My Childhood Monster

{Link to blogfest sign up}

Christine Rains is celebrating the release of her new book Fearless with a blog fest!  I thought I’d join in, since a) I haven’t posted in a while, and b) the topic sounded like fun!

From her blog:

I'll be hosting a blogfest that will go from August 7th to the 9th. You can post on any one of those three days. (I like it when blogfests give you an option of which day to post on!) For this blogfest, all you need to do is write about your childhood monster. Did you have a beast living under your bed? Or was the scary clown in your closet? 

My childhood monster?

My first instinct is to say witches—when I was really young, I thought that witches lived under my bed and in my closet, and I could see their shadows creeping up on me.  But that pretty soon switched to the Basilisk, in Harry Potter.

That thing terrified me.

It probably had something to do with the fact that I would listen to Harry Potter with my sister, as we were going to sleep.  We would put in the tape (we have all the books on cassette tape, except for Deathly Hallows, and I still listen to most of them on tape), and go to sleep as it was playing.

The thing about Chamber of Secrets, is when you read the book itself, it’s not actually all that scary.  At least, it wasn’t to me.  But when you listen to it, especially as you’re going to sleep, you can just imagine the basilisk coming to find you and paralyze you.  And in the tapes, past tape two or three, I’m not actually able to listen to them anymore.  Because once Harry starts hearing “Deaaath, deaaath!” being hissed from the walls, I start to get thoroughly creeped out, and stop listening. 

I don’t know why it was the basilisk in particular that scared me—I didn’t have a problem with dementors, or even Lord Voldemort, but it was the basilisk that terrified me.

I was also afraid of graveyards, and zombies/ghosts, until I was about seven, when I voiced this fear to my dad.  He then took me into a graveyard near my house one evening, and showed me that there was nothing to be scared of.  I was terrified and almost in tears, but once we were inside the graveyard, I realized there was nothing scary about it.  Just sad, really.

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About Fearless

Abby White was seven years old when she killed the monster under her bed. Now she slays creatures spawned by the fertile imaginations of children, and the number of these nightmares are on the rise. Neither she nor her guide - a stuffed hippo named Tawa - know why.

When she rescues Demetrius from an iron prison, he pledges his life to protect hers until he can return the favor. She doesn't want the help. And how can she concentrate on her job when the gorgeous wild fae throws himself in front of her during every fight? No matter how tempting, she can't take the time to lose herself to him.
To save the children and all she loves, Abby must be truly Fearless. 

Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and Create Space.

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So, my friends, are you doing the What Was Your Childhood Monster blogfest?  If not, what was your childhood monster?

The Dandy Lioness

Always

Today makes the one year anniversary of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two premier in the U.S.

I’ve said in passing on my blog that Harry Potter is a huge, huge part of my life, and always has been.  I’ve been listening and reading and watching the stories since I was about age three.

I’m fourteen.  I missed a lot of premiers, a lot of waiting, and plotting what could come next.  But for me, Harry Potter was my childhood.  I spent hours and hours and hours playing Harry Potter with my friends, creating stories around our favorite characters, running through the backyard in my homemade cloak, using pencils as wands.

One year ago last night, I was in line, anxiously waiting to enter into my favorite theater.  I was with friends, playing Harry Potter Uno, wearing the cloak my sister made for me when I was in third grade, made ready just before the release of the final book. 

Harry Potter means a lot to me.  It shaped my childhood, and who I became.  I grew up with the idea that love is the greatest power against evil nestled securely in my heart.  I grew up running through the halls of Hogwarts, creating my own special version in my head.  I grew up creating these stories about my favorite characters and telling them to myself.  Harry Potter shaped who I am now, as a person and a writer.

I have a small section of my bedroom wall that is dedicated to Harry Potter quotes.  These are quotes I do my best to follow and to live by, quotes that I have known for years and years, and that have helped shape me into the person I am now.  This particular quote by Sirius Black is one of my favorites:  “Besides, the world isn’t split into good people and death eaters.  We’ve all got both light and dark inside us.  What matters is the part we choose to act on.  That’s who we really are.”

