Award!

Aubrie over at Flutey Words created a brand-new award for us in the spec fic genres: the Fantasy / Sci-fi Blogger Award! Pictured above ... so pretty. ;-)

(Btw, I tried repeatedly to get more carriage returns into this post and it just refused to accept them, so - sorry about the text bunching!)

The award requests that you talk about five favorite SF/F books or movies (and I think that in some way inspired you, though I'm not sure I'm adhering to that), so I thought I'd mix the old and the new.

(The Old)

1. Willow -- This movie was my favorite fantasy flick for a long, long time ... and arguably still is. It was one of my introductions into the genre, and it has so many of the traditional elements: prophecies, sorcerous combat, fairies, love potions, shapeshifters ... action, comedy, romance. I read somewhere - and still maintain it sounds true - that George Lucas actually wanted to make Willow, not Star Wars, but the computer technology wasn't up for the morphing. (And I also have to admit that every time I see the Gandulf / Saruman staff battle in Lord of the Rings, I think, "... dang. Was that a purposeful rip-off?") It's a very strong, archetypal story.

2. The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander -- These, by contrast, were the first fantasy books I ever read ... and reread ... and reread, to the point where my copies (which I still have) are sort of tattered. I think they also started me on my way to my fascination with Welsh myth, though it was years before I was able to look back at the story and appreciate the way the novels are inspired by the myths without cloning them.

(The New)

3. The Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde -- These really are readers' books, turning literature into a wild adventure where no subject is sacred. As a writer, too, I love the fanciful turns of how stories are created in this universe. I recommend these books as medicine. For me, at least, they just make you feel better.

4. Sojourn by Jana Oliver -- An absorbing science fiction time travel mystery, why this book makes this list in particular is how deftly Oliver handles the different sets of knowledge each character has. She does a fantastic job of helping the reader keep this straight and generating tension from something they know that character X or Y doesn't ... while still presenting viable surprises on top of that. This is a skill set I'd dearly love to be able to master.

5. Murder By Magic ed. Rosemary Edghill -- I love anthologies and short fiction, so I really have to put an anthology on this list ... and what better than an engaging assembly of mystery-meets-fantasy stories created by writers in both genres? This anthology runs the gamut from hilarious - oh, how I love Laura Resnick's short works - to touching ... and, of course, it represents a capsule package of something I'm trying to do. When I stop and think about it. ;-)

This list could be much, much longer - but there's five.