Express Yourself Meme - Name ONE cancelled TV Show You Would Love to See Back

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is Name ONE cancelled TV show you would love to see back on your boob tube with NEW episodes?

I would love to see new episodes of Sapphire & Steel, a Sci-Fi/Fantasy show from the early 80's. I have all six adventures on DVD and I watch them over and again whenever I want a challenging show. Unlike most 80's TV shows, it's not exactly good guys verses bad guys, because I wouldn't call Steel (played by David McCallum) a good guy. He's an agent of an unnamed organisation whose job is to stop time breaking through and doing damage in the universe and he will do whatever is necessary to achieve that aim. Sapphire (played by Joanna Lumley) is his partner, a warmer character with a conscience, but she takes Steel's lead.

It would be a perfect series to bring back for the modern era, it wouldn't need much revamping, since it already has a very modern feel to its writing not being so cut and dried about good and evil and examining a situation practically. I'm thinking that Tom Hiddleston would make a good Steel, he has the right mix of cool Britishness and bite, you could be rooting for him and slightly afraid of him at the same time. Gemma Arterton, or maybe Billie Piper would make excellent Sapphires, mature enough to hold their own against Steel, but with a soft side as well. 

Any favourites you'd like to see with new eps?

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Express Yourself Meme - Back in Time, What Would You Bring Back & From When?

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is If you could go back in time and bring back one item, what era would you visit and what item would you bring back?

Hmm, I have been sitting here at my desk for 15 mins thinking about his question...and I still have no idea. I can think if plenty of eras I'd like to visit, but it's the item to bring back that's stumping me.

I think if I were to go back in time, it would be to meet someone who means something to me. And the person of many I have chosen is Jane Austen. I would go back to the Regency era just to talk with her and discuss her writing and her opinions. Then I would bring back something to inspire me in my own writing, perhaps one of her quills that could sit on my desk and urge me on. 

Any times or places you want to visit? Would you bring back a momento, and if so what and why?

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Express Yourself Meme - ONE Thing Steampunk-ish You Find Fascinating

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is What is ONE thing steampunk-ish that you find fascinating from book, TV, movies and/or the intranet (i.e. fashions, mechanics, ideas etc)?

I've always found the movements of clocks fascinating and beautiful. The way they fit together, some of them so fine that I wonder how the craftsmen made the tiny cogs for the movement. So I think that's what I like most about the steampunk genre, the intricacy and interlocking parts of some of their designs. I'm not a big fan of taking modern equipment and pretending you can reinvent it with cogs and steam, but I could watch those cogs go round for eons, their little tick, tick, one gear moving another and tiny arms can keep me fascinated for hours and hours. 

http://www.creativeboysclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Imagem31.png

So, steampunk, is it your type of genre, any recommendations for those of us not in the groove?

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Express Yourself Meme - Who Were Your Celebrity Crushes When You Were A Teen?

I'm really late with my EYM post this week, sorry, but it has been exciting week what with The Wittegen Press site revamp :).

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is Who Were Your Celebrity Crushes When You Were A Teen?

I had loads of celebrity crushes when I was a teen. I suppose my first would have been Morten Harket from A-ha. I had T-shirts, posters, albums and any magazine article I could get my hands on. Both my twin sister and I shared the crush, in fact we shared most of our celebrity crushes :).

Then there were Jeff Yagher, who played Kyle Bates, the rich boy turned resistance fighter in V The Series - I was so upset he always played villains in other stuff. Apparently he's a special effects wizard as well as an actor, so he does a lot of work behind the camera too.

Michael Praed as Robin of Sherwood, first time a hero crush of mine died on screen (I cried for days), and then he went and did it again in Dynasty! And then again in Son of Darkness, where he played a vampire, who ends up dead too. I wasn't holding out much hope for him surviving in Nightflyers, which is an adaptation of a George R R Martin short story - I won't tell you what happens.

Jason Patric as Michael from The Lost Boys. If you've read this blog before you will know it was the movie that got me into vampires and I might have mentioned that it was the whole half-vampire idea and Michael's struggle to free himself of it that endeared me to the toothy ones :).



And those are just some of my celebrity real people crushes - I did have crushes on some cartoon characters and puppets as well (no, not Kermit the Frog), I always rather liked Jen from The Dark Crystal, and then there was Mark from Battle of the Planets, (lots of people liked Jason, but I always preferred Mark). AND I'm going to stop there, because, seriously, we could be here all day.

