Flight into Fantasy

Today, I’m delighted to get a chance to participate in the 2009 Virtual Advent tour. Please check out the other participants in this great tour, as there are some excellent holiday posts up by some amazing bloggers. Here is my small contribution!

I don’t have many Christmas traditions that other people out there in the world don’t also have. Oh, there are my little private rituals–I like to listen to David Sedaris read “The Santaland Diaries” every year, for example, which probably says something fairly unflattering about me. But other than that? On Christmas Eve I go to my parents’ house, we go to bed early, wake up to open gifts, spend the day being lazy, and then it’s over.

The one thing I do, though, that I think is really special every year is participate in a caroling group. My friend Echo, a retired teacher I met through the blind community, which is small and quite interconnected, has been organizing the caroling trip every year for well over 30 years. Off and on for the past fifteen years, I’ve been in attendance, missing only a couple of years when I was living out of state. (I like to think of those as the Christmases from Hell, but that’s a completely different post.) The number and makeup of the caroling group have changed a lot over the past few years, but I love doing it every year, because there’s something about being in a room with people and singing your hearts out that, despite the logistical nightmares of setting the whole thing up, is extremely magical.

For me, that magic has coincided with several milestones in my life. Firstly, if it hadn’t been for caroling, I wouldn’t have met and become close friends with Echo and her partner. They are both wonderful women who have taught me a lot, women whose grace and dignity I hope I can eventually possess in some small measure.

Secondly, it was at a caroling party that I first made out with my then-boyfriend. I won’t go into details or anything, because I don’t remember them, but I do remember feeling more deeply in love with him in those moments than I think I did the whole rest of the time we were together. In my more wistful moments, I sometimes daydream that someone else will show up at a caroling party, because a small part of me is convinced I will meet my soulmate while my voice joins with others in singing “Joy to the World” or “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” Of course, this is not likely to ever happen, because I’ve known most of the people I carol with for years, and I’m sure if they ever thought they should set me up with someone who might be my soulmate, they’d have done so before now and not in such a chaotic setting.

And there is chaos. It all starts the Friday night before caroling, when those of us who live inconveniently far away from Echo converge on her house. The evening is usually spent in making sure we all have sack lunches to take with us, catching up on news and gossip, and eventually, the night is capped off by a rehearsal for those among us who, unlike me, play instruments more complicated than a kazoo. Echo, like me, enjoys surrounding herself with beautiful music, and consequently she knows a lot of musicians, so our carols have some complicated arrangements. (We sing Peter, Paul and Mary’s “A’Soalin’”, which, when you listen to the version Peter, Paul and Mary sing seems deceptively simple. Well, it’s not.) The musicians vary from year to year. This year, we will have two guitarists and a ukulele player. One of the guitarists, a brilliant woman who, in her day job, teaches math, also plays fiddle, flute and mandolin. (I always like to bask in her presence, in hopes that some musical talent beyond a strong and mostly on-pitch singing voice will magically rub off on me. This has yet to happen.) We also usually have someone willing to play keyboard, usually one of our blind musicians who inherited the stereotypical ability people think all blind people have to play music by ear. (I do not have this gift, much to my own dismay. I suppose I should have paid more attention and been more enthusiastic about the piano lessons I was forced into as a child, but I didn’t. *Sigh*.)

After the instrumental rehearsal, we all fall into bed to wake up bright and early on Saturday. Echo traditionally makes a breakfast casserole, which is loaded with more cholesterol and artery-clogging agents than you can shake a stick at. It’s extremely popular, and I have to confess that I don’t like it. (It should also be noted that, while I am not embarrassed to relate that my first makeout session happened at caroling, I admit to not liking the breakfast casserole with a sense of shame. After all, it’s one of those immutable traditions that people enjoy, and, despite what people may or may not think about me, I don’t always like being a killjoy.)

