In Which I Grace You With My Illustrious Presence

I'd better not tell you how late my sister and I stayed up on Saturday night.  Some of you would probably take it as a matter of course because you stay up that late every night-- others would probably be a little horrified.  (I will say that we went to sleep while it was still Saturday... but only just.  Ahem.)  Technically we were in bed and the lights were out but at the rate we were talking, we may as well have still been up.

Our late-night chats run a gamut of topics, from writing to movie costumes to Jane Austen to writing to getting married to writing to blogging to writing... and did I mention writing?  That, too.  Last night our conversation went something like this.

Anne-girl: And I still think you should do a blog tour.
Amy: Run that by me again.  I still don't understand what it's all about.
Anne-girl:  It's when you go around to a whole bunch of people's blogs to promote your book.  First you post on your blog that you're going to have a blog tour and then if people are interested in hosting you on their blog for an interview or a guest post about your book, they'll comment and say so.  And then either they send you questions about your book for an interview, or they ask you to write a guest post about something writing-related.   And you write up a blurb about yourself and little bit about your book and put it on all the blog tour posts.  Oh, and you have to have a picture, too, but you can use one of Elinor Dashwood so no one will know that you actually have two heads.  {I made up something in that sentence.  Just to see if you were paying attention.}
Amy: That sounds like fun, but I still think it sounds... I don't know... kind of stuck-up to just post on my blog, "Hey, everybody, invite me to be on your blog so I can talk about myself!"  It sounds like showing off.
Anne-girl: Then write it that way.
Amy: Huh?
Anne-girl:  Write a post saying that you've decided to grace the populace with your illustrious presence and have deigned to take a blog tour, and if any of the masses wish to host your royal self on their blogs, they can leave a comment or e-mail you and your secretary will contact them as soon as possible.  And then it will be funny, and you won't have to worry about sounding stuck-up.  Because you WILL sound stuck-up, but everybody will know it was just a joke.  Except that you really do want to do the blog tour.  Make sure people know that part is serious, anyway.
Amy: You're brilliant.

So.  Lay-deez and other lay-deez, Her Royal Highness, Miss Amy Dashwood, has graciously consented to participate in a blog tour in order to promote the work of great literature that she has recently completed.  She was, of course, far too modest to even consider such a thing at first, but her courtiers managed to convince her that it would be an excellent way to acquaint the masses with the story she has written (in other words, free advertising!).  Any peasant who wishes to host Miss Dashwood on her blog may submit a request in triplicate to missdashwood95[at]gmail[dot]com, where it will be put under consideration by Miss Dashwood's personal secretary, Miss Deirdre McSnoot.  If Miss McSnoot decides to grant the peasant's humble request for an interview, she will set up communication between the peasant and Miss Dashwood to discuss when, where and what (that is, the date of the interview/guest post, the blog on which it is to appear, and what the content of the post should be).   It is, of course, understood that any peasant counted worthy of hosting Miss Dashwood during Miss Dashwood's blog tour will be sensible of the great honor conferred upon her and will act accordingly.  One curtsy, however, will be sufficient.  You needn't strain your back.

Miss McSnoot eagerly awaits your requests, as she has very little to do around the office right now except link paper clips together, and she gets rather bored with that.

So what are YOU doing after high school?

Everybody should read this post by my dear blogging friend Hayden.  Somehow she managed to brilliantly convey everything that's been kerbobbling in my head about the whole post-high-school thing, and she did it in a completely straight-forward, clear and concise manner.  I'm only a little bit jealous.

Please, just go read it.  Thank you.

The Princess Bride Book Review: Guest Post by Molly

My twelve-year-old sister Molly graciously agreed to write a guest post for me this week, and she chose to review her favorite book.  If you don't have an invitation to Molly's private blog, Each and Every Hour, just contact me to get one. And if you have been invited... take a minute to hop over there and read a few of her fun posts!