So, who were/are your celebrity crushes?

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Express Yourself Meme - Who Would You Pick to Portray You In A Movie?

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is Who Would You Pick to Portray You In A Movie?

There's a complication with picking someone to be me in a movie, because, if I was featuring as a character in a movie, then there would be no doubt that my twin sister would be in the movie too, so whoever portrayed me, would have to either have a twin, or, with the wonders of modern TV wizardry, would have to play both of us :).

Anyway, there's only one glamour-puss who could manage to pull us off, she's trendy, she's got that certain je ne sais quois; she's feisty and she's a diva! Miss Piggy!

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Express Yourself Meme - Favourite, Comforting Things

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is What are some fave items you have that bring you comfort and/or special memories?

I'm not a big jewellery wearer, I don't have boxes and boxes of earrings and necklaces that I pick from to go with outfits. The only jewellery I wear every day means something to me. Most of it I have bought myself, but there is one necklace which I didn't buy myself, which means so much to me, that I never take it off.

The necklace is a quill, with a little ink pot engraved with my initial and it was given to me as a birthday present (it was a significant number) by my friends. I don't expect my friends to buy my books, or review them, or even like what I write, but the fact that they acknowledged what a big part of my life my writing is to me in this gift that I treasure meant the world to me. This writing malarkey is tough, whether books are selling, or not, and when I need a boost to keep going, with the endless rounds of marketing, with the book design, and sometimes just to get me off my arse to write something, I rub my little feather and remember that, no matter what, words are part of me.

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Express Yourself Meme - What is a favourite grade school memory?

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is What is a favourite grade school memory?

Since I'm a Brit, I'm translating grade school as primary school - not an exact fit, I don't think, but close enough. :)

I have lots of great memories from school, but one clear one that comes to me music time. Our school had a little room off the main school hall where they kept all the instruments, things like triangles, xylophones and those hollow wooden block things that make sharp, echo-y sounds. We didn't do music that often, as far as I can remember, but when we did, I loved it. We used to sing songs like The Lincolnshire Poacher and fit in the percussion where appropriate and sometimes where not so appropriate ;P.

The memory that is clearest to me, though is when we used to sing at a local children's music festival at the 'big' school in the market town near our little village. We learnt all the songs off by heart and it's the remembering, the first time through without words, that sits with me. One of the pieces we were singing was 'Lord of All Hopefulness', a hymn I knew well from church, so it wasn't the words that were the problem for me, it was getting the verses in the right order, because, if anyone knows this hymn, each verse has a very similar structure. We were all assembled in the main hall, in ranks and we went through all the pieces, and I wasn't nervous about any of the others like Yellow Bird, but I had to really, really concentrate on that hymn, consciously remembering which verse came next. I was so happy when I managed to get morning before noon and then evening. :)

I think it was the concentration required that stuck that memory in place, because I don't remember the rest of the programme any where near as clearly. 

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Express Yourself Meme - Lines in My Work In Progress

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is In your WIP, what is the last line on page 10, and the first line on page 42?

Well, I have quite a few works in progress at the moment, but not many have 42 pages, if I'm looking at the MS Word format, so I'll go with my ghost story, The Burning Web. I originally published it over the course of this year's A to Z as a part story, but now I'm reworking it into novel format, adding in some moments that wouldn't fit into that format.

So, the last line on page 10 is: Yet, it was even worse when the sounds stopped, leaving his breathing taut and alone.

The first line on page 42 is: "Quite enough, quite enough," Kenneth replied and she realised he was looking at her glass.

I'll be re-releasing The Burning Web over the summer, and look out for a cover reveal soon - here's a teensie preview  :).

I hope these lines give a small hint of the drama in the book, although the second one is a little vague, the first one, I think, expresses the atmosphere of the ghost story :). So, do you have a WIP, pick a couple of lines you think evoke the nature of the work, or, if you're not a writer, how about a favourite book, can you sum it up with just selecting a couple of lines? I challenge you :)

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Express Yourself Meme - Did you have a beloved toy growing up?

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is Did you have a beloved toy growing up? What was it?