After breakfast and mingling with other carolers who have begun to arrive, we begin a three-hour rehearsal period. This usually doesn’t end up going very smoothly because inevitably someone is late, someone needs directions to where we’re going, and people are focused on catching up with people they haven’t seen since last year’s trip. But we sing through the hard pieces, giving our instrumentalists a chance to practice once more, only with a larger group.

I should say something about our caroling materials. Echo and our other guitarist, a mom and writer by day named Woody, have put together a diverse collection of songs. We have everything from the old chestnuts, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Jingle Bells”, “Up on the Housetop”, etc. to more religious fair–”O Come All Ye Faithful”, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, “Joy to the World”, etc. And then there are the other pieces, including the aforementioned “A-Soalin”, as well as “Light One Candle”, another Peter, Paul and Mary song. We also sing a version of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” that was arranged by The Weavers, (another 60’s folk group), and a catchy African song called “A Ka Bway La”. (I’m fairly sure that is a phonetic spelling, since when I google that particular spelling in hopes of providing you a youtube link, I get nada.) The nontraditional carols are my favorites, because only at caroling do I get a chance to sing them. Also, as a folk music fan, I love that we’re doing our part to keep obscure songs in circulation.

The actual caroling part of the adventure is fairly standard. We usually hit at least one nursing home. Sometimes we sing for people in hospitals. We’ve sung for little kids, and we’ve sung for homebound friends who find it difficult to get out and join us. (Those types are my favorites because they are genuinely excited to have us sing for them, and are much more engaged with us. The home caroling also gives us a chance to call up people who live too far away to come so that we can sing for them. Thanks to the invention of cell phones, we’ve now found it possible to carol to more than one person at a time this way.)

After the singing, we all troop back to Echo’s house, where her long-suffering partner serves up vats full of chili. People usually bring snacks and side items to go with it, and it’s a grand potluck, which is a great way to cap off the day.

So that’s my holiday tradition, in far more detail than you ever wanted. What are some of yours? Do you have favorite Christmas carols, or odd Christmas songs you like that my caroling group should learn.

P.S. Here are youtube links to a few versions of the songs we sing.

• Light One Candle

• A-Soalin’

And here’s my contribution to our caroling experience. For the love of my bandwidth, I’d appreciate if you’d right click on this file,k hit Save As, and open it on your own system rather than streaming it from mine.

Christmas Morning

To my regular readers: This is not exactly a book-related post. You can feel free to skip it if you like.

For the curious, Yuletide is a huge fanfiction exchange in which participants write stories about obscure fandoms for one another. I participated last year, and the experience was awesome. I promise not to flood my blog with yuletide posts, and, probably, this will be the only one I post. So, if the idea of fanfiction doesn’t appeal to you or you want to argue about its legality, feel free to skip.

That being said…

To my Yuletide Author:

First of all, you are awesome for taking on this challoenge. The fact that you write anything for me at all will make me ecstatic. However, I realize I wasn’t very verbose on my official sign-up sheet, (I had this problem last year, sadly), so I figured I’d go into more detail.

First of all: Flowers in the Attic. If this is the one fandom we have in common, I apologize. I enjoy reading really bad books for the sheer hilarity of torturing other people with them, which is how I came to read FITA. I realize asking someone to write me crackfic for a series I love to hate isn’t exactly fair, and if these are your favorite books of all time, you probably shouldn’t read further on my blog lest my snark about them make you sad. That’s why I’m looking for something funny and cracky. I’m flexible about pairings, and I can handle smut, but I mostly just want someone to reach for the full potential of crack that these books provide. I have read Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind, but have no intention to read any of the others. I hope that gives you a bit of a frame of reference to go on.

For the Madeleine L’Engle canon, I’m flexible. I really love Meg/Calvin, and would love to see something featuring them as young people, first discovering their romance. Then again, something with a Zachary and Polly post- An Acceptable Time would be fun, too. Basically, you can’t go wrong with any of the characters in this series, because I love them all.

