lis mitchell

Hair Colour: Naturally red. Unnaturally many other colours.

Eye Colour: The exotic and intoxicating colour of vegetable soup.

Occupation: Graphic designer, and aspiring novelist. I wrestle muses for a living.

Favourite Books: Dune, by Frank Herbert; The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley; The Far Pavillions, by M.M. Kaye; Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card; Godel, Escher and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter; The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Favourite Artists: Edward Gorey, Maxfield Parrish, Dave McKean

Favourite Small Furry Flying Mammal: Bats. They have a gestation period of 98 days.

Favourite Extremely Tall Spotted Mammal: Giraffes. They can kill a full-grown lion with a single kick.

Favourite Colour: I'm an artist. In theory, I can like any colour provided it has other colours to play nicely off of it. But....I don't like green at all. Nope, not at all.

I was born and raised in the wilds of Utah, which means that I grew up eating Jell-O and I thought Depeche Mode was hardcore. My parents did their best to raise me Mormon, but God and I had too many arguments and finally, one day I said to God, "Sorry, God, no offense, I'm not sure I believe in you," and God said, "No worries, my dear girl. We'll discuss this over some coffee." I said, "Bad God. No biscuit. You know caffeine is bad for your GERD." And God said, "Girl, how you do you think I went without resting until the seventh day. Those little Starbucks frappacinos are holiness unto me." Now I am what you might loosely describe as secularly Zen-Buddhist, and God has a hell of a tummy ache.

I am an artist. When I was testing for my kindergarten entrance exam, I had to draw a line through a simple maze, keeping it between the lines. Afterwards, the teacher told my mother that I had poor hand-eye coordination and that handwriting and art weren't probably in the cards for me.

I'm the oldest of five kids. (See above paragraph about growing up Mormon in Utah.) I have two sisters, and two brothers. We're all genetically inclined towards geekiness. How geeky are we? Let's put it this way: Everybody in my family, including my mother, has played online roleplaying games. None of us have read the entire Lord of the Rings saga less than five times. And my mother, dear old Mum, has a framed picture of the Star Ship Enterprise in her living room.

• I don't have a middle name.
• I have never been to Disneyland.
• I've been bit by a seven foot long python. Twice.
• I've gone bungie jumping. Twice.
• Until two years ago, you could count the number of alcoholic beverages I had consumed on one hand.
• I still haven't done pot. But why would I need to? I am already munchy and talkative and paranoid.
• I have read War and Peace in five hours.
• Conversely, I haven't read Ayn Rand. When people start talking about Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead, I make some reference to John Galt and pretend that I have, because I've been meaning to, but never have gotten around to it. Shhhhh....it's a deep, dark secret.
• My favourite word is "defenestrate". One of my other favourite words is "olecrenon".
• I name almost everything. If I lose my keys, I picture them forlorn and lost in the rain.
• My favourite place in the whole wide world, non-urban, is Arches National Park.
• My favourite city is San Francisco.
• I want to live in a future with uterine replicators so I don't actually have to be pregnant, even though I want babies someday.
• I sleep with a stuffed animal.