Miss Dashwood has kindly asked me to write a guest post on her blog. Now, before I go any farther, I want to say that you must not blame Miss Dashwood if this post is crummy, boring, and the worst thing you ever read. Because I’m not the best writer in the blog world. But, in spite of that fact, she had let me do a guest post. So here goes. A guest post written and illustrated (all right, I didn’t draw any of the pictures, they’re from Google Images) by Miss Molly on her favorite book in the world: The Princess Bride. WARNING! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

First of all, let me point out one thing about The Princess Bride that I used to be confused on, and I’m sure that some people are confused about it too. The thing is, that there is no such person as S. Morgenstern. The book is really written be William Goldman. This is certain for two reasons. 

1. On the back flap of the book, you can find a picture of the person who wrote the book. That person is William Goldman, not S. Morgenstern. So no matter how many times he interrupts the story to tell you how his dad read this book to him as a kid, and how there is a bunch of stuff that he cut out of the story because it was boring, just bear in mind that he is making that up. Even though his interruptions are sometimes funny, they can sometimes be a bit confusing.

2. In the movie, you can go to the making of the movie, and in one part of it; Goldman tells how he got the idea for the book. He says that he wanted to write a book, so he asked his two daughters what he should write the book about. One said;

“Write a book about a princess.” And the other one said;

“Write a book about a bride.” And Goldman said;

“Okay, I’ll call it: The Princess Bride.”

So you see that there is living proof that The Princess Bride was written by William Goldman, and not by S. Morgenstern.

All right, now let’s get down to the fun part. The characters. In this movie, even I admit that the plotline itself is rather dumb. But the characters are something else! All of them (at least the ones that have names) are funny in some way. Even Buttercup. If you’re trying to figure out what on earth could Buttercup do or say that is funny, it’s when she says; “ Farm Boy, fetch me that pitcher.” And when she says the whole speech about her “little joke,” with Westley. But other than that, yeah, the leading lady is kind of boring. To get back to what we were talking about, I think the only people who aren't funny are Queen Bella and King Lotharon. But that’s probably because they hardly have any lines throughout the whole entire book.

Westley is the hero of the book. He swordfights, mountain climbs, fights giants, outthinks Sicilians, is immune to iocane powder, is a pirate and dies twice. Well, he only dies once, but everybody thought that the Dread Pirate Roberts had killed him. In fact he is about the best hero ever. Next to Sir Percy, that is. I mean, no one is as wonderful as Sir Percy. Ahem. One thing I like about Westley is that he doesn’t worry about failing something. He just does things and knows that they will work out. After all, it has to all work out, or else it wouldn’t be a “Happily Ever After.”  Like when he’s trying to get Buttercup out of the Snow Sand, he doesn’t stop to think and see if there might be a better way to rescue her. He just goes.

There was no question of failure in his mind. He knew he would find her and he knew she would be upset and hysterical and possibly even brain tumbled. But alive. And that was, in the end, the only fact of lasting import. Once he found her, he would pull her to the surface and the only real problem would be convincing your grandchildren that such a thing had actually happened and was not just another family fable.

See what I mean? And for those who have read the book so many times that something looks funny about that passage, yes, I shortened it a little. But let’s move on to the next character.

Buttercup is the heroine of the story. She is beautiful, rides rather well, and ummm….. has nice clothes. Buttercup is something of a wimp. Her name itself is rather…. shall we say, different. And she doesn’t seem to possess much strength of mind. But that might have come from not doing any work, and making Westley do it instead. Also, she has pretty weird parents, who do nothing but fight all the time, so she might have inherited some of the wimpishness from them. Yeah, I know “wimpishness” isn’t a word, but it fits. 

Now, because I just read over that last paragraph, and felt that it was a little harsh on Buttercup, I’ll say that she does a good job in telling Humperdink off, right before he puts The Machine up to twenty.

"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, PREPARE TO DIE!!" Inigo is a very interesting character. Like Westley, he swordfights, and also drinks, and is bent on revenge. He is a master at fencing, and in the book fights with the air, unnamed people, Westley, King Bats, and Count Rugen. All of which he defeats except Westley. 

