Welcome to the podium at Yet Another Period Drama Blog, Anne-girl! Have some coffee and chocolate to calm your nerves and tell us a little bit about yourself. Name, general age-ish (feel free to be as vague as you like), favorite type of weather, least favorite color, favorite way to relax in the evenings, and what got you started blogging. Ready, steady, go!
My name is Carolyn, but I go by Anne-girl, and I am of the age in which one dances in the gazebo with telegraph boys {though I’ve never found one to dance with me}. I like sunny skies and mild temperatures. I enjoy a good thunderstorm of an evening but other than that I’ve not much given to inclement weather. Though I do enjoy a nice strong wind in the early fall. I loathe pea green. Lark Rise to Candleford is my favorite evening activity but I’m sure that will change when we start Sherlock! I started blogging when I was thirteen because you blogged and I wanted to do it too. But that blog withered and died on the vine. I started Scribblings in November of 2011 because I loved Rachel’s Inkpen Authoress and was writing my first book. My first posts were blatant {and not very good} copies of her posts but over the two years that followed I’ve found my niche talking about my beloved Selkin and Story Structure and doing the Les Amis series.
People, seriously, you need to go check out her Les Amis series. It's epic.
So, now that we know a little bit more about you (well, okay, the adoring PUBLIC knows a little more about you-- I already know everything about you because I am your seestah), let’s ask some bookish questions. Tell us about three books that you loved when you were little-- that is, under ten or so.
The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright was perhaps my favorite book back then. I also really really loved the American Girl “world” books. I’ve always been addicted to other cultures *grin* and I guess if I could only pick one other it would be Great Illustrated Classics The Three Musketeers because of all the fun we had with it.
Ooooooh, yes, I shall always have fond memories surrounding the 3M. "This is D'artagnan!" :D You are, I believe, a writer as well as a reader. No kidding! I can’t imagine where I got that idea, but I think you may have mentioned it to me at some time, or maybe I found something of yours lying around... anyways, if someone big and importantly authoritative came to you and told you you could never write anything again, what would your response be? (This is meant to be a little twist on the run-of-the-mill “why do you write” question.)
Make up stories in my head. I did it for eleven years {I first remember doing it at the age of three} without feeling the need to write. I would miss writing terribly but I would add a wing to my mind palace and store the stories there. I would memorize poetry to give myself the ability of reciting reams and reams of stuff and I would turn myself into a story teller. I would be like the bards of old traveling around in a little beat up car with Les Mis CDs in my Hello Kitty boom box and tell stories at libraries and children's parties. I love words, I really do, and I love putting them down and honing them but all I NEED are stories. So I would survive. I would cry and always feel like someone I loved had died but I would survive.
And no that is not a scenario that I have had planned out for a long time complete with a plan for developing my memory. Whatever would give you that idea? I’m not paranoid. Not paranoid at all.
What genre of book do you write? Tell us a little about it.
I write Christian Adventure. It’s really a lot like High Fantasy {Tolkien, Sanderson, George R. R. Martin} but without the magic. Or you could could compare it to Literary Political Fiction {Les Mis, The Way We Live Now, Anna Karenina, but without the icky stuff}. Or with swashbuckling Fantasy of Manners {The Prisoner of Zenda, The Princess Bride, Three Musketeers} or coming of age {Johnny Tremain, The Bronze Bow}. It doesn’t really fit in any particular genre but it’s meant to be exciting and “feels” filled but thought provoking. Obviously I have a really really long way to go but cultures, politics, and adventure all fascinate me and what is writing unless it’s about what you love?
Excellent rhetorical question there. :D What is your favorite history book (not a textbook)? Tell us a wee bit about it.
I’m quite fond of Rebecca Fraser’s History of Britain but the one I love the most perhaps is the HUGE book simply called History found in our YA nonfiction section. I’ve read it several times but I never seem to glean everything. I just love love love the dips into different cultures and stories it gives. Just a taste of this and a taste of that. I’m not really patient enough to read a history book on every topic that interests me and if I really want to know about something I can look further into it. This book gives an overview of just about everything. I have no idea where it’s from or who wrote it though. Sorry.
What are some of your favorite quotes about books?
I never remember or collect quotes about things. Only quotes from movies and books. There is of course the essential “I cannot live without books” but there is always Henry Tilney to the rescue. Say it with me, girls!