Lastly, the Millennium Trilogy. Oh, Lisbeth. She is probably my favorite character in all of the books I’ve read this year. She is such a well-rounded character, with her brilliant mind but horrible past, her single-minded determinedness and her inability to quite cope with the softer emotions. I’d love to see someone do her justice. Again, I’m flexible, so if you feel inspired toward fluff or angst or smut or het or slash or whatever, just go for it. I will love it regardless.

Overall, I enjoy strong characterization–particularly of female characters. I like getting inside the heads of the characters I’m reading about and seeing how they tick. I love schmoopiness, and I love fluff, especially if they make sense in the context of the story. Obviously, I enjoy humor and a bit of crack as well, provided, of course, that it makes sense in context.

As for dislikes, I’d prefer not to read about graphic violence, or lovingly detailed torture scenes. I’m also not a huge fan of rape as a dramatic element, and prefer not to read it. Other than that, and the obvious desire to read a story that’s gramatically correct, I’m pretty flexible.

I hope this gives you enough to work with.

Thanks once again!

Shannon

I forgot to do a post about the 2eadathon as a whole. I guess now is as good a time as any to do that.

Basically… I’m really glad I participated. I had a lot of fun reading other people’s tweets, and there are several new blogs I’ve added to my feed reader that I hope to visit soon.

I’m definitely going to participate more fully next April. Hopefully I can even do the whole 24 hours without the need for pesky things like sleep and without other plans. I also picked really good books, for the most part, although I think for next time I’m going to try and have more light fare, because most of what I read was seriously depressing.

Today, I’ve been writing papers. (Well, actually, I spent most of today putting off the writing of said papers, but they are written, so that’s good.) I’m going to try to write up reviews for the books I read yesterday so that there will be plenty of content while I am busy with RL this weekend.

I hope the rest of you had a relaxing post-Readathon Sunday!

Well, I’ve done as much as I can. I finished three books today, which I think is a great accomplishment considering the fact that I hung out with friends most of the day. For the record, in addition to The Knife of Never Letting Go I was able to finish Blood Roses by Francesca Lia Block and Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles.

I hope those of you participating in the Readathon had as much fun as I did! I, meanwhile, am going to bed, and will catch you all on the flipside!

I finished The Knife of Never Letting Go. I have a bit less than an hour before I have to get ready to leave for the afternoon, so the next thing I picked out was a really short book of short stories called Blood Roses , by Francesca Lia Block, who is a YA author whose books normally work for me.

Incidentally, I loved TKONLG. The things I hated were all because I hated that the characters suffered as much as they did, and, man, do I want the next book, like, right now, please.

How are the rest of you doing? I suck at commenting back, but I’m going to try to do so tonight when I get home!

The Readathon is here! I just started reading about half an hour ago. Currently I’m reading The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I’m not sure if I’m going to manage to read anything else today, because I have plans this afternoon, but this is definitely a good readathon book.

Anyway, here is the opening meme that the contest hosts have asked us to fill out!

Where are you reading from today?

My apartment. More specifically my living room, which happens to be where the computer isn’t. The computer is, after all, full of distractions!

3 facts about me …

1. I’m a huge fan of Celtic music.
2. I am doing readathon stuff today rather than study for midterms. It is well worth it!
3. I am a twitter addict.

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?

I’ve got three or four. I’m not sure I’m going to manage all of them, but I have a couple of short story collections and some short novels. Specifically, I’ve got Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan, Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link, Echo by Francesca Lia Block, Wasteland also by Francesca Lia Block, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?

No, not really. I’d like to get a couple of books read, and I plan to do a lot of cheering of people on twitter, but that’s as far as it’s gotten.

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time?

Sadly, this is my first time. I was an observer last time, but I figure that I’m not one to ask for advice until after I’ve completed today!

Well, tomorrow, it’s finally here. The 24-hour Readathon is tomorrow, and I am stoked.

