Sorry, Guys

I know, it's been what, 4 days?  Five days?  I know I missed at least one Teaser in there.  Who's counting anymore.  I feel like ass.

I've been up late and running around all week, hand-sewing stripes on an over-sized orange sweatshirt, so my boyfriend and I can be completely without-a-doubt secured to win the prize for the greatest Halloween costume of 2009: none other than Calvin and Hobbes.  A boy and his tiger.  Of course, since I know how to thread a needle, I am going as Hobbes.

(And I just wrote "sewing" as "sweing" three times in a row.)

So now all the pressure is getting to me and I have come down with some variation of swine flu, or maybe it's just the common cold.  I am taking Zicam and drinking tea.  I bought some soup.  I will not miss Halloween.  However, I still need to sew (count 4 for "swe") all the stripes onto the back of my costume.  I have till 6pm EDT tomorrow, right?  Right.  Stickin' to it.

Anyhow, I decided to catch up on my blog reading while I sip ginseng tea from this gigantic mug, and found a link at Turtlehead leading me back to a link at Kate...Tells Stories with a pretty sweet bookish meme all about "stories that stick."  You see, Kate is an author, who just finished a book called The Dread Crew, and you even have a chance to win a copy of her new book if you fill out the meme!  Of course I totally filled out the meme.

Holy crap, and I just hit Publish Post without even being ready to Publish Post.  Ok, one meme and I am going to bed.

Without further ado..."Stories That Stick":

1) You are facing an epic journey. You may choose one companion, one tool and one vehicle from any book or film to accompany you. Or just one of the three. It's up to you. What do you choose?

Companion: I would pick Charlotte from Charlotte's Web, because she is sensible, smart, has lots of common sense, and is kind and encouraging.  However, she is a spider, and will probably not live for more than a year.  So I choose Jill from Katharine Kerr's Deverry Series...she is all those things, plus she is human.  And she has magic.

Tool:  Probably Harry Potter's wand.  (Turtlehead: How about I filled out my own answers before I read yours...we are so in sync. ;) )

Vehicle:  Elphaba's broom.  Why not Harry Potter's broom?  Who can say.  Or maybe I would borrow Rhodry Maelwaedd's dragon for awhile.

2) You can escape to the insides of any book. Where do you go, and why?

I'm pretty much a wimp, so I don't think I'd go anywhere too ridiculous or dangerous.  In fact, I think I'd like to hang out near Elizabeth Gilbert's stomping grounds in Eat, Pray, Love.  Italy, India, Indonesia.  Sounds like a vacation to me!  Oh man, or in Ramona Quimby's house.  I always wondered what her parents said when she wasn't around.

3) You can bring one literary character into your current life. Who do you choose, and why?

Tough.  I'd choose Brett Ashley from The Sun Also Rises.  She's strong, and I think I'd love listening to her stories.

4) __The Outsiders__ is my go-to book. I could read that book fifty-seven times in a row without a break for food or a pee and not be remotely bored. In fact I've already done that but it wasn't fifty-seven times. It was sixty-four.

5) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most enviable?

Enviable, huh?  I have to say I did envy Claudia Kishi from The Baby-sitter's Club series.  She was beautiful, smart (although she did have trouble in school), cool, had some great fashion taste, and she was artsy.  Everything I wanted to be growing up.  My favorite book in the series was Claudia and the Clue in the Photograph.  It was such a great plot, and that's where I learned the word "facade."

6) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most frightening?

Who was scary?  I don't know if any character in a book or movie ever really frightened me as a kid.  Everything always worked out in the end, like I could predict it would.  If it didn't work out, it would at least resolve.  Certain scenes were scary, maybe.  What happened was that I got a lot of nightmares as I got older and started reading more sophisticated, real stuff...like D.M. Thomas's The White Hotel.  That book gave me the worst case of the creeps.

7) Every time I read _America's Women_, I see something in it that I haven't seen before.

8)  It is imperative that ____The BFG_____ be made into a movie. Now. I am already picketing Hollywood for this-but if they cast ____Robin Williams_____ as __the BFG___, I will not be happy. I will, however, be appeased if they cast __James Cromwell___.

9) __The Devil Wears Prada__ is a book that should never be made (or should have never been made) into a film.

Ok, this is only half true.  I thought the book was spectacular, and I was so excited to see the movie after I finished it.  The visuals were so good, it seemed perfect for the big screen.  But the movie just...sucked.  The book was worlds away.  So much was left out of the film...and it was the first book I read that actually seemed like it was also MADE for film.  I realize they were shooting for 90 minutes, but it could have been executed so differently...and better.

10) After all these years, the __refugee boat__ scene in the book/movie ___Children of the River__ still manages to give me the queebs.

11) After all these years, the ___last sentence where you finally see the frame story___ scene in the book/movie ___The Outsiders___ still manages to give me a thrill.  (sorry to use this book twice, but I LOVE it.)

12) If I could corner the author ___K.A. Applegate___, here's what I'd say to them one minute or less about their book, __the Animorphs Series__:

"Your books got me so interested in fantasy and science fiction writing.  I laughed, I cried, so thank you so much for introducing me to a genre I never knew I could love."

13) The coolest non-fiction book I've ever read is __To Full Term__. Every time I flip through it, it makes me want to __either jump up and down (seriously) or just sit down and read it cover to cover.  It makes me want to recommend it___.


And there you have it!  My version of the Stories That Stick meme.  Have fun filling in your own!