I was tagged by Anna Mittower of Writer’s Nook to answer 11 questions, make up 11 more questions of my own and ask them of 11 other people. Well, I’ll do the first two, but instead of passing it on I’ll simply say that any one who reads this is encouraged to answer my questions. Especially if you haven’t been tagged yet.

Why? Because I’m mathematician enough to know how a chain letter, a Ponzi scheme, population growth or any other exponential works! Suppose everyone tagged did indeed tag 11 others. The first round, there’d be 11 new people. The next, 121. Then 1,331, 14,641, and by the 5th round, 161,051. By the 8th reiteration you’d hit 214,358,881 people: over 2/3 of the population of the United States. By the 10th, you’d vastly exceed the population of the Earth. So, on to the questions.

1. What country is the home of the majority of authors you read? USA, with England and Ireland pretty well tied for second.

2. An otaku is someone who’s obsessed with something (not necessarily anime/manga). What kind of otaku are you? Uh—are we speaking English? I’m totally lost on this one.

3. Ebooks vs. Paper: which do you like better? I like paper as I tend to flip pages as I read. But e-books certainly store easier, and are nice for travel and waiting rooms. I worry a little about whether the readers will still be around in 10 or 20 years, but at my age that probably isn’t very important.

4. Do you have a sweet tooth or are you a salty dog? Sweet! Which doesn’t fit well with my diabetes.

5. Would you ever dress up as a favorite character? If so, which one? I’m not much into dressing up, period. But I once went to a Halloween party as the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. In fact, I remade the costume for a party at the stable where I boarded my horse and did it on horseback.

6. What upcoming movie are you most looking forward to? The Hobbit.

7. “Cats rule, dogs drool.” Do you agree or disagree? I prefer “Dogs have families, cats have staff.” And not all dogs drool. My Shelties didn’t. (Though I have to admit they did shed.)

8. What fictional world do you spend the most time in? My own Jarnian Confederation. I’ve been building it for over 50 years.

9. You are given a $1000 gift card to the store of your choice. Which store would you pick and what would you buy? Probably the Apple Store. I don’t really want to upgrade any of my computers (new systems invariably cause all kinds of problems) but I might be forced to, and if so a little extra toward the computer of my choice wouldn’t be amiss.

10. Who or what encouraged you to pursue your current career? Current career is retired! My father certainly encouraged my going into physics, and geophysics was the part of physics that took my interest. Retiring a year early was due mostly to health issues. And the geophysics certainly goes into my planet building.

11. If you could build your own house, what room has to be included and have the most money/care spent on it? At this point in my life I’m trying to cut down, but when I had some remodeling done on this house I added the plant room (timed fluorescents, windows on three sides.) The most practical would be a large storage room/pantry.

Now, my questions:

1. What was the first computer/operating system you owned?

2. Do you write by hand, on a typewriter, or on a computer?

3. What species was your first pet?

4. Is there a writer whose new books you grab when they appear? Who?

5. What is your favorite television show?

6. What’s #1 on the list of things you’d like to do before you die?

7. What health problem do you most hope you never get?

8. What is the first movie you remember seeing?

9. Who do you write for?

10. Who of your characters have you piled the most trouble on?

11. What was the first thing you remember writing?

Have fun thinking of answers!