Fezzik is the gentle giant. Since I’ve been telling what everybody else is good at, I might as well tell what Fezzik can do. He rhymes, wrestles with more than one person at a time and drools when he gets excited. That’s what the book says, I didn’t make it up. His rhymes are very good ones, except for when he finds Inigo again. There…..well… it is a little squirmy.

Then, quietly, he said, “Fezzik?”

From behind the noisy one, the quiet one said, “Who says-ik?”

Ew. But let us move on from the characters to other stuff. After all, this is supposed to be a book review, not a character review.

Now, for this next part, I’m going to be sort of comparing the book and the movie. There are several times in which the movie guys cut things from the book. Or else, there are things that they change. Not very big things, but big enough to be noticeable if you’ve read the book more than once. For instance, when they’re climbing the Cliffs of Insanity, in the book the rope they use is tied to a tree, but in the movie they make the rope tied to a rock, and they make Vizzini cut it instead of untying it. In the bay where Buttercup dives off the boat, in the book it is sharks that come after her, in the movie they change it to eels. And in the Westley verses Vizzini scene, they cut some of the dialogue.

The Princess Bride is a book that makes you want to just keep on reading. The characters, the humor, even the rather corny plot makes you want the book to never end. But, sadly, it does end, as all books do. Ew, I just read that last bit, and I sounded just like an ad. Oh, well. It’s true. So if you haven’t read the book, go read it. Please. To my sorrow, it does have a bit of bad language, but you can always go through and cross out the bad words with a pen. Providing the book is yours, that is. But on the whole, it is a wonderful book to read, and if you haven’t read it yet…. then what are you waiting for? 

There is one more thing I’d like to say before I close this post. At the end of the movie, it ends with Westley and Buttercup kissing. But in the book, it ends on a cliffhanger, and you can make your own conclusions as to what happens.

From behind them suddenly, closer than they had imagined, they could hear the roar of Humperdink: “Stop them! Cut them off!” They were admittedly, startled, but there was no need to worry: they were on the fastest horses in the kingdom, and the lead was already theirs.

However, this was before Inigo’s wound reopened, and Westley relapsed again, and Fezzik took the wrong turn, and Buttercup’s horse threw a shoe. And the night behind them was filled with the crescendoing sound of pursuit………

That is how it ends. And don’t comment and ask what “crescendoing” means, because I have no idea. It’s in the book; I didn’t make it up. But I like to stop reading at this part.

It appears to me as if we’re doomed, then,” Buttercup said.

Westley looked at her. “Doomed, madam?”

“To be together. Until one of us dies.”

“I’ve done that already, and I haven’t the slightest intention of ever doing it again,” Westley said.

Buttercup looked at him. “Don’t we sort of have to sometime?”

“Not if we promise to outlive each other, and I make that promise now.”

Buttercup looked at him. “Oh my Westley, so do I.”  

Only a Novel Giveaway

The time is now!  The day is here!

~Les Miserables

I've never hosted a giveaway before, so bear with me, my dear patient readers! This is new and uncharted territory here.

I'm giving away one free copy of my book Only a Novel, autographed with a personal message.  (Did anyone else pronounce that word as "author-graphed" when they were little?  No?  Okay, never mind.)

Rules for entering:

For One Entry...
~Simply leave a comment stating that you publicly follow my blog.  (Um, and the statement has to be true. In other words, you have to be a public follower of my blog.)   Please leave your e-mail address as well so I can contact you if you win.  If you don't wish to have your e-mail displayed publicly, just leave a separate comment with your address (in addition to your entry comments).  I will delete the comment with your e-mail address after I've noted it and it will not be considered an entry.  Thanks!

For Additional Entries...
~Put the OAN Giveaway button on your blog (+1 entry)
~Write a (public) blog post announcing this giveaway and leave the link in a comment (+2 entries)

Maximum number of entries per person: 4.

