Usually I have a guest on Saturdays, but for some reason my calendar today is empty. So I thought that maybe I'd interview myself...sharing some facts that you might now know about Lisabet Sarai.
Here goes:
Ten Fun Facts about
Lisabet Sarai
I was named after Queen Elizabeth
the Second because I was born in the year of her coronation.
So that will immediately let you
know that I'm no spring chicken, since Her Majesty the Queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee – sixty years on the throne –
this year. Yes, I'll be hitting the big six-oh in January, and darn
it, I'm having a huge party! Though perhaps not as big as the
Queen's...
When I was in primary school, I
wanted to be an astronaut.
When I watched Alan Shepard, the first
American shot into space, on the black and white TV in our school
cafeteria, I was overcome with wonder. I read science fiction (Robert
Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and anyone else I could get my
hands on), watched the television show “My Favorite Martian”,
and daydreamed about discovering new planets and alien races. Only
when I reached junior high did I learn that astronauts had to be
perfect physical specimens. With my coke-bottle glasses and flat
feet, I wasn't going to pass muster. It never occurred to me that
being female might be an obstacle.
I've always written but never
considered a career as a writer.
My love affair with words began very
early. Family apocrypha relate that I was talking at six months old.
(My husband says that I haven't stopped since!) My writing files
include some stories and poems I composed when I was seven years old.
I wrote fiction, poetry and plays throughout elementary school, high
school, college and grad school. Writing has always been my favorite
mode of expression. And yet it never occurred to me that I might make
my living as an author. I expected to be a scientist. My role models
were Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin, not Charlotte Brontë
or Anne Rice (even though I loved their books).
While I was in graduate school, I
regularly performed as a belly dancer.
You can see a photo of (a much younger)
me in the gallery on my website
(http://www.lisabetsarai.com/gallery.html), wearing a costume I sewed
myself. I'd been exposed to Middle Eastern music and dance in high
school and fell in love with it. Later I had the chance to take
lessons and workshops from professionals. I still find it hard to sit
still when someone starts playing a baladi or a ciftitelli
rhythm, and I miss my zils.
I've traveled to every continent
except Australia (and Antarctica).
My husband seduced me in a Burmese
restaurant with his tales of foreign adventures. We've been traveling
every since, though financial constraints and work requirements mean
that our trips are shorter and less frequent than we'd like. The
majority of our voyages have taken us to Asia or Europe, but I've
also visited Morocco, Peru, Costa Rica, and New Zealand. I should
mention that I still have a long wish list of places we haven't been!
I don't like sweets and could
live my whole life without chocolate.
Unbelievable as it may sound, I have
very little interest in desert. I'd much rather have a second helping
of the main dish. Meanwhile, chocolate makes me break out as if I
were still a teenager. I don't really mind. Seriously! If all the
chocolate in the world suddenly vanished, I wouldn't even notice.
My favorite foods include tuna
fish salad, fried chicken, and pot roast.
Especially when I'm the cook!
I think I lived a past life in
the Victorian era.
I guess this is more of a theory than a
fact. As long as I can remember – long before the advent of steam
punk - I've had a special attraction to Victorian architecture,
fashion and literature. I dream of living in a gingerbread-ornamented
“painted lady” in San Francisco, with a turret and a veranda. My
high school photo shows a young woman with long hair, a long,
tight-belted skirt and a high-necked, white-ruffled blouse with a
cameo brooch. My novel Incognito features a Victorian subplot
and I swear, writing Beatrice's diary entries from the 1880's felt as
natural as breathing.
I seem to have a jukebox in my
head.
I don't play any instrument but I
probably can sing two hundred songs from memory – maybe more. A
chance phrase that I hear or read is likely to set some song running
in my mind, involuntarily. It doesn't seem to matter whether I like
the song or not. Once the loop starts, the only way to interrupt it
is to deliberately sing a different tune.
I never expected to get married,
but last June my husband and I celebrated our thirty year
anniversary.
There was so much divorce in my family,
I couldn't see the point of marriage. In addition, I considered it
highly unlikely that I'd meet one guy who could keep me from getting
bored. Turns out I was wrong, though – and believe me, I'm very
grateful!
And finally, a brand new and exciting fact - my M/M science fiction erotic romance Quarantine got an honorable mention in Elisa Rolle's Rainbow Awards. I didn't even know I was in the running! I'm really thrilled to be recognized at all, given that I've only written four M/M books in my life. This may encourage me to start on the sequel I've been pondering!
To celebrate, I'll be featuring an excerpt from the book in my Sunday Snog tomorrow - and giving away a print copy of the book!
