Anya Bast

I did a blog over on the Bradford Bunch blog recently about a few of my favorite winterish things. Here’s the testosterone laced version.

A few of my favorite things male actors.

A few of them are gimmes, but how many can you name?

Being able to write sentences like this one is just one of the many reasons.

“I guess if my last lover had his head ripped off for having sex with me, I’d be a little jumpy too.”

~*~

And now, for your morning flashback edification. Really, really ugly and strange overalls. Black beanies with jaunty red balls on top. And, as a bonus, Madonna-hair like wow.

According to recent research, Americans spend an average of ten more minutes a week watching TV than they did five years ago. They spend forty minutes more a day than they did a decade ago.

On the flip side of the media coin, books sales have been steadily declining. Logic says that perhaps TV is replacing books as a favored form of entertainment. Scratch that, I’m sure TV has already replaced books as such.

The truth is that there are many competitors for the attention of our eyeballs. Not only are there TV and books, there are movies, the Internet and computer/video games too.

I admit I’m a big Internet junkie. I’m on the ‘Net a lot. Movies are another downfall of mine. I love to watch movies both in the theatre and at home. Computer/video games hold little interest for me.

And TV? We actually don’t have TV. Well, we have a TV, but it only gets one channel and we only watch one show. That would be Survivor. Yes, yes, I know. It’s one of my guiltiest pleasures. Otherwise, we don’t watch TV mostly because of the commercials. Commercials just freak me out, man. Most of them treat the viewers as if they have the intelligence of a three-year-old and others are just flat out frightening. Dancing bears and toilet paper, anyone? Mucus throwing parties in your sinus cavities? Shudder

We do Netflix some shows, however. Right now our favorites are Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood, & Prison Break. We just started watching season one of Desperate Housewives too (blessedly without commercials). We’ll see if that show makes the cut. I absolutely loved Dead Like Me, Angel, Buffy and Firefly when they were on. (Bring back Dead Like Me and Firefly, you TV producers! They never got a fair shot!)

However books will always remain my favorite form of entertainment, and the reason reaches further than the fact I write them. Why? Well, read my last blog and you’ll understand.

When I watch movies or TV, everything is handed to me on a silver platter. They allow me no opportunity to create a world in my mind and fill it with my own sights, sounds, smells and tastes. TV and movies offer me no way to use my imagination. They don’t transport me the way a good book does. They usually don’t immerse me so deeply that I can’t hit the stop button and I end up watching all night, regardless of the fact I’ll be exhausted the next day. I can always flip off a TV show or a movie and not regret it. I can’t always close a book and not regret it. I never finish a movie and then instantly say, “I want to watch it again!”, the way I’ve closed some books, turned wistful for a moment, and then flipped to the first page again.

Movies and TV are wonderful and entertaining forms of media, but I guess overall I prefer the imagination expansion that reading allows me.

I’m snowed under with edits and deadlines. Therefore, not blogging much this week.

I have edits on Whisper of the Blade to do, a proposal due for my next Harlequin Spice novella, an article to write for a publication and Witch Blood (that would be the sequel to Witch Fire) to make some progress on.

Aaaah!

I am on vacayshun.   I’ll be back soon. :)

Am I the only person who thinks this is the coolest thing ever?

Avenging Unicorn Play Set
Everyone wants an imaginary unicorn friend that they can call forth to smite their enemies. The Avenging Unicorn Play Set has everything you need to use the power of the unicorn to rid your life of irritations.

Or do I just have a really sick sense of humor? (Could be that.)

This company also has the Avenging Narwhal Play Set and a whole collection of rubber Devil Duckies. I think the Ninja Devil Duckie is my favorite.

So I started thinking about what my favorite toys were when I was kid. Not that I think the Avenging Unicorn Playset is for kids. My mind just spins off on various tangents that way.

I was a typical girl, I guess. I loved Barbie. (I know! I know! The shame.) I had all the Barbie stuff. The Dream Car (it was perfect for my hamsters and guinea pigs to take joy rides in) and the Dream House. I had all the really, really pink dream stuff that I hope my daughter won’t ever like but, let’s face it, she probably will.

I loved my cabbage patch dolls too. I had a boy and girl. In fact, I still have my two worse-for-wear Cabbage Patch Kids. I also had a Cabbage Patch pet. I guess it was supposed to be a cat, but looked disconcertingly evuuul.

I loved that green ooozy glop that comes in a can and Playdough too. And I read…a lot. (Hold on, here’s another tangent. Wheee!) I could go on and on about children’s books. Actually, I’ve been collecting some of the books that are still print that I can remember loving as a child, like the Serendipity books and the Francis books (Bedtime for Francis, A Baby Sister for Francis), and the Teddy Bear’s Picnic. Not to mention all the young adult books I loved, books by Lloyd Alexander and Madeleine L’Engle, just to name two authors.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane. What were some of your favorite toys and books as a child?