We have mostly recovered from the roughest week we have ever had since the Boyo was an itty bitty baby. To celebrate, I decided to fill out another meme that someone tagged me in.

I was tagged my best friend Jewel E Leonard to participate in this fun little game answering writing-related questions based on the 7 Deadly Sins.  Without further ado:

Pride. Share a line or small scene that you’re really proud to have written. 

She was dying. She had known it as soon she had noticed the red bumps spreading across her skin. Soon they grew into puss filled cysts, and then the fever and the other symptoms followed.

“It’s the plague,” Her servants whispered to each other when they thought she couldn’t hear. “First the boy and now her.”

“No one ever survives it.” Another had said.

“Maybe it’s better that way.”

They had sent for the doctors anyways, and she had been forced to suffer their pokes and prods and made to drink their noxious potions. It was no use; she continued to grow sicker and sicker.

The physicians were here now, filling her room with smoke from the incense and other herbs they insisted on burning. They believed the smoke would keep the illness away but all it did was make her cough and each cough sent shooting pains up and down her spine and ribs. It was torture, but her servants were right: this was better than what awaited her if she had remained healthy and whole.

Envy. Tell us about the book you wish that’d you written. 

Dragonflight, the first book in the Dragonriders of Pern series. It has it’s problems – there’s scene where the consent is dubious – but you can’t beat telepathic dragons.

Wrath. Tell us about a trope or cliche that makes you furious.

The manic pixie dream girl trope. You know, the weird girl that shows up that everyone falls in love with because she’s just so different? The thing is that that shit doesn’t fly in real life. You can’t just forget to pay the rent because you’d rather spend the day at a museum and then somehow make it up by throwing a cupcake fundraiser. Most sane people are going to give you some serious side eye and tell you pull on your big girl panties and grow up!

Gluttony. Tell us about a trope you just can’t get enough of.

I’m a big fan of the Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl trope. Where the badass stoic guy is eventually won over or totally entranced by your typical girl next door.  I love to see it in fiction, and I confess it shows up in a lot of my stories as well.

Lust. Tell us about a character you’d do unspeakable things to. 

Conall Maccon from Gail Carriger’s Soulless series. First off, he’s a werewolf, and I’m a huge sucker for werewolves. Secondly, she’s said in her blog that he was inspired by Gerard Butler, Richard Armitage, and Sean Bean.

  

I adore all these actors, so yes, sign me up for seven minutes of heaven with Lord Maccon please.

Sloth. Tell us about your favourite form of procrastination. 

Pinterest is the devil. It doesn’t take me long to get sucked in looking at recipes, patterns, or pretty pictures that I swear are for inspiration but that I will probably never do anything with.

Greed. Tell us which author’s top of your auto-buy list. 

For the longest time, it was Anne McCaffrey. Unfortunately she passed away, and while her son tries to carry on her legacy, he’s just not as good. So now the torch has been passed on to Gail Carriger, because her books are absolutely fabulous. I cannot recommend them enough.