Get To Know Me Tag (Writer’s Edition)

You may have seen this tag floating around the blogging sphere lately. I chose to accept the challenge from Rachel. The tag was started by Savannah and the rules are as follows-

• Link back to the person who created the tag.
• Thank the person who tagged you.
• Share the tag graphic
• Tag eleven bloggers (I’m actually just tagging anybody who wants to do it though)

Vital Stats and Appearance

• Name: Brooke Lorren (well, that’s my pen name.  It’s my real first name and an alteration of the spelling of my middle name.  BTW, my real middle name comes from the Lord of the Rings.  Not only was I partially named after an elf, my kids were named after bookish elves as well; it’s a multi-generational thing already).
• Nicknames: Brooke.  My boy calls me something that you would probably pronounce as Mamu (we have an oo language that we made up together, so sometimes I’ll tell him “I love oo”).
• Birthday: June 22
• Hair color and length: Light brown/Dark blonde.  Been dying it that color since college.  Goes halfway down my back.  The only time since 1st grade that it’s been short was in boot camp.  Hated it short both times.
• Eye color: Blue
• Braces/piercings/tattoos: Had braces for years, but got them off before I graduated high school.  I have one piercing in each ear.
• Righty or lefty? Lefty
• Ethnicity: Mostly European.  German (once when I was in Germany someone stopped me and asked me for directions auf Deutsch), English.  I have done a lot of ancestry work and the earliest non-northern European ancestry comes about in the 12th century.  My grandma said that we’re part Nez Pierce Indian, but I haven’t found that yet in my research.

Firsts

• First novel written: It was a fanwork I wrote in the 11th grade about a girl who started a music group and got into a relationship with a guy from a particular band (who will be nameless).  My second book was called Save the Best for Last, which had a soundtrack to it.  I wrote that in 12th grade.
• First novel completed: Same
• Award for writing: Probably the Rising Star award given out by Associated Content (which has long been shut down).  Before that I was named a Featured Reviewer at Epinions.com, but I don’t know if that counts.  I probably got some sort of writing awards in school too.
• First Publication: I did get a poem published in one of those books that are probably a scam, LOL.  Yahoo! did pick up one of my articles once.  Other than that, I publish electronically.  I write for Archive of Our Own (AO3) and worked as a content producer for Empirical Marketing for a little over a year (but they had a terrible business plan and I knew they wouldn’t be able to keep paying me for very long).
• First Conference: Never been to one.  Maybe someday.
• Query/Pitch: I don’t have anything to query at the moment.  I plan on making this year’s NaNoWriMo novel something that I can submit.

Favorites

• Novel (that you wrote):  Hmm… it’s a novella, but so far I think I like Republican Phenoms the best.  Out of my unpublished works, Saving Adelinetta might have the most potential, but I have a lot of work to do on that one to make it good.  Hero will probably be really good once I can finish it and polish it up.  I’m in the “wrapping it up” stage of the first draft of that one and I think the story itself is pretty good.
• Genre: Fantasy or dystopian.  Maybe a combination of both.
• Author: Marie Lu.  Veronica Roth takes a close second, although there are many amazing authors out there.
• Writing Music: Silence.  I also think about my writing in silence.  I often will not have music or podcasts on in my car just so I can think about my work.
• Time to Write: Evenings.  Unless I work until 11, then I sometimes don’t have time.  Sometimes in the afternoons.
• Writing Snack/Drink: tea and water.  I try to drink one kombucha a day (a kombucha a day keeps the doctor away).  I don’t usually eat snacks.
• Movie: Probably Forrest Gump.  I don’t watch a lot of movies though.
• Writing Memory: Nothing in particular comes to mind.
• Childhood Book: I loved a lot of books as a kid, including Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables.  I don’t really think I had a favorite childhood book.
  

Currently

• Reading: My Mother.  Barack Obama.  Donald Trump.  And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man by Kevin Powell (as I write this on Monday).  I’ll be starting another fiction book shortly; perhaps before I finish this one.
• Writing: I’m currently polishing up (and publishing on AO3) My New Best Friend.  I have four other WIPs, Like Normal People (2 1/2 chapters to go; I started that 2 1/2 years ago), Hero, Saving Adelinetta, and Gamers (which is on hiatus, more than likely, until 2019).  I’m making plans for my untitled NaNoWriMo novel.  I know a couple of the characters, have got an inkling of the magic system, am doing a little worldbuilding, etc.  I won’t write a sentence on that one until November.
• Listening to: Nothing  If I’m not thinking about my stories, I’ll listen to podcasts or one of my playlists in the car (with a wide variety of music).
• Watching: I don’t really watch much TV.  I used to watch Survivor and The Amazing Race, but I haven’t in a while.  I’ve seen the first season of The Americans.  When I go to my Russian meetup group we sometimes watch movies and TV shows in Russian.
• Learning: I’m a polyglot, so when I’m not focusing on writing, I’m learning languages.

Future

• Want to Be Published: Sure!  I have a goal to get 1500 rejections, unless I get published first.  But first I have to write something that isn’t fanfiction.  I always stumble there.  But my latest fanworks have had a lot more original characters and plots, so I am getting better at it.
• Indie or Traditional: I will try for traditional, but I’m not the kind of person who lets my work sit in a drawer forever.  If I write something and it doesn’t look like it will ever get a chance with a traditional publisher, then I’ll self-publish it.
• Wildest Goal: I don’t think I’ve thought that far.  I’ll take whatever comes.

Nominees

• Anybody who wants to write this!  I’m really not a tagging kind of person.