fairy skeletons.: We're All (Bloggy) Sisters Around Here

A very belated happy 2015 to you all! I hope your resolutions (or pseudo-resolutions, or lack thereof) are chugging along nicely—I myself have settled quite nicely into this new year.

To start off the new blogging year on Fairy Skeletons on a thoroughly positive note, Alyssa @ Insanity Inc. has been kind enough to nominate me for a blogging award (again!), and I'm writing up my response post!

Rules:
- thank the blogger who nominated you, linking back to their site.
- put the award logo on your blog.
- answer the ten questions they’ve set you.
- make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer.
- nominate ten people.

Alyssa's Ten Questions:

Would you be a wealthy-beyond-belief merchant, a priest, a king, or an assassin? (Kudos to those who recognise the reference!)

(I'm assuming this is an ASOIAF reference and therefore yet another reminder that I really need to join this fandom.) I'd probably be an assassin, because I have no head for money, religion, or mountains of paperwork. Plus, I'm so short that I find it easy to hide and blend in, and I'm sure fighting can be taught, even to clumsy little dorks like me. My seemingly nice and harmless exterior would serve me well when I'm out on a job, and if I'm good at it, it should pay well. (Pretty weapons = big bonus.)

High/epic fantasy or urban fantasy?

High fantasy ALL THE WAY. This genre is basically the backbone of my reading/writing life. Fantasy worlds are my jam, no matter how richly layered and convoluted, and the blood and passion and politics that goes on in them—all on a truly staggering scale—is what I live for.

However, I do sometimes enjoy urban fantasy, like The Mortal Instruments.

What was the last classic you read? Did you enjoy it?

We just wrapped up a unit on Shakespeare's Othello in literature class, and while the way the curriculum covered it was woefully inadequate, the play itself was too disturbing amazing for words. I loved how many issues it touched on, from racism and sexism to deception and jealousy. The characters were so deftly executed—Iago with his masterful web of lies and his ruthlessness, Othello with his honorable start but ultimate moral weakness, Desdemona with her overabundance of kindness. Gah, Shakespeare gives me ALL THE FEELS. 

What was the last book you read that was out of your comfort zone but enjoyable?

I just reviewed it, actually, and I talked about in my 2014 End of Year Book Survey—Dahlia Adler's fabulous NA debut Last Will and Testament. It was pretty great, as all my Internet flailing surely indicates.

A book series that you are dying to finish? (reading- or writing-wise)

Reading-wise: Oh. TOO MANY. The Winner's Trilogy, the Lunar Chronicles, Throne of Glass, the Raven Cycle—and on and on and on. You guys are already well aware of my favorite books.

Writing-wise: That would be the series I'm working on, the Bloodlace Quartet (I am honestly super proud of this series title and DO NOT CARE HOW POMPOUS IT SOUNDS). I'm currently chipping away at the first book in the series, On the Midnight Streets, or "OtMS"—pronounced "autumns"—for short. I don't think it needs elaboration, as I've rambled about it plenty of times on this blog. And yes, for those of you who knew about this particular long-standing WIP, it is indeed going to be a series.

A book you really really want to read/write?

Please do not send me down this path. I will never return from all my fangirly ramblings about possible book ideas.

However, if you're interested in all the writing threads bobbing around in my evil little brain, it's always a good idea to check here:

Visit Christina's profile on Pinterest.

You are about to be marooned on an island. You get a pistol and a book. Which book?

Probably a nice, pretty bindup of the complete works of Shakespeare. That way I can a) reread his plays to my heart's content and find new dimensions in them every time, b) act out scenes by myself if I'm ever bored, and c) read off Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech whenever I'm considering using that pistol in... unsavory ways.

SHAKESPEARE JUST HAS INFINITE USES. 

Which subject would you love to read/write a nonfiction book about?

There are too many. Oh gosh. (But I probably wouldn't write any of these because that much research sounds terrifying. But I'd gladly devour them if they were available at my local library. And by the way, if anyone knows of books that cover any of these topics, TELL ME. PLEASE.)

Asian flappers in the American Jazz Age. | Female serial killers throughout history. | ANY AND ALL HISTORICAL QUEENS. | Anything about prominent women in Greek, Roman, or Byzantine history. | The military history of Korea, especially Yi Sun-shin (I know some really surface-level details but I WANT TO LEARN MORE because the Korean military kicked some serious butt). | The role of women in the French Revolution, à la Marie Antoinette or Madame Defarge from A Tale of Two Cities. | Anything about historical weaponry (swords, daggers, early guns, etc.). | Filipino mythology because UGH it's so marginalized but *so* fascinating. | Korean mythology because DUH. | Archetypes and treatment of women in fairytales. 

Basically, I want all the nonfiction about women, folklore, politics, and war. Or any combination thereof. GIVE IT TO ME.

What do you drink when you're reading or writing?

I don't really... drink stuff when I'm reading/writing? I'm more of a lose-all-sense-of-time-and-space kind of girl when I'm steeped in words. But I suppose a glass of water now and then never goes amiss after a long stretch of reading or writing. *reaches toward cup with trembling, dehydrated hand*

Favourite book-to-movie adaptation?

IS THIS EVEN A QUESTION.

Come on. You guys all knew what I was going to put here, anyway. The Lord of the Rings film series is an absolute masterpiece about insurmountable evil and small but courageous heroes and the forces that shape them both. There are also freaking mind-blowing battle scenes, great speeches, and bits of humor to be had everywhere. Howard Shore's score is brilliant—probably my favorite movie soundtrack of all time—and the acting is great all around. Not to mention EVERYTHING IS GORGEOUS. WHY, NEW ZEALAND, WHY?

I mean, I love everything about these movies.

(This GIF is the greatest thing I've seen this week and no one can convince me otherwise.)

However, The Help is a close second. It was so marvelously done, and the acting and details and everything just... I have so much love for that movie. 

And of course I'd count the Hobbit films along with LotR if I could, but ultimately I do think the original series was better.

Questions for My Nominees:

1. Let's say you've been granted the authority to require all of humanity to read one book. Which book would you choose?

2. You're going on a quest—the possibly lifelong, dangerous, extremely eventful kind—Bilbo Baggins style. What are you wearing?

3. Best day of the week?

4. First thing you would do with a pet dragon?

5. If you could pick one (real or fictional) language to immediately be fluent in, what would you choose?

6. Generate a random word and then make a five-song playlist with that word as a theme.

7. Pet peeve in fiction?

8. Greatest GIF ever?

9. How would you describe your music taste?

10. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

What of the Nominees?

I've decided I'm not doing specific nominees this time around, since I've done blog awards a few times before. However, if you'd like to steal these questions for a post, consider yourself nominated! I'm sure anyone who's kind enough to read my blog deserves an award through and through. (If you do a post with these questions, be sure to link me to it in the comments! I'd love to see it.)

Be sure to thank Alyssa for giving me yet another opportunity to gush about myself to you all!