Search This Blog

Thursday, December 22, 2016

All I Want For Christmas Tag



Hours of the Duc de Berry. Public Domain image. 


I don't actually do Christmas, which is not my holy day, but this seemed like a fun thing to do on a book blog, and I've seen it on others, so here are my answers to the questions below. Enjoy! And feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

1. What fictional character do you want Santa to leave under your Christmas tree? 


Faramir from Lord Of The Rings, with the address of his favourite Gondorian restaurant and a way of getting there for dinner. He is such a nice man, and intelligent with it. And he loves history - we'd have a ball!  



2. What character do you want to kiss under the mistletoe ?

The trouble is, all my favourites are taken. Perhaps Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan, who wouldn't be that much shorter than me anyway, who likes and respects women, and who'd be fun to kiss. After all, he doesn't get married until quite late in the series...


3. You write your Christmas list for Santa, what are the top 5 books on it?

These will all be Aussie/Kiwi writers, but you will have heard of most of them, wherever you live. I don't have any titles in mind - just whatever these fabulous writers produce next! 

- the next book by Juliet Marillier
- the next book by Margo Lanagan
- the next book by Sophie Masson
- the next book by Kate Forsyth
- the next book by Dirk Flinthart, preferably a collection of his Red Priest stories


4. It’s Secret Santa/Kris Kringle at Hogwarts, what do you most want to receive?

A gift voucher to Honeyduke's sweet shop! 


5. You get to the spend the day with the characters and movie adaptation actors from one fandom, what do you pick?

Lord Of the Rings characters and cast, and the day would be the day and night of Bilbo's party. 

6. What fictional animal would you like to replace Rudolph and be able to meet on your roof?

Shadowfax from Lord Of The Rings. He's every little girl's dream horse. Or Binky from Discworld, as long as he came without his master, Death. (Unless it's in Hogfather, but Death was driving a sleigh pulled by huge pigs in that... Susan was riding Binky.)

7. You invite 10 fictional characters to your New Year's Eve party, who do you pick?

Okay, I'm going to cheat by allowing some of these characters to bring a minder or a date. 

i. Halt from The Ranger's Apprentice, if I can have Will and Horace to keep him from embarrassing himself. He'd be good value at a party.

ii. Aubrey Fitzwilliam from Michael Pryor's Laws Of Magic steampunk series - he'd be fun at a party and could defend us from any evil magic or resurrected dinosaurs.

iii. Aubrey's friend George, who can cook and loves doing it, to man the barbecue (hey, 
I live Down Under, it's summer here!)

iv. Aubrey's girlfriend Caroline, who can do any physical ass-kicking if Aubrey fails with the magic and would be interesting to talk to. 

v. Miles Vorkosigan from Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar novels. He'd be great at a party, but we'll need his wife Ekaterin to keep him from doing anything too crazy. He and Halt could entertain us all. 

vi. Elizabeth Bennet from Pride And Prejudice to be witty and make sure the guys don't get too smug about themselves. 

vii Jo March from Little Women, to put on a play for us and to discuss writing with. 

viii I'm thinking of inviting Phryne Fisher, who always brings great booze to parties and is entertaining, but book-Phryne SMOKES! Like a chimney!  And would object to being asked to smoke outside. Maybe invite TV Phryne? She can bring her boyfriend Lin Chung.

viii Corinna Chapman, the baker from the Chapman mystery novels by Kerry Greenwood, who always brings great food to parties and is fun to talk to; she's a lot like the author! And her gorgeous boyfriend Daniel as her date - she wouldn't come without him.

ix from the same series, Mrs Dawson, an elegant, intelligent woman who would bring champagne to the party and help run it - she's a retired society hostess. 

x. Finally, from the same series, Professor Dionysius Monk, a really interesting gentleman who knows a lot of stuff and would be fascinating to speak to. 

And because it's my party, dammit, I'll also invite Gandalf, who could do all the fireworks for us! 


8. What character would make a good Santa? (Doesn’t have to be appearance, personality counts too)

Again, Gandalf. He'd know exactly what you'd like as a gift, and if you had been naughty or nice. 



2 comments:

Pamela said...

For the invitation one, my first thought was Phryne! I just started the audiobooks for that series and I am hooked. But yes, I am rather shocked at how often she "lights up a gasper." Gracious. But I think she would make excellent cocktails, and if someone happened to get murdered at your holiday party, well, there you go.

Sue Bursztynski said...

That's a good point about having a detective on hand. And now I think if it, inviting Phryne would be ASKING to have a murder! Hopefully not me. Maybe I should just invite Lin Chung and his wife Camellia, who could give me some ideas for my garden.