q&a answers because why actually write when you can NOT write? #paperbirdq&a

1. what got you into writing?

writing warriors cats fanfiction when i was in elementary school. no, i'm not kidding. of course back then i didn't even know what fanfiction was, i was just writing about my cat characters and happened to set the stories in the warriors universe because it was conveniant. that's also how i started drawing. so... i guess i have warriors cats to thank for being the person i am today? i really don't like that thought.

even once i had branched away from fanfic, i mainly wrote fantasy YA stories that were inspired by (read: rip-offs of) warriors cats and wings of fire. i only started writing stuff outside of that, and writing poetry, once i joined write the world.

2. outside of wtw/prose, who are your biggest writing influences?

so many? let's see. markus zusak was definitely one of my biggest stylistic influences because reading "the book thief" really changed the way i thought about writing and language, and then most of the books that i'll list in #4 are also big influences on me. i've only started reading poetry in the last year and a half or so, and i have richard siken and mary oliver in my bio but i'll mention them here anyway, but anne carson and pablo neruda are really good too. i have a whole list in my notes app of random poems that have really touched me.

outside of actual writers, i get inspiration from music a lot, especially arcade fire and elliott smith and sufjan stevens. i think most of how i get my inspiration is just from a Vibe, or ideas from random poems and articles and things people have said to me that i can't get out of my head.

i will take a moment to shout out to the podcast welcome to night vale, even though i'm pretty sure everyone that follows me already knows i love wtnv because i mention it in every Q&A ever, but it's seriously a huge influence on me and i have no idea what person i would be if i hadn't listened to it. it's so oddly nostalgic and existentially terrifying yet comforting, and i'd never really read or seen anything like it before or felt the emotions that it made me feel until i listened to it.

3. what’s the significance behind your profile picture(s)?

it's a goat (i call him marvin) standing in front of a rainbow background with text that says "i commit crimes." it's significant because i drew him? no deep meaning other than that.

4. top fifteen favorite books - go. (if you don’t know what exactly are your favorite fifteen, just name twenty you like.)

ok, in absolutely no order:

1. the book thief by markus zusak.

2. to kill a mockingbird by harper lee. when i first finished it, i immediately started reading it again because that's how good it was.

3. i'll give you the sun by jandy nelson.

4. the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson. a classic even if you don't like horror.

5. the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky.

6. aristotle & dante discover the secrets of the universe by benjamin alire saenz.

7. last night i sang to the monster by benjamin alire saenz. i'm putting him twice on this list because this was just such a cathartic book to read.

8. the secret history by donna tartt. quite possibly one of the weirdest books i've ever read. it was on so many dark academia reading lists that i thought it would be some sort of pretentious college coming-of age book, and it was, except it was a pretentious coming-of-age book set at a liberal arts school in vermont in the 80s rather than oxford. there are a lot of drugs, messed-up cultish murders, sleep deprivation and fevers, gayness that's not exactly subtextual, and a main cast of characters that may or may not be metaphors for the seven deadly sins. reading it is an Experience because it starts out so normal and slips so gradually into more and more bizarre and twisted territory that you don't even realize until you close the book and think "OK... what was that?" it's definitely thought-provoking.

9. the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger.

10. murder on the orient express by agatha christie. i annoyed my whole family by not letting us watch the movie until i had finished the book, but it was worth it.

11. turtles all the way down by john green.

12. the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde. i read it while staying in this creepy cabin in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, and the bedroom i stayed in had a lot of freaky paintings. i think you can infer what that experience was like.

13. the harry potter series by ** *******

14. the eyes of the dragon by stephen king. not a horror book; i can barely remember what happened in it, but i remember finishing it and thinking that it was really fantastic so i'll include it here.

15. the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by douglas adams.

5. what’s the significance behind your username?

sonder- the realization that each passerby has a life just as complex as yours. and then i chose rain because i like the rain? honestly i can't really remember my thought process behind my username.

6. any particularly stupid quote that you nevertheless love?

"alligators. can they eat your children? yes." from welcome to night vale. i've never seen a noah centineo movie but his twitter account makes me wheeze- "love you? i am you." "just because we've learned to count to 4 does not mean we can understand infinity."

7. how would you define your current writing style? do you think this is your set style, or are you still evolving?

my current writing style is basically just me turning on a post-rock youtube playlist, typing stream-of-consciousness for ten to twenty minutes/typing up things i wrote in notebooks, and then spending an hour deleting and re-adding the same comma six times and/or clicking around on thesaurus dot com trying to find the perfect word i'm looking for even though it's probably an exact synonym for the word i already have.

8. favorite song(s)? favorite song(s) to listen to ironically?

i've been listening to sufjan steven's new single "america" on repeat ever since it came out, and then i also can't stop listening to the three singles from the killers' upcoming album; all of them make me feel like i just stole a car and am leaving the small town that i hate for the first time in my life (if you don't have the patience to listen to all three i recommend "caution" since it's the best out of them). last night i stood outside listening to a whole chorus of owls hooting, and then listened to cage the elephant's "melophobia" on vinyl, and today i've been listening to the strokes and florence + the machine.

i'm not sure if i listen to anything ironically anymore. i started listening to orville peck (the anonymous country singer) ironically but his music is actually pretty good so now i listen unironically. one thing that i absolutely love, for reasons i can't explain, is listening to covers of pop songs by alternative artists, like hozier's covers of demi lovato and ariana grande on youtube. the tracklist for sufjan steven's upcoming album says that he has a song on it called "run away with me" and i can't stop thinking about the distant possibility that it might be a carly rae jepsen cover.

also, i think everyone should listen to the live version of "iris" by the goo goo dolls where they're performing in the rain on the fourth of july: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HZM0QiuUS8

9. a common writing error or trend that annoys you?

for some reason it really annoys me when people use bold letters instead of italics in fiction books. i don't mind it in poetry or non-fiction, but it just feels so out of place when it's in an actual novel, especially when they could just italicize the word or even write it in all-caps.

i don't find it annoying, but honestly i'm not that big of a fan of fantasy? or, i should say, YA fantasy; it feels like every book has the exact same plot and characters and covers and even titles. of course, there are exceptions, but yeah, not my favorite genre. also, when people write female characters, LGBT+ characters, characters that are POC, or otherwise diverse characters into their stories, but it's painfully obvious that they're doing it for brownie points and they don't care about the characters at all, and end up casting them aside and not giving them satisfying arcs at all (*cough* star wars sequels *cough*).

10. should pineapple be on pizza?

i don't know, i've never tried it. honestly the only pizza types i eat are cheese pizza and this one pesto-potato-cheese pizza that this local place has.