I have lots of memories and over time it becomes difficult to remember what order they happened in, but I do have a few that stand out.

I remember my mother taking me to get my first library card. We had to walk (only one family car at the time). My mother pushed my sister in the stroller and held me by the hand and took me to the library every week. When I was about six, I was allowed to get my own children’s library card and I was so proud.

I remember my father taking me to get my first bicycle. It had training wheels and I fell down a lot but he taught me to ride it. 

I remember spending summers with my grandmother. She had a black walnut tree in her garden, and we used to collect the good ones. Black walnuts are rare now and it you haven’t had black walnut ice cream you’ve missed out. I also had to get up early and feed her chickens.

I remember my father worked long hours, so I didn’t get much time with him. I do remember he and I watching Star Trek together when he came home from work. My mother would cook dinner and we sit down and debate Kirk vs. Spock. This was back in the days of syndication so you only got to see the same episodes played over and over again (MUDD’S WOMEN/AMOK TIME) and you had to wait for the rare time to see some o the best (THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT byD.C. Fontana – one of the female trasilblazers of SF who passed away this past week. )

So, I’m back to the blog hop after a break. November was a busy month. December will probably be busier but at least the holidays are coming!!!  This week’s topic: Book Boyfriends (or Girlfriends).

Stealing Gifts/Mere Rain

This is a book I recently read because I like the premise and I’m glad I did. I really love Jarrell. He’s a complex character- a thief who steals to survive and really has a deep, sensitive heart. His love for Edmond is really sweet.

Elfhome Series/ Wen Spencer

I have a crush on elves. But this is one of my favorite elf series’ of all time. The main character, Tinker, is married to Windwolf, head of the Wind Clan. He’s super sexy and I had total fan girl love. She also had her loyal guard, Pony, whose kind attentive and strong. Yes, two men. Elves are immortal so their relationships are complex. 

The Otherworld Series/ Yasmine Galenorn

Three sisters-Camille, Delilah, and Menolly all have different boyfriends of various paranormal attributes over the course of the series.

Camille has three husbands-a dragon, a fox, and a dark elf. (Elves again 🙂 ) It’s usual for urban fantasy to have lots of lovers, but Galenorn always manages to make hers truly unique. So instead of the myriad confusion who sleeps with who scenarios that sometimes occur in urban fantasy, I always end up liking the characters and their hook-ups come across as believable. 

 

For this post I’m going to focus  on books I’ve talked to other artists and creatives about. I am fortunate to have many friends who are writers, screenwriters, comic writers, comedians, and visual artists. So these are books I’ve collected over the years that I always felt were inspiring and I like to mention in conversation. 

The Addams Family Evilution

I’m and Addams friends and my cousin is too. This is an interesting book that looks at the beginnings of the Addams family and traces how the characters developed into what we are familiar with today. Mortician Addams is my idol. 

 

Picture This: A Near Sighted Monkey Book/ Lynda Barry

This was recommend to me by a stand-up comedian friend and then I recommended it to another friend of mine who specializes in mixed media art. It’s good for anyone really. Partly autobiographical, it also has creative exercises that get you thinking a lot about your own personal experiences and the emotions that go into your work. 

Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons/ Leonard Malkin

And older book now (1987) but still a great one covering the early days of animated cartoons and the great studios. I used to take film classes many years ago and I wore out my first copy. I later told another film student about it. Still love it. 

I’ll be blogging at Coffee Time Romance on Thursday. I’ll be doing two giveaways! Feel

free to stop by.

 

Clowns

I have always been afraid of clowns. Even as a child, I found their make-up macabre. Needless to say, I will never go to see IT.

Roaches

A few weeks ago, I woke up, went to the front door; and found a snake curled up inside my house. I managed to regain my composure and get rid of it. I wasn’t truly scared. But if I wake up in the middle of the night and a cockroach skitters across the floor I will scream the house down. I know it’s out of proportion to the actual threat, but even pictures of cockroaches disgust me. 

Elevators

I have a fear of being trapped in an elevator. The worst feeling is getting in an elevator and suddenly the alarm goes off because you have too many passengers. I always have a moment of panic that I’ll be trapped inside as it plunges down to the basement floor. 

Abandoned cars

 Every know and then, you’ll come across and abandoned vehicle, grass overgrown, tire missing and for some reason I also imagine something horrible happened. More than likely, it was just old and left to rot, but I can’t help but feel like it’s haunted.

Creepy music boxes 

I am both intrigued and creeped out by music boxes. There is a music box museum that my husband and I visit sometimes. It also has a variety of restored organ grinders and the like. One of my favorite pastimes is to listen to haunted music boxes on youtube.

I’m guest at  Kate Hill’s Halloween blog. There are many authors features, as well as some giveaways and an excerpt from my futuristic romance TERRAN TEMPTATION. Halloween is almost here. 

This was a tricky one, because most books I read are via word of mouth. Others readers and friends who I have similar interests with mention books on their blog or on FB, and I check it out for myself. 99% of all the books I read are recommended.

I decided to point out a few blogs I go to for recommendations instead. Long and Short Reviews which runs this blog hop and has reviewed one of my books has a variety of genres. So I want to thank them and point them out.

Musings of a Romance Junkie is a go to site for those interested in multicultural and IR romances. I read it regularly, and a lot of my romance reads come via this blog.

Fantasy Book Critic, which is the place to go when I feel like I want to dive back into the fantasy genre. This is a genre I go hot and cold with, but when I find a series I like I stick to it.

Science Fiction and other Suspect Ruminations is one of my favorite blogs in general and a must-read. If you like classic SF, classic cover art, unique paperback treasures this is a wonderful resource.

I don’t have a go to mystery blog yet, but Aymee’s Nerdy Reader Girl is moving up on my list.

 

A helicopter so I could fly off if it?  Transporter technology? Heck, I just want that anyway.

My glasses- so I don’t end up like Mr. Bemis in the Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last.”  Actually if I were on a deserted island I’d probably just assume that I was on a Twilight Zone episode and spend most of my time trying to figure out if I were part of an alien exhibit; or really a robot; or I was suddenly going to start disappearing. Once I felt reasonably confident that none of those things were true, I’d work on surviving. 

For physical survival: 

Water filter tablets. 

A Swiss army knife. (I’ve never had one but it sounds like a good thing to have)

 Some matches and/or a lighter.

 A ham radio. (I’m going to assume the smartphone would be rendered useless rather quickly) 

A blanket. 

Bufferin.  

Dr. Bronner’s soap. 

A wheelbarrow. 

A jacket. 

A box of oatmeal. 

An iron skillet. (useful for cooking and hitting something over the head with it.)

 A bag of taco flavored Doritos. (OK. I don’t need those to survive, but I need some comfort food)

For mental survival:

A picture of my husband and daughter.

A box of mystery novels.

Some pens.

A notebook. (because I don’t know how to survive without pen and paper. If nothing else, I’d write memos such as “what to forage today” or “insects I think I can eat” or “oatmeal recipes).

Any other suggestions? Leave them in the comments.