HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!! And a Tag :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day. :) I hope youse all have a wonderful, lovely day. Me, I am going to have a BEAUTIFUL day. Count on it. We are going to have Irish coffees, and yummy desserts, and all kinds of good stuff. Wine and beer and things like that. :)

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Now, the Literary Dinner Party Tag! I will be honest. I was not tagged. But Treskie shared the idea with me, so I decided I was going to do it, tag or no tag! For that reason, I'm not tagging either. However, if you want to do this cool tag, by all means do! Just let me know, kay? I want to read your post too as well. :)

So, for this tag you are going to plan a dinner party. The guests? Characters from your favorite books! So review all the books you own, and get ready.

FOR THIS PARTY, INVITE:

1.) One character who likes to cook.

I'm going to invite dear old Mr. Clarkson from Mixed Blessings. He's an eccentric man who takes over the cooking duties from his distracted, too-busy landlady. :)

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2. One character who has money to fund the party.

Sara Crewe from A Little Princess: either before her father died and she lost her money, or after the Indian gentleman takes her in as his daughter.

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3. One character who might cause a scene.

Nick Mallory, from the Merlin Conspiracy. MmmHmmm. :)

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4. One character who is funny/amusing.

He is not a person. Does that matter? I'd invite Polar Bear from The Father Christmas Letters. He's always good for a laugh!

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5. One character who is super social/popular.

Peter Guthrie, from Bloomability. "Sono Libero, Libero, Liberooooo!"

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6. One villain.

The Man Jack, from Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book. He is creeeeeeepy!

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7. One couple (doesn't have to be romantic).

Well, it's gonna be! Morgon of Hed and Raederle! I love, love, love these two. Quite so much. :)

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8. One hero/heroine.

Cyril from Pageant of Life. He. Is. Amazing.

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9. One under-appreciated character.

Faramir, son of Denethor, from The Lord of the Rings. There is a man completely under-appreciated by most readers. 

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10. One character of your own choosing.
Just one? Very well. It'll have to be a Diana Wynne Jones character. I'd invite Chrestomanci!

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There you go! I hope you enjoyed that. I rather did. It would be quite an epic gathering: some high fantasy characters, talking their archaic talk, some normal fantasy characters nattering away like Brits, some saintly people, some not-so-saintly people, and some not people! It would be interesting, indeed. :)

I have a couple new items I'm going to post in my Etsy shop in the next couple days, so when I do that I'll post some pictures here for you. :)

If you decide to do this tag, let me know! I want to check out your post. :) :)

Until next time,

God bless!

Cat

P.S. This is my 300th post! That's exciting. :)

The Imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien

I went to Borders again last weekend, and I found a book on J.R.R. Tolkien's world building. As though that wasn't enough, my family and I also watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy during the Labor Day weekend. All this Lord of the Rings inundation firmly implanted this knowledge inside me: Tolkien is a storytelling master!

J.R.R. Tolkien is my idea of the greatest storyteller. Not only did he create the most glorious and epic tale of heroic deeds and ultimate sacrifice, he was also nit-picky regarding the details of his world. Did you know that there's a chapter in The Two Towers where Samwise Gamgee is cooking his "conies", and Tolkien had to take a break from writing because he had to make sure the moon that was appearing in that chapter was the same as the moon that was appearing in a different chapter but on the same timeline? You've got to admire that kind of dedication.

I love his language, too. I love the way he wrote the Elvish languages of Quenya and Sindarin, and used Old English for his Rohirrim. Even the Nùmenòreans had a language all their own. Don't you just adore that kind of passion, that drives you to really make your world rooted in people's imagination?

I know there are some people that think his kind of language, his style, his dedication to description and culture is over-the-top. Some people get bored with that in-depth grounding. But me, I share a little bit of that passion. You have an actual world, not just a cardboard cutout.

His kind of writing is something I aspire to.

However, along with that kind of inspiring writing, I also want to write like Diana Wynne Jones. You will never meet two very different fantasy writers. He's so epic, and she's so... funny!!

Last, I wanted to let you know that Ruth Schiffman is hosting a giveaway over at her blog, Out on a Limb. Come on down and participate! There are some lovely books being given away. You will have fun joining in on the giveaway. I promise!

God bless.