<center><a href="http://miss-dashwood.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Yet Another Period Drama Blog" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H4pF5yTD0D4/T-uJ5f3TKdI/AAAAAAAACpI/cLKofQaFUTE/s320/giveaway.jpg"/></a></center>

The giveaway closes on Saturday, July 7th.  I will randomly select one winner to be announced on Monday, July 9th.

*Note: I'm very sorry, but this giveaway is open to readers in the U.S. and Canada only.*

"Well, don't just sit there shaking like a leaf. Open it!"

Captioned photo made by my dear friend Melody, who very kindly put up with her
Tween's exuberant, breathless squealing over the phone on Monday night... ahem...

I've been thinking it's high time this blog had a giveaway... don't you agree?

And since Only a Novel by Amy Dashwood has just hit the virtual shelves on Amazon.com, today seems like the perfect time.  

I haven't yet run in circles, screaming and shouting, "I'M AN AUTHOR, I'M AN AUTHOR!" a la Jo March, but I must say I'm pretty excited.  (SQUEEEE!)

Okay, okay, so Eponine's not exactly screaming for joy in this pic, but you can pretend she is. :P

I blogged over at The Quest for Stories about my mixed feelings on the subject-- you can read the post here.  It was incredibly thrilling to hold the proof copy in my hands on Monday evening, and now that the book's actually available, I think I'm in a state of semi-shock.

Phew.

So please, check back this afternoon or evening when I'm thinking a bit more clearly, and you can enter to win a copy.  Sink me, I can hardly wait.

This is a pretty good depiction of the mysterious smirk on my face right now. :P

(Oh, and all those of you who might think that I was using this post as a good excuse to share a bunch of my favorite pictures-- I have no idea what you're talking about.  Nope.  Not a bit of it.)

Recycled Costumes: Guest Post by Hayden

I asked my dear blogging friend Hayden to write a guest post for this week, and she very kindly complied.  I was fascinated by her study of period drama costumes, and I think you will be too!

Have you ever been watching a period drama and realized that something looked oddly familiar? One thing I love about period dramas is that the actors tend to stick with the genre and become like old friends. But that’s not exactly what I’m talking about. Besides the acting, one of the best parts about these movies is- you guessed it –the costumes. And a lot of times these costumes are recycled. I guess even BBC likes to be thrifty now and again!

One outfit I find the most recognizable is Margaret Hale’s (North and South, 2004) green striped hoopdress:

When watching Bleak House (2005), I recognized it right away, worn by Lady Dedlock:

It wasn’t until my second viewing of Return to Cranford (2009) that I saw it on Erminia:

This, I think is one of the easiest to spot. Though I’ll always think of it as Margaret’s dress, I have to admit I like it on all three women. Who, in your opinion, wore it best?

I admit that I looked up several of these next ones on the internet. A great site is
http://www.recycledmoviecostumes.com. It has an extensive collection of reused movie costumes.

Some of these outfits have been around for years- both Sabina Franklin (as Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, 1980) and Freema Ageyman (as Tattycorum in Little Dorrit, 2008) have worn this gown:

I can’t believe I didn’t realize this one: Elizabeth Bennet (P&P 05) and Marianne Dashwood (S&S 08) are wearing the same dress!

I’ve never seen The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), but she’s wearing Emma (2009) Woodhouse’s dress!

Well, I guess it’s really the other way around…

And Jane Fairfax borrows Emma’s dress….

Emma 1996

Emma 2009

You cannot see Mrs. Dashwood’s (Sense and Sensibility, 1995) dress in this picture very well, but it’s the same as Lady Ludlow’s (Cranford, 2007) …

Two such different characters wearing the same dress:

Fanny Thornton (North and South, 2004)

Miss Galindo (Cranford, 2007)

The March girls aren’t proud! Hand-me-downs are a part of life. :)

Both from Little Women, 1994

Why, is that Anne Shirley wearing Lucy Honeychurch’s (A Room With a View) dress?

Well, I hope you enjoyed this! I know I did. :) (Although, if BBC ever wants to get rid of their old costumes, I'm perfectly willing to take them off their hands....