I'm a bit late this week, but I'm joining in anyway :)

I had a koala-shaped teddy that was given to me when I was born, and I would still have him if it was not for our first ever dog, Barnabas. When he was a puppy, and teething, Bassy would chew anything, and one day, my koala-bear was in reach. All that was left by the time he had finished was a head and bits of body. I was most upset, even though I was in my teens at the time. However, my wonderful parents went searching and found a replacement, so I still own koala mark II. He sits on top of my sideboard in my bedroom, an ageing, but much loved old friend. :)

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Express Yourself Meme (EYM) - what was the last book you read?

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is what was the last book you read?

I'm going to be extremely literal here, since the last book I read is not some grand war-and-peace-length tome, nor even a novel, it was a delightful coffee-table book that I picked off our bookshelves for some light reading, Absolutely Typical Too, by Victoria Mather & Sue Macartney-Snape. The blurb on Amazon sums up the book:

One of the most popular features of the Saturday "Telegraph Magazine", begun in late 1994, is "Social Stereotypes", a weekly series of colourful and funny caricatures by artist Sue Macartney-Snape, with texts by Victoria Mather. This is the second collection of these cartoons.

Each vignette is no more than 300 words long, but each is also a divine dip into gently sarcastic observations on different characters from (it being the Telegraph) mostly the middle and upper classes.  What makes them so funny is that there is a grain of truth in every single one, and, for me, I found that I had met many of these varied weird creatures in my life: I went to school with the like of <school girl>, and, being a vicar's daughter and therefore at the centre of village life, I knew many a woman in the mould of <maiden aunt> too (and their dogs) ;).

I love this book. I read it over and again from time to time, and it makes me smile every time.

So, what was the last book you read?  

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Express Yourself Meme (EYM) - What is the scariest movie you've watched, or book you've read

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is what is the scariest movie, or book you've read that made you unable to sleep?

Now, my answer to this one depends on how long I go back in time. If I look at movies I watched as a child, the scariest movie I ever watched was Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I saw this movie on TV when I was 9 or 10. It's black and white, classic Hollywood B-movie science fiction and opens with a man unkempt and crazy-sounding trying to convince people that aliens have invaded his town and have been replacing people with identical replacements from organic pods. The story then flashes back to how it all began and shows the aliens arrive and begin to surreptitiously take over.

There's nothing unusual about this story, it's very similar to The Invaders, a 60's sci fi which I loved, but Invasion of the Body Snatchers scared me so much I had to check under my bed every night for years to come! The reason it scared me so much, I think, is the idea of replacement, of being copied and destroyed. And the way the aliens did it was by putting a pod under your bed as you slept (hence my checking under the bed). It didn't matter I knew it was just a movie, the idea hooked onto me like the closet monster does for other children and that concept still gives me the creeps, even now, although I don't have to check under my bed every night any more! ;)

Whew! That confession was actually cathartic - so, anyone else have a scary movie/book they'd like to get off their chest?

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Express Yourself Meme (EYM) - Use one adjective to describe yourself.

The Express Yourself Meme is hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. And their 'question' this week is use one adjective to describe yourself.

Now, this one is a toughie for a wordy person like myself. Why use one word when you can use half a dozen? ;P I really have to try and sum all that I am in one word? ::whine:: Okay, so, let me think, I can come up with a multitude of things that I'm not. Hmm, right then, I'm not going to try and concentrate on one facet of myself, I'm going to take a note out of some of the positivity blogs I read during the A to Z - so here it is, my chosen adjective

worthwhile

So, anyone else want to have a go? :) 

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Express Yourself Meme (EYM) - Favourite Games

So, I saw this on L G Keltner's blog last week: a fun, weekly meme called Express Yourself. It's hosted by  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. Well, it's meant to be on Monday's, so I'm a little late already for this week, but they're nice folks and they said that doesn't matter :). 

Each week, Dani and Jackie pose a question for us to wax lyrical on and this week's question is: any fave video games? (or board games if you're not a gamer)

I'm not a big gamer, although I did become addicted to Lemmings in my day and I now have it on by Nintendo DS :). I just love the challenge in finding out what is going on in each level and then working out how to get over/through/under each obstacle and THEN having to be fast enough to actually do it. Plus, the Lemmings are super cute ;). I have three crocheted lemmings at home made by a friend of mine.

It's the puzzles in games that I really enjoy rather than action packed shoot-em ups. Lemmings, Professor Layton, 7th Guest (that's going back a bit as well ;P). Plus I love Elemental on my Android phone and Magic Jigsaw Puzzle and Sudoku on Windows 8. All a bit sedate it you're a fan of Halo,or the like, but I prefer to watch or read my action adventure. :)

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