Stuff
Kristen den Hartog Revealed
About Kristen den Hartog
-
What is your birthdate?:9/25
-
Previous occupations:I have been a waitress, a shoe seller, a floral designer, and a copy editor.
-
Favorite job:Writing!
-
Favorite movie:Agnes Varda's The Gleaners and I. I also love (because I can't pick a favourite) Hitchcock's Rear Window.
Revealing Questions
- Q. How would you describe your life in only 8 words?
- A. rich simple, happy sad, hard easy, slow sofast
- Q. What is your motto or maxim?
- A. In difficult times, I try to remember to ask myself, How can I make this situation better?
- Q. What’s your greatest fear?
- A. Losing my family
- Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
- A. In the moment. I always have trouble staying there.
- Q. What are your most overused words or phrases?
- A. Lovely and Beautiful. Once I realized this, I changed a sentence in a manuscript from "Uncle William died on a beautiful summer day" to read "Uncle William died on an ordinary summer day." And to my amazement, the ordinary was more beautiful.
- Q. What do you regret most?
- A. Letting fear, or a lack of confidence, stop me from doing things I want to do.
- Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
- A. Perhaps it's more a skill than a talent -- but to speak multiple languages. Not necessarily all at once, but that might be fun too.
- Q. What is your greatest achievement?
- A. Motherhood
- Q. What’s your greatest flaw?
- A. I sit on the fence (but see my best quality -- the best and worse are usually linked)
- Q. What’s your best quality?
- A. Compassion, and a willingness, even a need, to see from other perspectives
- Q. If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?
- A. Myself -- or perhaps a bird.
- Q. What trait is most noticeable about you?
- A. I'm small, unlike the Girl Giant
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional hero?
- A. I have no favourites (or perhaps many), but I like my heroes to have a ripple of darkness in them as well.
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional villain?
- A. And I like my villains to have a ripple of light.
- Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
- A. Arrogance
- Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
- A. I was a floral designer for many years, and I loved it. I like to make things with my hands.
- Q. What’s your fantasy profession?
- A. Writing is my fantasy profession! But if I could not be a writer, I would be a photographer, or a visual artist.
- Q. What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
- A. compassion, honesty, humour
- Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
- A. Too much of one thing is awful to imagine.
On Books and Writing
- Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
- A. I don't know about "of all time" and I've never liked to pick favourites of anything, but some books I have absolutely loved include Toni Morrison's Beloved, Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, EB White's Charlotte's Web, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
- Q. Is there a book you love to reread?
- A. I always feel there are too many I haven't read to indulge much in that. And too many I have to reread with my daughter, because she loves them so much.
- Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
- A. Look and listen -- not to other writers so much, but to the people around you, to see how they interact and move through their lives.