Unfortunately, I have plans for a large part of the day, and I can’t pull an all-nighter because I have essays to write for school, but I am going to read as much as I can and cheer everyone else on.

Not sure how I’m going to update you all on my progress. I guess we’ll see how I’m feeling about blogging in general. I do know I’ll be tweeting a lot, so feel free to follow my updates if you don’t already. Also, be sure to check out the #readathon hash tag to see what other participants have to say.

It’s going to be an awesome time, and I can’t wait to participate.

The only book I know for sure I’m going to read is The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, because I’m a little over halfway through and I think I can knock it out. As for other books, I have no idea. It will be a surprise!

It’s time to play another game of “what weird search terms show up on the blog?”

• “a “fan” of samantha sommersby commented
  (Riiight. Not buying that she was a real fan. I’ve been on the Internet too long for that to work. But hey, she was my first troll, so (I think she’s cute.)

• ass cominant
  (Nope, still got the wrong blog.)

• historical romance book heroine kick ass
  (Can I recommend Jessica from Loretta chase’s Lord of Scoundrels? )

• women who think fat men are sexy
  (They are out there. But I don’t have any to introduce you to at the moment, sadly.)

• face farting slave fantacy
  (I have learned entirely too much about someone else’s fettish. I feel… kind of dirty about that.)

• vikings gaybear
  (I don’t know what that is, but it does sound kinda hot.)

Please feel free not to share your slave face farting fantasies in the comments!

I’ve been wanting to do the Weekly Geeks meme for a while, but was never actually inspired to answer the question. Then I got myself a blogging partner, so this week, both Lora and I are going to tackle this week’s question:

What’s your non-reading guilty pleasure?
Trashy TV?
Trashier movies?
Junk food?

Lora says:

Guilty pleasures? Do I really have to choose just one?

For the past few months, it has been American Idol. I tried to justify it by explaining that everyone else at work was watching it, and I needed to be able to converse with my peers about such things. That all seems flimsy now. I got wrapped up in the angst and drama, and was glad to watch it every Tuesday and Wednesday, even if it did occasionally tread on my Fringe obsession, too. Now that was a great combo of TV shows. I knew I was in trouble when I even found myself voting. And not just once.

American idol is a short-lived love story, however. It sweeps in every January, monopolizes my week nights for a while, and then disappears with a snicker, leaving me to reschedule my Tuesdays and Wednesdays once again, hopefully with something meaningful and self-enriching this time.

Unfortunately, there is another obsession that plagues me all year round. Junk food, junk food everywhere, and nary a vitamin C. It can be chocolate kisses, teriyaki beef jerky, or orange sherbet. Or, very occasionally, cake batter ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. It used to include barbecued potato chips, but I have banished that demon from my life. Next on the list of demons to quell is chocolate, but until I firmly decide that they are my foes, I suspect they’ll continue to share my home and my heart, sweet-talking me with their delicious whispers and tempting taste sensations. Ah, villainy, thy name is chocolate.

Shannon says:

I have to agree with Lora on the junk food. That’s definitely one of my guilty pleasures. And sadly, I have no willpower. Back when our local frozen custard place delivered, I’m sure I was the only reason they stayed delivering so long. Not that the frozen custard actually lasted very long when I had it, but still…

Another guilty pleasure I’ve discovered is shopping. I hate shopping in brick and mortar stores, but I love online shopping, because I can do it more or less independently, and it’s easy for me to go, “Oh, shiny!” and stick something in my cart. More and more, I’ve been doing this with music especially. I tend to listen to a lot of indie and folk music, and I justify spending money downloading CDs from Amazon and Emusic by telling myself that the artists need my business. And if there is a sale, I am on it like white on rice. I do have to rein myself in, though. It’s not like I’m exactly rolling in the cash.

What about the rest of you? What are your guilty pleasures?

I mentioned a few days ago that I couldn’t participate in the Dewey’s 24 hour Readathon even though I wanted to. I also mentioned that I’d be hosting a mini-challenge.

