Hey everyone! Welcome to YA Warehouse. There are four of us here, ready to entertain and enlighten you in the ways of the writing world.
These days, he lives and works in Virginia, doing something ordinary and respectable to keep a roof over his head and Chinese delivery in his refrigerator. He calls himself "a YA writer" because it sounds more respectable than "Twitter addict", and he has little slips of paper stickered inside his passport allowing him unfettered entry into other sovereign nations, proving that neither border security nor cynicism are anything like they used to be. Rick will be taking over Monday’s, so Monday’s watch out!
I’m also a photographer, so you probably will be seeing a lot of random pictures.Yep, random.
Pam van Hylckama is the internet sensation behind Bookalicio.us, which she's run for 300 years. She blogs for Yahoo! and vlogs every week over at InterrobangYA . She also writes for Guys Lit Wire, San Francisco Book Review, and podcasts for Brain Burps, in addition to being the YA publicist for Musa Publishing.
Her first short story will be released in January 2012 in unCONventional. As you can see, Pam is pretty lazy and has lots of free time, so she figured she should probably do something - thus, she became the Warehouse's Thursday Wife.**
Now, we have a special q&a just for you lovely people so here you go! (**The lovely Pam is also mysterious in many ways, and answered every question with "I'm sorry, that's classified." You'll just have to wait until next Thursday to learn more about what makes the Warehouse's newest member tick!)
What is your taste in music?
N: My taste in music just depends on my mood at the moment. I usually have a playlist going while I write, which consists mostly of soft sounding music. The Civil Wars and Adele have taken over most of my writing playlists. If that isn't working for me I turn to movie scores/classical style stuff. I am a big fan of E.S Posthumus and Apocalyptica as well. Oh and hilarious fact...I love to line dance. My sister and I used to go every Friday night. Hey, I'm a country girl! What do you expect?!
R: My taste in music has gotten increasingly bizarre over the past few years. I'm much more ADD about music than I used to be. I'll get hooked on 2 or 3 songs and listen to nothing but those songs for weeks on end. And then I'm over them, and will never listen again.
Those songs, at the moment, are:
The Fall Out Boy cover of Nightmare Before Christmas's What's This?
Karl Wolf's Africa
and Matt Nathanson's Queen of (K)nots
Perennial favorites are Matt Nathanson, Alanis, and anything a cappella.
V: My music taste depends on where I am. If I’m in the car, it’s angry girl music or random exercise tunes. If I’m writing, it’s whatever songs my characters love. If I’m at a photo shoot, usually foreign music. If I’m cleaning my house, it’s...ha I’m kidding. I don’t clean.
Which is your most favorite book ever?
N: It is a toss up between The Giver by Lois Lowry or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I am a sucker for those style of books. Because of that, Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins hold dear places in my heart.
R: Oh jeez. As a child, the Animorphs series shaped a lot of my identity as a reader, a writer, and my perceptions and interactions with the world - it was a war story, and there were a lot of questions about ethics, a lot of navigating science-fiction plots that had very direct real-world connections. I still love that series more than anything, and re-read it often.
Favorite single book, though, would have to be Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, which I am due for a re-read on, as well.
V: I have to pick just one? I’m so not a good picker. I grew up loving Moby Dick (I was obsessed with that book), I have particular soft spot for Jules Verne’s less known works, I love Jane Austen’s Persuasions, and Agatha Cristie. I read everything by her.
If given a choice, which animal would you want to be? Why?
N: I think I would want to be some sort of bird. A hawk maybe or even a Raven. The thought of soaring high above and looking down on the world below seems thrilling to me.
R: A velociraptor. And the better question is, Why the hell not?
V: Panther! Hello? Gorgeous and vicious! Booya!
Like sports? What teams?
N: I played tons of sports in school and was a catcher in fast pitch softball, setter in Volleyball, and a Main Base in Cheerleading. Right now I don't have time to play on any teams because of my weird schedule so I mostly just watch them in passing. GO CARDS!!
R: Er, no. Talking to me about sports is like talking to a ballet dancer about quantum mechanics. (Side note: I took a quantum mechanics class in high school. My parents didn't find that D- anywhere near as hilarious as I did.)
V: I have to admit, I’m a sports junky! I’m a serious Green Bay Packers fan, I adore Nascar, and I’ll watch Hockey and Basketball if I’m home.
What would I find in your fridge right now?