I know I can be mean sometimes, or annoying, or a pain to be around.  I know that.  But I do my best, for the most part, to not.  I try my best to be a good person, who is kind.  I try and act on the light side of me.  It can be hard sometimes, and I know where there are days where that just doesn’t happen.  I’m acting on the dark side of me.  But then I do try and act on the light side.  I try.  Sure, it doesn’t always work, but I try.  I try and be the light side of me.

I’ve tried to write about Harry Potter, and what it means to me, before.  It generally doesn’t work.  But today, I am.  Today, the one year anniversary of the “end of an era”.  But the thing is, how is it the end of an era?  People are still discovering Harry Potter.  Children are still loving the stories, finding their own Hogwarts, just like I did. 

To me, this quote by Nathan Fillion, about the show Firefly, rings very true with the Harry Potter community.  "When Firefly died I thought it was the worst thing that could possibly happen. What I realize now, ten years later, looking out onto this room, is that the worst thing that could have happened is if it’d stayed dead."  Replace Firefly with Harry Potter, and you’ve got the Harry Potter fandom.  Harry Potter may be officially finished.  But the fans are still creating stories, still creating fan art, still watching the movies and reading the books.  There are still people discovering Harry Potter.  So yes, technically Harry Potter is over, and I feel very blessed to have been able to be a part of the fandom as everything was still going, and new books and movies were coming out.  But Harry Potter has not died.  So yes.  Harry Potter is over officially.  But to the fans?  It’s never over.  It’s still there.  It’ll always be there.

{Via}

The Dandy Lioness

Why I Look Up to Ginny Weasley

Ever since I was three years old, and was tricked into listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I've loved Harry Potter.

I've been to the midnight releases of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-- the book-- (I made it to two different bookstores that night-- one, the small bookstore near my house, that my sister camped outside of for fourteen hours, and another, a large bookstore downtown that had a huge party), and both halves of the movie.  I went to the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince-- the movie.  I was too young to go to the book, but after seeing how much fun my sister had, I was bound and determined to go to the next one.

I grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione.  But funnily enough, none of them were my favorite character.

I liked Ginny.  My friends liked Hermione, and Tonks, and Luna, and while I like them too, I like Ginny best.  Recently I've been skimming a lot of Harry-Potter fandom related stuff, and I was shocked at all the hate that Ginny, and Bonnie Wright get.

I think Bonnie Wright made a good Ginny.  End of story.  Ginny always has, and always will be my favorite character.  I look up to her.  I know some people think she's a horrible character or that Bonnie Wright ruined her for them, but I admire her, and look up to her.  And here is why.

{Via}

She is strong.  She knew that diary was trouble, and tried her best to throw it away.  She fought her hardest to throw that diary away, because she knew she couldn't continue on this way.

{Via}

She can stand up for herself.  You don't grow up with six brothers not being able to stand up for yourself.

{Via}

She's not ashamed of her friends.  Neville, and Luna?  In books five, six and seven, Ginny stood by them, no matter their quirks, and loved them just as who they were.  She would have died to protect them.

{Via}

She doesn't get deterred easily.  She broke into Snape's office to get that sword.  She will get what she wants, even if she has to fight for it.

{Via}

She loves her friends.  She would die in a second for Hermione, Luna, Neville, Ron, or Harry.  In book seven, she stayed with Neville and Luna until she wasn't allowed to return to Hogwarts anymore.  And she was eager to return to them in the end, during the battle of Hogwarts.

{Via}

She's not afraid to fight.  Like I said above, she'd die for her friends.  She's not afraid to stand up for herself, and she's more than willing to put a "Bat-Bogey Hex" on you if you annoy her.

{Via}

And one last reason.

She makes Harry happy.  And he deserves to be happy.  And if she makes him happy, I don't see what the problem with her is.  I think she deserves him, and he deserves her, and if they make each other happy, no one should claim that she's a bad character, or Bonnie Wright is a bad actress.  I like her just the same.

{Via}

So, those are my reasons that I like Ginny Weasley.  Do you guys have any characters that you feel the need to defend, sometimes?  And yes.  I always have been, and always will be, a Harry and Ginny shipper.

The Dandy Lioness