The other day, I came across a blog post from A Sparkle Factory referring to another blog post referring to a New York Times article. In this article, the author talks about how there are 36 questions that could make you fall in love with anyone. Well, it’s more like, “The intimacy between two strangers can be accelerated by having them ask each other a specific series of personal questions.”
It got me thinking: a lot of my posts, even the personal ones, don’t really give my readers a chance to get to know me. And I don’t have a lot of chances to really get to know you, my readers. So today I’m going to answer some of those questions, but I’m not answering all of them. I’d love if you commented with some of your answers! If you want to see the full list of questions, it’s in the article.
1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest? J. K. Rowling. I would love to pick her brain about writing, the Harry Potter universe, creating your own fantasy universe for a book, etc.
2. Would you like to be famous? In what way? I would like to be a well-known author, you know, the kind who has big book tours and such. But I would like to be able to go about my normal life and such. I would be much happier with my writing being famous and no one knowing my name than the other way around!
3. For what in your life do you feel most grateful? My family for sure! They have been incredible supportive and helpful, especially when it comes to making my life my comfortable and overall just doable with my health issues.
4. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be? The ability to write the best quality novels ever.
5. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know? What’s my romantic future? Just a timeline would be great.
6. Is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it? Getting a literary agent and publishing a book the mainstream way! I’m working on it. I’ve decided to wait until I have a manuscript for my next novel done (I’m probably about halfway through it) instead of trying with Aureole.
7. What is the greatest accomplishment of your life? It’s a tie between writing the first draft of Aureole when I was in high school and graduating college in 4 years with a good GPA considering all of the health problems I had.
8. What do you value most in a friendship? Loyalty and honesty
9. If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why? Well I feel that it would make me become much more intentional with my time and how I spend it. I would also make sure that I got to see all of my friends at some point in the year and spend a lot of time up in Maine.
10. How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people’s? My family is very close, and I would have to say yes to the second part of that as well. Other than my health problems and normal teenage problems – “You don’t understand me! No one gets me!” – there were no major problems.
11. If you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know. Probably about my arthritis as it is an important part of my life and can affect many parts of it, but also that my arthritis isn’t all of who I am.
12. What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about? Rape and suicide
Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
I saw this article, and I thought that it was awesome! Great post 😀 If I were to have dinner with anyone living or dead, it would have to be Audrey Hepburn. I have so much respect for her as an actress, and she's such a great person in general. Also, if Lana Del Rey and Taylor Momsen could pop by for dessert that would be lovely.
Thank you for bring that article to my attention, it's a pretty interesting and awesome concept! It's so amazing that your a published author – that's one of my goals for the future. (:
Oh, I love this! I love getting to know bloggers better!
This is SUCHHHHH an amazing idea. I love learning more about bloggers I follow and this is such a unique approach. Both of the things you're most proud of are great accomplishments. Go you!! And I'm sure you'll be a famous writer one day ;] If I was going to die in a year, I would also be much more intentional with my time. And can I pick dead people to have as a dinner guest? I would love to meet Anne Boleyn my favorite historical figure haha. Or really anyone from a long time ago that we don't have a clear picture on. With Anne, her letters were all destroyed so we don't hear her voice much so we can only speculate as to what she was like and what her intentions were. I'd love to find out the truth! And also hear what English sounded like in those days haha.
I love these questions and the idea of getting to know each other better. Like for instance, I didn't know you had already published a book! That's so cool! Now that leads me to more questions I'd like to ask you and get to know you better about dealing with that.