Thanks so much for writing this, Hayden! I loved it!
Hayden blogs about period dramas (with costumes!), books and other things in her life at Story Girl.  Hop on over and take a peek!

Random Writing Tips and Tidbits: Guest Post by Alexandra

Hello, one and all! My darlingest Amy asked me to guest post today, and I’m soooooo over-the-moon thrilled and honored!

Today I thought I’d share a few writing tips. I know peoples around here enjoy writing, and being that I’m in the thick of writing a story myself at the moment, I would take this opportunity to share a few “tidbits I have learned through this” with you all. Not to mention that writing takes all my brain power so I can’t think beyond “writing” at this point. Thus why I am not posting about any other subject. :)

1.       Don’t be afraid to follow plot bunnies…as long as you’re not in the middle of a project.
This is crucial. My latest WIP was a lovely plot bunny that popped up when I was in the planning process of another novel. As long as you’re not smack-dab in the middle of writing something else, go with your idea while the idea’s hot and fresh in your mind. The only exception is when your novel-in-progress is at a dead point, to which I say, drop it and follow the plot bunny. I had one instance before where my inspiration for a story was stone-dry. I went off on another project, got that done, and came back to project A ready to write again – and got that book finished in three months.

2.       Don’t be afraid to cast!
I’ve written about character casting before on my writing blog, and honestly, I’d say even if you don’t usually…give it a try. It’s amazing how it can help. And when you cast – do some research. If possible (depending on if the person you’ve cast is in anything you’d actually watch :-P), look up films or clips or whatever. Don’t be afraid to steal ideas – one, it’s fun to have inside-trivia with yourself about your characters, and two, as the great quote says, “Good writers imitate. Great writers steal.” I recently got an idea for a scene that turned out adorable from watching a film the actress I cast as my heroine was in.
In that vein…

3.       Don’t be afraid of casting people You Really Like.
In other words, if you keep thinking up story ideas for that actor or hero who you think Is Awesome, then go for it. Let me say from experience, if you think the Hero is awesome, then it’ll show in your writing. I’ve cast several people from what I like to call my Awesomest Actors Evah circle (a group of actors who are complete geniuses in their field…and also very handsome and give me warm fuzzies which has nothing to do with it), and the heroes in my stories…always end up pretty awesome as a result. That goes for heroine and minor characters and plots and everything – if you’re crazy about it, your enthusiasm will show up in your writing. It’s not silly (and if you think Certain People [brothers usually fall into this category :-P] will make fun of the fact that you’ve cast A Certain Someone as your hero, just don’t tell them. :-D) Quite easy.

4.       Don’t be afraid to steal ideas.
Did you know that Shakespeare stole the idea of Romeo and Juliet? As any good Leaguette knows, superheroes with their alter-egos came from our own Sir Percy. Don’t be afraid to take an idea and put your own twist on it. No one’s going to arrest you for it, and besides, there’s one helpful thought – until you publish the book and people all over the world read it, no one will know what you do. It is kind of a freeing thought, no?

5.       Don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone.
Like anything else in life, you’ve got to stretch yourself and do things you find difficult if you’re going to get better at writing. Don’t keep from doing something just because you haven’t done it before or think you can’t do. Write that nice mushy proposal scene. Try your hand at a mystery. Kill off that character. Add that odd plot twist. Give that character a melodramatic speech.

6.       Don’t be afraid of romance.
In my humble opinion, a story ain’t a story without a romantic angle somewhere in the story, whether it’s the main plot or two minor characters. A lot of girls are squeamish about writing romance in a story, mainly for the understandable argument that being as most of them are single, they haven’t experienced romance for themselves and don’t want to be inaccurate. Understandable, but not true. Jane Austen was never married and wrote some of the most famous romantic couples ever. What if she had thought “I can’t do it, I’ve never been married?” There’d be no Austen vs. Orczy argument. And then life would be so much duller for me. :-P Don’t be afraid of it…especially proposals. I love writing a good proposal scene. I love writing those back-and-forth flirtatious sparring. I love the excitement I get when the hero and heroine get that mental jarring moment where they suddenly realize “ooh…there’s feelings there, wow…”. Tense Moments (the staring-at-each-other-for-ten-seconds-and-we-all-hold-our-breath-before-the-moment-is-broken-by-someone-or-something) are my very very favorite and I highly recommend anyone have tense moments in their stories (they also work great to replace kissing scenes if you don’t want them in there but want that romantic tension). If you treat writing romance like it’s no big deal, it isn’t. Enjoy it. It’s really fun.     

