Answers to the Great Ana Darcy Shoe Quiz

Here's what we can provide by way of answers to the shoe quiz.

First, full disclosure: #2 is the shoe of your humble editor (with his cat Bob, may he rest in peace, who loves a good shoe). People who make tests call that sort of item a "distractor."

Now, for the other shoes. Those who know Ana from her series will know that she is highly conscious of her safety. She's always ready to move quickly, and generally wears shoes which will allow that to happen. (She said in Volume 1 that one should never have more with them than one could carry a half mile at a dead run.) In addition, perhaps from having been raised in a less materialistic society, her fashion taste is not like ours. It runs to the simple and unadorned, to basic colors (which are unobtrusive), and to practical, comfortable, and non-showy items. But there are occasional exceptions.

Shoes 1, 4, and 10 are shoes that she has never worn and would not wear. She has worn all the others (except for 2).

The others are all "sensible" shoes in her eyes with a couple of exceptions. Shoes 7 are the ones she wears on the cover of Distant Cousin: Regeneration. Shoes 9 (and the shoes above) she's worn to summer parties at friends' houses. Shoes 13 she wore to a fancy reception for members of the G-9 Conference in Milan (also in Distant Cousin: Regeneration). Shoes 15 are the dearly beloved scuffs she bought in a used clothing store on the way to New Mexico with Matt (Distant Cousin). She wore them at the family gathering in Distant Cousin: Regeneration, but as far as I know they finally wore out. Shoes 14 are her newest, I think (my information is incomplete), but they are high-tech, comfortable, wearable in many different situations, and of course, she could run like the dickens in them if she had to.