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid”
What did you most recently finish reading? Would you recommend it?
Tuck by Stephen R. Lawhead. You would not like it sister dear I do not think. But anyone who likes a good thick medieval politics story would like this. I read the whole King Raven trilogy awhile ago. The first one, Hood was rubbish. Inappropriate in places, and with a mysticism that I didn’t care for. But it did have great character development. The middle one Scarlet was exciting and well written with a wonderful protagonist but a little more violent than I like. Tuck is the best of the lot with nothing worse as far as content goes than Caroline Arless’s favorite word. It’s a novelization of the real Robin Hood {who originated as a Welsh rebel lord not an outlaw in Nottingham} and though Median is annoying the other characters are lovable and relatable {especially Friar Aethelfrith fondly known as Tuck}.
Did you discover any good new authors in the last year? Which of their books did you like best?
I’m quite enjoying Lemony Snicket right now. I’m about five years older than I should have started the series but it does not dampen my enjoyment of the series one bit. Jack talked about them so much that I just had to try them and though the first one was a bit contrived by the fifth one I knew I had struck gold. My favorite in his Series of Unfortunate Events so far has been The Vile Village. I just really like seeing the Baudelaires strike off on their own and not go back to that insufferable Poe. Though The Ersatz Elevator was almost as good.
I also enjoyed Sarah Sundin’s Wings of Glory series and the first two Wings of the Nightingale books. I’d have to say I liked With Every Letter best. I don’t normally enjoy historical romance but these are just so good! The characters are entirely unrealistic as far as looks go but other than that they are wonderful stories about WWII and the people who fought it.
But the best discover of this past year has been Monster by Miriam Neal. Just go read it. You won’t regret it.
Quick! First funny quote from a book, off the top of your head! {{ You can go look it up to make sure you have it right, if you like.}}
“Cornflakes. Cold noodles,” said Rush. “BLO-OD! BLO-OD!”
~Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright
What would be your response to someone who told you she never read books?
I would smile comfortingly and then back slowly away. Then I would go disinfect myself. It would not do to catch whatever disease has impaired there persons judgement and taste.
What are your thoughts on the subject of e-readers?
Bor-ing. But good for beta reading. Someday when I am rich I will get one so that I don’t have to use the computer for beta reading. But then when I’m rich I’ll get my own computer so I won’t have to wangle computer time so never mind. I was also going to say that Kindle books are cheaper but I use kindle cloud {which doesn’t need a kindle} and again when I have my own laptop I wouldn’t need to wangle the computer time to finally reread Monster.
If you could write a note to a future reader in one of your top ten favorite books, what would you write and why would you choose that particular book?
I would pick Pilgrim’s Progress and I would beg them to memorize Hopeful’s conversion or at least to read it over and over again. It would say that is the single most comforting passage of literature outside of the Bible. I would tell them to drag it out whenever they are fearful and to pair it with Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentess. I would tell them to keep praying for God’s revelation because it is hard to see and easy to lose sight of. And I would also advise them to buy the audio drama because Steve Eager does a killer Mr. Moneylove.
What is the best children’s book you’ve read (not reread) in the last few months? We all know there’s no shame in reading good children’s literature-- come on, spill.
See my paragraph about Lemony Snicket.
If you could have a fictional side character over for tea in the nearish future, who would you choose and why?
Herbert Pocket. I’m rather half in love with him.
Quick, name a book you love that begins with L.
Lorna Doone. It was badly written but I loved it. John Ridd is awesome and the Doone Valley is awesome and there is so much history and politics wrapped up in it. I really really like it.
And now... recommend six titles for the lovely readers of this blog. Any titles. Six of ‘em. Do it. Now. (No, I’m not bossy.)
Ok, these are the six books that have affected and changed me the most.
~Carry On Mr. Bowditch
~Pilgrim's Progress
~Stepping Heavenward
~The Shadow Things
~Les Miserables
~Great Expectations
And I’m going to cheat and add Johnny Tremain because it was the first book I fell in love with.
Cheater, cheater.
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Huge round of applause to Anne-girl for her fabulous answers and for taking the time to stop by! Go read Johnny Tremain, peoples, and check out Anne's blog. Biased sister though I may be, I do believe her Legend of Honesty is destined for greatness. So go follow her blog before she publishes the book, and then you can say you Knew Her Back When. And don't forget to stay tuned in March for our next guest speaker!
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