Well, here it is.

Write a letter to the protagonist of one of the books you’re reading. The letter can be about anything–why you like him or her, why you don’t like him or her, things you’ve learned from him or her. Post your letters either on your blogs or in the comments!

Have at it! You have until the end of hour 13–two hours!

And, where there is a challenge, of course, there must needs be prizes, and this one is no exception. For this challenge, I’m giving away Suzy’s zoo-themed gift bag with awesome reading-themed bookmarks and stationery from Bok Smith. Thanks for the awesome prize, Suzy!

I can’t wait to read what you have to write to your characters!

Some of the new to me book bloggers I’ve been reading have been all abuzz with anticipation for the 24 hour readathon being held this Saturday. I think the idea is a cool one, and I would love to participate. Normally, I even could manage it, except I have plans this Saturday.

Anyway, if you, unlike me, have the day free and are a masochist, feel free to visit that site for all the detes. And because I truly am a masochist, I emailed the organizers and plan on hosting a surprise mini challenge on the day in question. (I have no idea what the challenge will be. Hence why it will be a surprise.)

I’ve been noticing that many bloggers have been awarded the Zombie Chicken Award lately. Lest you wonder what the heck I’m clucking about, let me explain.

The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…

You know what has me so fried? Not one of the brood of hens whose squawkings I read regularly thought to nominate me. I wonder what they were thinking? Did they think that, as soon as the Zombie Apocalypse hit, I would fly the coop, hoping for free range? Well, I cry foul! As soon as those zombies came swooping in, egged on by my hen-pecked friends and associates, I would fight those zombies until all of them were sufficiently yolked. After all, zombies weren’t meant to rule the roost!

But thanks to no one giving me this award themselves, I guess none of the rest of you will ever know that, will you? Why, even now, you probably think I’m just going to grab your leg and pullet. Well, I intend to be proactive about this. As soon as I hear the faintest hint of zombified creatures running around with their heads cut off, I’ll lay in wait. Because goddammit, I am a bad-ass, kick-ass zombie-fightin’ chick!

I got this from C Squared, who is one of my favorite tweeple in the twitterverse.

Here’s my post from the lazy bloggers post generator.

OMG! I just opened mine eyes, and lo! I have not updated this since they invented sliced bread… You would not believe how hard it is being waited on hand and foot and generally lounging around. I prostrate myself in sorrow and beg thy forgiveness..

I am absolutely consumed with finding Jesus (after someone told me he was lost), watching the grass grow, just generally being of great concern to various lawyers I met recently, my day sprawls from the second I am woken by murderous Teletubbies to I run out of alcohol. I am so tired of my kids wanting me to give them attention and stuff. I wish you could be here to share it.

I swear on the bones of my ancestors if one more person emails me to ask why I haven’t posted today I will start posting pictures of toe fungus, or fecal murals. You wanna test me? The Piccaninnies say I have to!.

I never heard back from our final author on Ebook week. So, sadly, for the last day of celebrations, you have to settle for a non-author interview post.

I couldn’t think of anything to say about ebooks that hadn’t already been said by wiser heads than I, so I decided to seek a higher source. I first went to Urban Dictionary, which had this to say about my favorite means of reading.

Ebooks: Keyword for pornagraphy. [Sic] Only the cool people use it.
Hey I was looking through my files last night and I found 4 Gigs of Ebooks!

OK, well, thanks, Urban Dictionary. I’m pretty sure the people I’ve been interviewing this week wouldn’t necessarily call their books pornagraphy, but whatever.