7.       Don’t be afraid to have the characters show their emotions.
Heroes crying are epic. Now, that shouldn’t be confused with a sopping crybaby. But the hero who at some point breaks down is awesome. Let your characters yell at each other. Cry if they need to (the heroine crying always is nice because it gives the hero a chance to comfort her, thereby inducing Warm Fuzzy Feelings on both the heroine and reader’s part).  Don’t be afraid of melodrama.

8.       Don’t be afraid of holding out tension.
This is very important. Keep throwing roadblocks in the way. Don’t give in to the temptation to resolve everything right away. I’m terrible at this, so I’m very thankful for my writing partner, who always insists that I stick with our agreement and wait until page X to have the hero and heroine resolve their issues like we’d planned instead of succumbing to the desire to have them go ahead and do it ten chapters before. Don’t be afraid to throw some hard punches at your characters. If there’s one thing your character would never do, make them get into a situation where they’d have to do it. Get your character close to their goal and then pull it outagain from under their feet. I’ve recently gotten obsessed with the show Doctor Who, and one of the biggest things I’ve gotten from watching it writing-wise is that the viewer (or reader in our case) will continue if they’re emotionally invested, if you keep taking away what the character wants. They continue because they want to see the character happy and finally get what they desire or are working for. Would The Scarlet Pimpernel be quite so awesome if Percy and Marguerite resolved their issues there in the hallway in the scene after the garden party in the 1982 film? Would you really care quite as much if Charlie got the golden ticket the first chocolate bar he got, or if Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth got over their prejudices in the first ball scene? Keep dragging out the tension. It’s worth it.

9.       Don’t be afraid of writer’s block.
It happens to everyone, in every book at sometime (that’s where I love co-writing…I just pass the buck to my friend until further inspiration. :-D). Everyone has different ways of dealing with it…I always write other scenes I’ve got in my head. Or write something silly. Or throw a weird plot twist in. And unless you’re on a deadline, sometimes you’ve just gotta give it a while. Like artists who leave their paintings for a while to get a fresh “eye” for it and come back days later to work on it again, sometimes we just need a rest, a time to recharge. I took a two week break from a story once and thought up a character who completely brought a new angle to the story during that break. It is ok.

10.   Don’t be afraid to write scenes out-of-order.
I always do this. ALWAYS. The proposal for my present book…which is the last scene…is already written. So are several tense moments that don’t come until a ways down the road from where I’m technically at now. If you get an inspiration for a scene, treat it like a plot bunny…write it down while the idea’s hot. You may end up losing the inspiration for it if you wait.

And lastly…

11.   Have fun.
It’s not a job, and unless you actually get into the publishing business, it most likely never will be. Look at it for what it is – a chance to create your own world. It’s crazy, and it’s awesome. I love creating character and situations, spending months with them, and then when it’s ended, feeling as if these characters are real. Don’t stress over the little stuff. Don’t worry if your style is perfect or if you’ve used too many adjectives. That’s what editing is for. Just have funwriting.

And now I’m off. My characters are calling… :)            

Alexandra is twenty-three years old and passionate about everything in life. She is a Christian, a homeschool graduate (Class of 06!), daughter, sister to ten siblings, and piano teacher. While the sun rises and sets on The Scarlet Pimpernel, her biggest obsession in life, her other non-TSP obsessions include reading voraciously (classics are her specialty), singing, musical theatre, Doctor Who, playing the piano, anything and everything British, talking, accents (Scottish in particular), costume reproduction, and costume dramas in general. 