Not much of anything. I am a terrible food shopper. I am moments away from heading to Whole Foods though to stock up. I think all that is in there at the moment are some eggs and Hummus LOL!
R: Salsa, ketchup, mayonnaise, a few stale hamburger rolls, and a half-finished bottle of wine. I... need to go shopping.
V: Wait, do I have a refrigerator? That’s what that humming sound is! I’m pretty sure there’s some healthy food in there, some milk, oh and definitely meat. Must. Have. Meat.
If your house was on fire and you had to grab 3 things what would they be?
N: My Linde star ring that was passed down from my Grandpa to my Mom and then to me, the photo of my Grandpa that sits on my desk watching over me, and the backups for my novel.
R: A few months ago, I would have hemmed and hawed and said something like 'my laptop, my phone, and my wallet', but since we had a pretty big earthquake here while I was at work not too long ago, I realize the actual answer to "What I grab in the event of sudden catastrophe" is: Nothing. When we evacuated, I got up and ran, electronics be damned.
V: My bird, Frederick Austin Fitzwilliam Lind, the only animal allowed to live in the house. Oh and I’d grab my phone, so I can call my firemen buddies and they can come and save all of my books. That’s right, books! I’ve grabbed my bird already!
Name one thing people don't know about you.
N: I am terrified of closets. I can't sleep with one open and the darkness inside staring back at me. *shivers*
R:I generally come across as the sort of fast-walking, fast-talking, high-functioning stereotype of A City Boy, but as a NYC native who's lived in a couple of other big cities in my time (DC and New Delhi, for the curious), most people are surprised to learn that I hate cities. I went to college in a podunk town and I miss the atmosphere daily. I now live in a suburb of approximately 100,000 people and it's still about ten times too crowded for my tastes.
Also, sometimes, under very limited circumstances and with enough booze... I can sort of sing. I'm not going on X Factor any time soon, but I ain't tone deaf.
V: Well, I might be, possibly, completely, and totally terrified of scorpions! The funny thing about that, they follow me EVERYWHERE! No one else get’s attacked by them in my house, just me. All. The. Time.
What is the craziest thing you have ever done?
N: My friend and I like to do what we call Social Experiments. It usually involves me doing makeup on my friend and dressing up for the part to see how others would treat us differently. I once did his makeup like a 70 year old man and he drove around Wal-mart in one of those motorized scooters. I played his daughter who just ignored his actions while he knocked things off the shelves and cussed about them being out of his products. Funny enough we were treated differently. Not a single employee said a word about his attitude or messing up the store. We seem to learn alot when we do these experiments and most of the time it aids in my writing--his writing as well.
R: Oh, lord. This list is longer than I'd like to publicly admit. A smattering of examples include: pole-dancing to Britney Spears in a Spanish night club; losing a shoe at the Vatican; trying to break out (yes, OUT) of a hotel room in Nepal; taking 7 classes in one semester that one time in college ; and deciding I wanted to be a writer. Like for real for reals.
V: I’m going to take the fifth on this one. I work for the police department. I’m not allowed to say. :)
Favorite color? food?
N: My choice in favorite colors changes as often as my music tastes. Currently I am in this black and red phase which I am blaming on my novel. You will just have to wait and find out why :P
R: Blue. General Tso's chicken. Clarification: The chicken should, under no circumstances, be blue.
V: Anything bright, for color. Anything delicious, for food. Although, I do love to experiment with different types of food so sometimes it’s not so delicious.
Tea or Coffee?
N: Both! I am insanely addicted to them as I write especially. I recently started to collect my own cast iron tea set.
R: Iced venti vanilla skim latte with an unholy amount of Sweet-n-Lo's thrown in.
V: Coffee. Coffee. Coffee, and maybe a little more coffee with that.
If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?
N: OMG this is a crazy hard one! I would have to say a young Christina Ricci, thick Casper, or the awesome Emma Stone. Emma and I seem to have similar styles of humor so I'm told.
R: Hm. Someone as devilishly handsome as I, clearly. But who to pick?
V: I’d play my own role. How fun would be it to star in a movie??? Now, who to pick as a costar, that’s whole another story. *wink, wink*
Fun new blog :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, Valia, you get attacked by scorpions??? Can't that, you know, kill you?
I was born in New Delhi! Crazy ass place. What memories I have are of traffic and flooding.
ReplyDelete