Former reporter Denise Hamilton, soignee and slinky, writes the Eve Diamond mystery novels, blogs at LAObserved, edited Los Angeles Noir and yet managed to find time to play our dirty little game.

1. What newspapers do you read? LA Times and Sunday NYT

2. Which ones do you move your lips to while reading I'm moving my lips right now as I read your e-mail.

3. Which Web sites are on your favorites bookmark? laobserved, the elegant variation, confessions of an idiosyncratic mind, neilgaiman.com cuz I love his musings about writing, FBLA

4. Where do you get your car washed? The rain

5. Do you know your dentist's first name? He retired. know any good ones?

6. Do you believe newspapers are going to die? If so, when? I'm an optimist. If all else fails we'll always have the penny dreadfuls.

7. What was the last book you read?
Some Georges Simenon Maigret detective novels. They're set in Paris in the 1950s and really capture that era and make me want to eat croissants and have a marc brandy (not together).

8. What's the last book you say you read? My checkbook

9. If you got a unicorn what would you name it? I'd say Horny but that would be vulgar, wouldn't it?

10. What does you TiVo think about you? That I should buy it off the shelf at the electronics store, but I won't cuz I don't watch tv.

11. Character of fiction you most resemble? Here's one I'd like to: the protagonist in Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Man, she was organized and brimming with can-do spirit and didn't take no for an answer.

12. Who plays you in your bio-pic?Whoever's got the biggest box office, since I want a % of the gross.

13. Do you floss? You bet, and in front of my kids so they will too.

14. Did you ever believe your toys come alive when you leave the room? They didn't wait til I left the room. Do you still? Now the books do.

15. How many old cell phones do you own? none

16. Best show legendary biz/movie star encounter. Ray Harryhausen, the special effects whiz. He's 86 and one of the pioneers of stop-motion animation. He was so courtly and polite, a real genius at what he did. He inspired a character in the book I just turned in to Scribner that's set in 1949 Hollywood.

17. Do you get satellite radio? No

18. And as a follow do you "get" satellite radio? In the same way I do calculus and dark matter.

19. Do you read the Enquirer/InTouch/US/People? Yes, in the supermarket and hair salon.

20. Do you lie about it? Yeah, you're right, I don't really read them.

(Photo by Blake Little)

Earlier:

FBLA 20 Questions