The next thing I did was plug “ebooks” into googlism. Here’s what that site had to say.

ebooks is all about making money on the net
ebooks is a division of double dragon publishing
ebooks is redundancy
ebooks is an important selling feature
ebooks is not your forte
ebooks is dedicated to bringing conventional publishing values to the new medium
ebooks is restricted to york university users
ebooks is analogous to a collection of paper books
ebooks is a complete system that will allow you to publish your first ebook and sell it over the internet
ebooks is now easier and cheaper than ever with paypal
ebooks is adobe pdf
ebooks is not everything that we say it is and you are not completely satisfied with it
ebooks is the same
ebooks is a browser
ebooks is as easy as reading them
ebooks is about giving consumers in content
ebooks is the same 12 hours as for ebooks you read online
ebooks is provided by webengineer solutions
ebooks is minimal
ebooks is that you don’t have to spend hours searching through book stores to find the book you want
ebooks is easy
ebooks is enormous and the best way to expand the market is to work together
ebooks is always available on our new this week page
ebooks is the hottest business on the internet
ebooks is a very exciting project for sealedmedia
ebooks is that there is no overhead costs
ebooks is fully inclusive and accessible to all readers
ebooks is often enriched with photos
ebooks is the fact they can be updated with the click of a button
ebooks is immediately sent to your email box
ebooks is the use by people who are visually impaired
ebooks is the subjects and the prices
ebooks is seeking original novella to book length manuscripts from authors who are interested in pursuing electronic publication
ebooks is 3 days
ebooks is much higher than for other products
ebooks is a netlibrary account and internet access
ebooks is provided by some of the top 10% of the business and marketing professionals on the internet today
ebooks is where the money’s at
ebooks is one way
ebooks is proven to be the quickest and easiest way to make money using the internet
ebooks is not price
ebooks is anyone can write them.

Well, there you have it. Pornagraphy and an easy way to make money on the Internet.

Since the grand prize is still up for grabs, feel free to discuss what else ebooks are in the comments!

Sarah of the Smart Bitches tweeted about this, and I think it’s very cool.

?This week, March 8-14, is Read an Ebook Week. I won’t prosseletize the benefits of ebooks over here–anybody who has talked with me for longer than about 30 seconds about books or, hell, read this blog, knows that I’m a huge fan of all things ebooktastic. But you can go over here to read all the details in case you’re not quite convinced that ebooks are the way to go.

That being said, I plan on celebrating Read an Ebook week. Feel free to check back here for surprise events. Possibly involving prizes. Be there or be a parallelogram!

I don’t actually want to post any relevant or interesting content tonight, so I leave you with this all-too-imnportant question, the pondering of which could be essential to our very existance!

It’s the zombie apocalypse. Who will survive, the pirates or the ninjas? Why?

• 10. “I have the clap.”

• 9. “Modern 19th century women don’t need the vote!”
• 8. “I really think I should get an abortion.”
• 7. “Sex? I’ve always wanted to try that!”
• 6. “Of course I’d settle for a feckless rake. He’d get tired of me and then I could have affairs of my own.”
• 5. “My scoundrel of a father/brother who wiped out the family fortune can go to the devil! I’m not sacrificing myself just because the men in my life can’t manage their money.”
• 4. “My therapist says I have codependency issues.”
• 3. “You forgot the condom? No sex for you!”
• 2. “I don’t give a damn about the starving, the poor, and cute little children.”
• 1. “I really mean it. If you don’t stop with all this lifemate shit I am putting a restraining order out on your ass.”

Put yourself in a Harlequin romance story

Here is mine:

Cowboy Jonathan grieved the loss of his wife and baby. Then he discovers his son is alive—and living with an adoptive mother—award-winning writer Shannon. Despite the secrets and lies, Jonathan can’t deny the truth: brainy Shannon loves the boy. Yet Jonathan grew up without a father and won’t do that to his own child.

When someone dangerous comes after them, cowboy Jonathan takes Shannon and his son into hiding in the unknown reaches of Mars. As he grows closer to them, he discovers much about family life. After his dark, troubled past, he’s finally found faith and family. And he’ll do anything to protect both.

Sadly, if I were reviewing this, I’d have to say that the heroine seems much less interesting than the hero. Which is a crime in my own damn book.

