I asked five questions, and she asked me some as well.

1. You trip and fall into an adventure. What genre is the story told in, and what role do you play among the heroes? (THE heroine, a mage, comic relief, etc.)

It's actually a mystery, because I'm much more a mystery fan than anything, but it's a mystery in an alternative reality a la Martha Well's Death of the Necromancer where it's pseudo-Victorian England, but with magic and tech. And me, I'm a thief, who may or may not be on the right side, but has a good heart, and gets the guy in the end. Oh, right, and there are really cool clothes.

2. There's often a sensory memory associated with one's childhood. What scent takes you back to the happy days of youth?

Well, Chanel No. 5 is a scent that takes me back to my cousin Tony's diner, and it also reminds me of rice pudding, because Aunt Molly wore it to work there, but other than that, wild onions always bring me back to summers in the garden with my grandfather. His lawn (they lived in New Jersey) was apparently laced with wild green onions and lemongrass, so after every rainstorm, you'd go outside, and it was like walking into a salad.

3. If you could become any character in any book—or TV series, if you'd rather—who would you choose to be?
Chronologically, beginning at age five: Madeline, from the Madeline books, Harriet M. Welsch from Harriet the Spy, Josephine March from Little Women, Catherine Velis, from The Eight, Emma Wheaton, from Certain Women, and Mrs. Pollifax, from the Mrs. Pollifax mystery series.

4. You talk a lot about books and cafés and indoor type stuff. Do you have any outdoor hobbies or activities that you like (or would like) to do?
I love bicycles, and have a new bike that I got for my birthday, but haven't had time to ride, much. (Note: My birthday was five months ago). I grew up ice skating, and still love it, I can roller skate, which for me is an outdoor sport, and I'll do anything that involves sun, sand, and surf, except surfing itself. I love to garden – I pay people to maintain the lawn, not the flower box. And one thing that I've never done, and would someday like to do is a boat-and-bed tour of the San Juan Islands (you're on a sailboat all day, and stop in different bed and breakfasts every night for a week). Once in a while I get into hiking moods – note: never wear sandals on a three mile hike that ends on a beach that's a foot thick in dead kelp and seal droppings. Ugh!

5. What's your “out of character” passion? (By out of character I mean something that people don't expect because it doesn't seem to mesh with your overall personality. And I really hope that makes sense. ^^)
I love bad horror movies, which most people find funny because I don't like gratuitous violence at all. But stuff like A Nightmare on Elm Street is great fun in the right mood. Fuzzy collects swords, and I've fallen in love with the habit, but mostly, anything that has to do with sharks is my thing – not the team, the animal – I'm just fascinated by them. Oh, and I'm really intrigued by submarines and naval history and warfare. And, as we established over Christmas, I collect HO-scale model trains.