She blogs about costume dramas, musicals, costume reproduction, classic literature and everything historical related at Of Trims and Frills and Furbelows, her writing projects at The Breathings of My Heart and about everything else in her life (yes, she does have one) at The Value of One, where, despite her best efforts, a bit of The Scarlet Pimpernel always manages to wiggle itself in. She also has the enormous honor and pleasure of contributing to The Day Dream, the most awesome (in her humble opinion) TSP fansite on the web!

Guest Posting!

This is a rather accurate depiction of how I've felt over the last few weeks.  Picture worth a thousand words and all that.

I had great fun over the last few weeks writing a blog series with my lovely bloggy friends Miss Laurie, Miss Elizabeth and Melody! We compared the 1995 and 2007 movie adaptations of Jane Austen's Persuasion in a four-part series published on Charity U's blog Austenitis.  You can see the posts here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.

I also guest posted on Miss Woodhouse's blog for Mr. Knightley Day--you can read my post here.

With all the writing that I've been doing for other blogs lately (not to mention a certain enormous Les Miserables week thingy) and with finishing up my NaNoWriMo novel (yes, it's June, I'm aware of that), I've been tremendously busy and haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like to.  So... friends to the rescue.  (Applaud them, please.) Guest posts by Hayden, Alexandra and a Mysterious New Guest Blogger will all be appearing here on YAPDB over the next few days.  (Thanks, gals!) Stay tuned!

Pulling Out All the Stops

Now some may say all [daughters] just exaggerate, that every [father's] great...

Every daughter tends to say her father's tops. She pulls out all the stops to praise him... and quite rightly!

~"No Matter What," Beauty and the Beast

Mr. Knightley is my ultimate literary hero.  Y'all know that, right?  And if you didn't, you do now.  (I guest posted about Mr. Knightley over at Eva-Joy's blog, by the way--check it out here.)  I went into some detail (I elaborated, Millicent) about why Mr. Knightley is my favorite literary hero in that post, so I won't rehash it all here.  But to put it all in a nutshell, Mr. Knightley is my favorite because he's the kind of man I want to marry someday.  He embodies all the qualities of a wonderful husband and a man of character and integrity.

It's been said, you know, that girls tend to marry guys who are like their fathers.  And if that's true, then I will definitely end up with a Mr. Knightley.  Because my dad is like Mr. Knightley in many ways (except for the fact that he's even better).

Mr. Knightley's good points (heh... like he has bad points) include his sense of honor, his gentlemanliness (yes, it's a word, I made it up) his kindness, his generosity, his thoughtfulness and his amazing sense of humor.  Each and every one of those qualities can also be found in--wow, you guessed it already, how brilliant--my dad.

My dad runs a home business, preaches at two nursing homes every Sunday, leads a Bible study and prayer meeting each Tuesday, runs a book program at a nursing home every Wednesday and still makes time for his family.  All my life, he's taught me by example how important it is to do things together, to spend time with the people you love.  The result: hundreds of wonderful memories.

Daddy fostered my love of reading when I was really, really little--he was reading the Little House on the Prairie series out loud to me when I was four.  By the time I was five, he was encouraging me to read the first few verses of the Scripture passage each night in our family devotions (a tradition he's carried on as each of my siblings learned to read).  He introduced me to Mark Twain, encouraged my reading of Dickens (we're beginning Dombey and Son together) and we've had many long talks about one of our ultimate favorites, The Yearling.  Reading aloud together as a family has been a biweekly tradition since I can remember, and it's been the means of introducing me to the vastness of classic literature.

Yes, that is I on the Upward Climb in the year of grace 2000.
Notice the pink "hiking" shoes.  Also the pink backpack.
I was muchly proud of them.

When I was five, Daddy took me on a mountain hike, my first really-truly-grown-up expedition.  I still vividly remember the thrill of standing on the flat top of the mountain, exhilarated with the feeling of having accomplished something big (after which I took a half-hour nap before we descended the mountain).  The hike was exciting and memorable, but what I cherish most is the memory of my wonderful time with my dad.  Sure, I was little and couldn't go very fast, but Dad didn't mind that and instead took the time to give me an incredibly special day with him.

