREE is Grooveshark.

From Kate:

Your house is burning. An angel appears. He, yes it's a dude, tells you that you can only save 10books and 5 non-book related items. What do you save? Oh, and your family/everyone in the house is safe.

Cruel question, Kate, cruel. But is it weird that I really do think about this scenario?

10 books: The Gemma Doyle Trilogy (which oddly enough isn't even at my house at the moment. But I'll still count those three), my New Zealand handbook (dunno why. It's cool), Edith Hamiltion's Mythology (my Bible), The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard (my other Bible), Candor by Pam Bachorz and Looking for Alaska by John Green (because I haven't finished either of those yet, and letting them burn unread would be wrong), my ARC of Wintergirls (because it's the only ARC of something I have, even if it isn't actually "mine"; I won it from the fabulous L&L), and The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (because he is hysterical, and if my house is burning, I'll need something to make me laugh.)

5 non-books: My laptop (duh), my little file folder thingy of story notes, my phone (I'll have to call 911), my oversized $10 Walmart hoodie (I'll be sad because my house is gone; it will act as a security blanket), and my puppy's skinny purple doggie toy (she'll be sad too. She needs at least one toy.)

From Hayley:

Are you going to do NaNo?(I may have asked this in our emails)

I have a NaNo account, but whether I DO NaNo is still up in the air. I'm chopping away at Rechanneled, and I don't know if I want to break stride to write something else...November might become National Novel Editing Month for me.

How do you come up with your awesome character names? I mean I never would have thought of Alluvial in a bagillion years, but its a wicked name.

Actually, I didn't come up with Alluvial's name. It's a geology term. Most of the characters in Stream Pirate have geology terms for names. Alluvium, Yazoo, Tom (Tombolo), etc etc. Some people have really deep, meaningful character names. Mine came from words that made me giggle during my geology night class.

How long did it take you to convince your parents to let you get Pippa? And how exactly did you do it? I'm trying to convince them to let me get another kitten, I already named him, they just need to say yes.

A few months. I made sure to lay on the She'll-make-YOU-happy-too stuff pretty thick.

How many books are on your shelves right now? And are they organized in any particular order?

More than I care to count. I tried to organize them by genre, but that's overflowed now too. So they're just kind of -- there. I know where they are, and that's all that matters.