Meanwhile, in Rivendell . . .

Sally Silverscreen from 18 Cinema Lane has nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award!  Always a treat — thank you, Sally! Like most awards, this one comes with a few rules: 1. Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog. 2. Thank the person who nominated you. 3. Provide a link to your nominator’s blog. 4. Answer your nominator’s questions. 5. Nominate up to 11 bloggers. 6. Ask your nominees 11 questions. 7. Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts. Those noted, let's proceed to Sally's questions and my answers. ⸻ 1. You’re about to introduce someone to a film genre. Which movie will you choose as the respective introduction? Funny you should ask; I just thought about this subject the other day.  I was re-watching Belle (2013) on a flight home and was impressed once again by just how fantastic of a period drama it is.  It really does have everything:  stunning cinematography, sumptuous costumes you could eat up with a spo...

First of all:  A gentle hug for all of those to whom this day brings more pain than joy.  For those who have lost children, for those who have lost mothers, for those who wish they could have a closer connection to their child or their mother, for those who have been abused by their child or their mother, for those who — for whatever reason at all — just have a complicated relationship with this day.  You are inexpressibly loved. ♥ Happy Mother's Day, my little munchkins!  In honor of the holiday, I wanted to spotlight some of my favorite mamas in the realm of fiction.  This is a small sampling, and there are, of course, several other maternal characters for whom I harbor deep affection. 😉 In the interests of narrowing down the list, I tried to confine this post to characters who are either introduced to the story as mothers or whose maternal role is one of their most significant contributions to the story.  That's why I'm not including the lovely ladies p...

What-ho, all!  I come to you on this fine sunny Sunday just in time to squeeze in one more post for Cordy's Lovely Blog Party before it ends tomorrow.   I wanted to pay tribute to a special class of my favorite fictional couples:  my "comfort" couples, the ones who make me feel safe and happy and at home whenever they're onscreen.  The ones who make my face break out into a big sappy grin when they meet for the first time, because I know everything that's coming in their story and can't wait to watch it unfold again.  The ones who may not always be the absolute "deepest," but who soothe and entertain me nonetheless.  The ones who are just plain adorable, who are so extremely wholesome that they elicit grins and squeeps and covered-face glee simply by being their pure and charming selves. This list isn't exhaustive — there are several more couples I love who meet some or all of these criteria — but it's a start.  Here are just a few of the co...

Featuring:  Eight Fictional Ships That Should Have Sailed and The Girl Who's Still Mad That They Didn't.   (Which I guess means that you could consider this whole post one big SPOILER ?  Idk.  It's your call.) ⎼ ⎼ ⎼ You know what I'm talking about.  We all have those couples who needle at the back of our brains because they didn't get the ending we thought they deserved.  And sometimes the best way to cope with the injustices of a cruel team of creative directors fate is to just thrash it all out. So here we are. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it does cover the couples who've been most actively milling around in my mind lately.  And I gotta say, I've loved writing this post, delving back into all the reasons why I love them and why, in MY fictional universe, they all live happily ever after. ♡ (I defy you to watch some of these fanvids and not agree with me.) ⎼⎼⎼⎼ ❀ Rey & Poe ❀ "You know what you are?" "What?" ...

What-ho, all, and a happy Valentine's Day to you. I love music, and I love fanvids, and I love acting like a 13-year-old fangirl over fictional couples that I like.  Smoosh those three passions together and you've got today's post.  First, I'm going to share some tragic love songs that really bring out my inner middle schooler, and then I'm going to finish with some happy fan videos because we like to end things on a positive note around here when possible. 😉 So to it!  Drama and sissy stuff and spoilers and innuendo and mild swearing and all that jazz to follow. ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ "All I Want" Kodaline You took my soul and wiped it clean; our love was made for movie screens. This has such a wistful, sweet, pure sound to it.  Especially that line. ^^  It's also quite satisfying to sing. "Already Gone" Kelly Clarkson You know that I love you, so I love you enough to let you go. When I first heard this, I was in t...

Does your TBR list ever make you feel claustrophobic?  For some reason, the longer my TBR list gets, the antsier I become.  I don't like the feeling of having a to-read shelf on Goodreads that's full of casually selected possibilities, because it makes it feel cluttered, to me.  I don't know entirely why.  But lately, I've started going on routine purges of said shelf, ruthlessly clicking away books that I have no real interest in ever reading but had automatically shelved because friends loved them. That's another thing I've realized lately: the majority of the reading plans I made before, like, the last two years were made in the sweet innocence of youth, back when I was just getting into blogging and meeting the online story community.  If a friend who liked something else that I liked (i.e. a movie) had good things to say about a book, I'd often mark it as to-read without really thinking about whether it was likely to be a good fit for me. Which ...

Eva very kindly tagged me for this, and I was so excited.  A good tag is hard to beat, and this one is great fun (although it was strangely difficult for me to come up with answers :-P). Rules: Answer every question honestly. (duh.) Use as many gifs and images as possible. Incorporate at least one YouTube video with a favorite scene of a character. NO VAGUE ANSWERS ALLOWED. Explain why you chose that favorite character to fit that description. I love details, my friends. If you can’t choose just one, that’s okay – give us a few answers and geek out if that’s what it takes. Tag at least 3 people. Use fictional characters from any fictional story. If you get nominated and/or decide to participate in this tag, please put a link back to this post in your post and credit yours truly (Emily at The Altogether Unexpected ) as the creator. Have fun and obsess over fictional characters! Goody-two-shoes: A character who was just so morally good  Aragorn from The ...