Since then we've gone on bike rides together and many more hikes, visited historic sites (we're both history buffs) and planned surprises for my mom's birthday.   When I competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2009 (heh, that's the first time I've ever mentioned THAT on here), didn't make the cut to the semifinals and was pretty much devastated as a result, my dad was there to hug me and let me know how proud he was of me no matter how I placed (again, because he'd told me that before I even went to Washington for the competition).  Just as Mom was my coach throughout my journey to the national competition, Daddy had been the head of the cheerleading section and the first one to hug me when it was over.  My dad held me when I was born, baptized me when I was fourteen and will (I hope) be the one to perform my marriage ceremony someday.  Because he's been there for me through everything in my life.

(I was so determined to get through writing this post without tearing up, but that just flew out the window...)

What I'm trying to say here is that my dad is my hero.  Yes, Mr. Knightley's great and all that, but he's fictional.  (Somebody give Melody some smelling salts.)  My dad is a real person, the most wonderful man in my life.

Even Jane Austen can't trump that.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy, from your perpetually late daughter,

Amy

What's in a name?

My December 2011 header

"What is the name of that geranium on the window-sill, please?"

"That's the apple-scented geranium."

"Oh, I don't mean that sort of a name. I mean just a name you gave it yourself. Didn't you give it a name? May I give it one then? May I call it--let me see--Bonny would do--may I call it Bonny while I'm here? Oh, do let me!"

"Goodness, I don't care. But where on earth is the sense of naming a geranium?"

"Oh, I like things to have handles even if they are only geraniums. It makes them seem more like people. How do you know but that it hurts a geranium's feelings just to be called a geranium and nothing else? You wouldn't like to be called nothing but a woman all the time. Yes, I shall call it Bonny. I named that cherry-tree outside my bedroom window this morning. I called it Snow Queen because it was so white. Of course, it won't always be in blossom, but one can imagine that it is, can't one?"

"I never in all my life saw or heard anything to equal her," muttered Marilla.

~Anne of Green Gables, chapter 4

I have decided...

...that Yet Another Period Drama Blog needs a new name.  When I first began blogging, this blog was intended to be a place where I could write movie reviews and occasionally a character analysis or two.  Since then, it's evolved into something much more diverse.  I've been writing posts on a very wide variety of subjects, not just period dramas.  Plus, with my joining of the Classics Club, books are going to figure predominantly here in the coming months.  So though period dramas and classic literature are still the focus of this blog, I think it's time for a new, all-encompassing blog name.

I've put a poll on the sidebar so you can vote for the name you like best... but I can't just leave it at that.  I have to elaborate at least a wee bit.  You know me.

~The first name that comes to mind (the first on the poll, what a coincidence) is Raindrops on Roses.  It's a line from "My Favorite Things", a song from The Sound of Music, and I thought it was appropriate because this blog has become a conglomeration of my favorite things.  (And the title "My Favorite Things" is much less interesting than "Raindrops on Roses".)

~The second name I thought of (the second on the poll, how brilliant) is Shelves in the Closet.  It comes from Lizzy's famous line in P&P95-- "Shelves in the closet.  Happy thought indeed." I like having reasons behind names, and the reasons for this one are threefold.  First, because the second half of line ("happy thought indeed")  is appropriate for blogging--I'm writing about my happy thoughts, indeed.  Second, because shelves in the closet are a great place to keep books and period drama DVDs.  (Yes, I'm nonsensical and proud of it.)  Third--which perhaps I should have mentioned first--because it is the express wish of my noble patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh.  What more could you want?

~Third on my list is Miss Dashwood's Writing Desk, which I don't really like, but I thought a poll ought to have several choices, so there it is.  Heehee.

~And then, of course, there is the "what do you suggest" option--and if you DO have a suggestion, please leave a comment!  (And hey, even if you don't have a suggestion, comment anyway, because I like to know what people voted.  No secret ballots here.)

So... please vote!