Thank you to Laurel-Rain Snow’s Reflections for this nifty award. I was pleasantly surprised to see this this weekend!
The award comes with some rules, which include these:
1) Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them when creating the award post.
2) Share seven things about yourself.
3) Pass the award on to 15 recently discovered blogs.
4) Contact the bloggers to let them know about the award.
So, seven things about me:
1. As an undergraduate, the semester I signed up to take the required “world literature” course, I ended up with an avant-guarde, buck-the-system professor who, instead of having us read The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey, Plato, The Bhagavad-Gita, The Aeneid, Euripides, Arabian Nights, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Candide, so on and so forth, we read memoirs of women who survived the holocaust, Bastard Out of Carolina, Lolita, and other modern writing (all the titles escape me).
The upshot of this is that I have an amazingly thin background in the “classics” of world literature. Many of those ignored titles I’ve at least sampled since then, on my own time, but I’ve always felt ambiguous about my experience. I’m very glad that I was exposed to Lolita and Bastard Out of Carolina, but I found when I went into my master’s program that I was under prepared in some ways because I had no exposure to works widely considered to be “canon.”
2. I didn’t read a romance novel until I was twenty-nine, because I thought reading them was the equivalent of watching The Jerry Springer show – brain-rotting trash. Then Sherrilyn Kenyon was giving away one of her Dark-Hunter novels at DragonCon, and I got to speak with her for a bit, and I gave it a chance. Lo and behold, I liked what she wrote. While I still roll my eyes at the “romance” parts – I don’t care much about the sex scenes or how tragically betrayed characters find solace in a mate after thousands of years – I love love love the world building and mythology integration of that series. So I read romances, at least paranormal romances with solid world-building, now. Mmm, crow tastes good. 😉
3. I’m shy at first, but get me comfortable and talking, and I’ll never shut up. I babble like a champion, um, babbler. Willow-like, for you Buffy fans.
4. I have an action figure collection. It includes King Arthur from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Gilbert Perreault in the classic Sabres Blue & Gold, Jareth from The Labyrinth, a 12-inch die-cast Voltron, Crow T. Robot, and Dr. Frankenfurter. A few others, too.
5. I have a 5-month old kitten. In case you missed that in my last post.
6. I’ve been to Europe twice, but never to the Pacific Northwest here in the US.
7. If I could afford it, I’d move to San Francisco in a heart beat. Love that city.
Blogs that are new to me:
On a Pale Star 
Thank you so much for this award!
I’ve always wanted to see San Francisco and Europe (mostly Spain, Greece, Italy). Where in Europe have you been?
You’re very welcome! I’ve enjoyed reading your blog very much.
In Europe, I’ve been to Germany, France, and Italy…and a tiny bit of Austria, while driving in the Alps. I was incredibly fortunate that as a teenager, my parents decided to take me with them on their anniversary trip. Three weeks of uninterrupted time with my folks was a bit much, but hey – I saw so many wonderful places. No complaining. A friend of mine lives in Hamburg, Germany, so I visited her after I graduated from college. It’s a lovely, lovely city.
If you ever have the opportunity, through school or church or another organization that you’re associated with, to travel, do! It’s so great.
Congratulations on the award Jessica and thank you for passing it along. A lot of new blogs to me in your list that I will have to check out. I’m now a subscriber to you. Cheers!
Thank you. I was glad to pass it along – your site has been a great place for me to read up on some of my favorite genres.
Happy reading!
Congrats Jessica! I love Willow! She is a great and loyal friend. I’ve only been to Europe once, but I can’t wait to go back!
Where did you go on that one trip? Would you like to go back to that place, specifically, or see more of the continent?
Hey Jessica!
thanks so much for passing the award on to me! I’ve recieved it before though and already did a post about it but my heart still warms everytime I get one! Thanks for leaving the lovely comment on my blog abou tmy reviews! I’m glad you like them 🙂
And yes San francisco is a beautiful play! i have some cousins that live there and they are always sending me pictures! I’ve also always wanted to go to Eruope! it souonds like it would be so much fun!
Thanks again!
Caitlin (ScarrletReader)
You’re welcome!
They say that San Fran has nice weather, but in my visits there, it’s always been cold and overcast and rainy, whether it was spring or fall. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting city, and beautiful even in the fog.
Thanks so much Jessica! That’s really sweet of you to think of me 🙂
I shunned romance for most of my life too, until I read Twilight and finally admitted to myself just what a big romantic I was! Then I started devouring paranormal romance – I like sex scenes, but I hate badly written ones!
I would kill for a Dr Frank’n’furter doll! (We are talking about Rocky Horror yes?) and King Arthur – that’s so cool! Where do you find these things?!
It’s been a while since I got the Frankenfurter doll, but I’m pretty sure I found him at the local comic book shop when I was in college. They’ve been a pretty great source for these action figures over the years. King Arthur…you know, I’m not sure where I found him. Maybe the comic book shop, maybe the dealer’s room at DragonCon.
Hmm. A quickie Internet search has the Dr. Frankenfurter doll here, on Amazon, marked up considerably from what I bought him for years ago. My super quick search didn’t come back with the King Arthur I have, but I did find Sir Robin, on Amazon, again. I seem to remember that you aren’t in the US, so those links might not help you, but they might be a starting point. 😉
The really big toy store retailers usually have an action figure section that sell McFarlane’s line of toys – which, regardless of genre, are usually pretty good – and the better/less chintzy action figures for popular movies and tv shows. Aside from that, I’ve gotten everything from comic book shops and dealer’s rooms at SF/geek conventions like San Diego Comic-Con or DragonCon.
Jessica-
Thanks for the kind mention and for reading my blog. Cheers!
You’re welcome! Thank YOU for writing interesting posts and making my TBR list even longer!
I know this is a little late but congrats on your award.