It looks as if the Desert Isle Keeper madness that Lisabea has started will be continuing. And since I guess this is the last day for stowaways, I’ve finally gotten a chance to participate.

Now, I know that all three of you who read this blog are dying to know what books I’d take with me on a desert island. Well, wonder no further, for here they be.

• A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin – it’s a four-book series, but we’ll pretend that someone will have compiled them into a ginormous omnibus edition that I can use to either way things down on the island or drop on the heads of my enemies.

• The Little Country – Charles de Lint
• A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
• Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
• Demon Night by Meljean Brook

There you have it. Yeah, I cheated, like, a lot, by counting ASOIAF as one book, but if I were really marooned on a desert island, I couldn’t just pick my favorite out of those four, not without refreshing my memory about stuff that came before. Plus, there are some great potential island inhabitants in those books… or at least there are a bunch of cynics in that book who hide their soft hearts beneath hard, callous exteriors, which, uh, I find hella sexy.

Holly over at Book Binge, who I like to think of as my good blogger twin, posted a meme. Given how opposed we are to original content over here I thought I’d do it.

Contemporary, Historical, or Paranormal?
Paranormal, followed by historical and contemp. It really depends on my mood.
Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
Erm… ebook.
Heyer or Austen?
Heyer. She’s witty and funny and I loved both of the books I’ve read by her, whereas–and here I will no doubt get smote–I’ve never really had any desire to read Austen.
Amazon or Brick and Mortar?
Amazon. Or, actually, Fictionwise.
Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Borders. There isn’t a B&N anywhere near where I live, but there is a Borders, and the Borders people are very nice.
Woodiwiss or Lindsay?
Lindsey is the one I’ve read. I haven’t felt any need to try Woodiwiss, either.
First romance novel you ever remember reading?
Hmmm, aside from Thunder Heights by Phylllis Whitney? Probably A Knight in Shining Armor by Deveraux. Unlike Holly, I really kind of liked the ending, but I don’t know if I could read it again and feel similarly years later.
Alphabetize by author Alphabetize by title or random?
By author. Like Holly, I also alphabetize by title and put series together. My ebook collection is the most organized thing in my life.
Keep, Throw Away or Sell?
Since I mostly read ebooks, I make sure I can get them again if I want to and then throw away, unless they’re books I absolutely must reread.
Read with dustjacket or remove it?
N/A.
Sookie Stackhouse or Anita Blake?
Sookie. Not that I intend to read any other books in that series, but yeah, she was less annoying than the one Anita Blake I tried to read.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
Chapter breaks, unless I’m using my Book Port, which is my glorified ebook reader for the blind, in which case I stop reading when I’m tired and it will pick up right where I left off.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
“Once upon a time.”
Crusie or SEP?
SEP I love. I haven’t read Crusie. (I know, le shock! Quel horror!)
Buy or Borrow?
Borrow, mostly. Except I do spend way more than I should on ebooks.
Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse?
Recommendations from people I trust. Occasionally if a blurb catches me I’ll try something.
Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
Tidy endings. Even in series. I don’t need every subplot resolved, but I don’t like when a book just… stops.
Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?
Whenever. I’ll read anytime, anyplace. Books help me wake up, and I have been reading more nonfiction to relax.
Series or standalone?
I am a huge series whore. I keep telling myself I won’t get caught up in any more, then I make a liar of myself and end up reading a series book anyway.
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
I think my Kate Elliott discovery qualifies. I loved King’s Dragon but even when I first picked it up nobody else had ever heard of it.

Know what would be fun?
Awesome haiku in the comments
Of this very post.

Why am I doing this?
Because you all need a way
To procrastinate.

It occurs to me
Our haikus might need a theme.
The topic: heroes!

Do you have a fave
Hero that makes you pant with
lust? Give us details!

Try to keep within
proper guidelines for haikus
Aaaaaand… Now go to town!

Will there be prizes?
I have not decided yet.
But you never know.

Also if you want
to pimp this post everwhere
don’t let me stop you!