So, I was talking to a friend recently and we were talking about the various things on our bucket list and besides things like, visiting all the major league baseball parks, and visiting my pen pal (who I’ve been writing to for YEARS) in Australia, most of the stuff on my list would be…well nerd related.
And I dealt with this revelation the same way I do pretty much every thing else that comes up like this.
I decided to write about it.
I hope you’re all having a seriously awesome weekend. I love you all! I hope you enjoy this Fictional Crush of the week. I’m SO tired so I’m kind of rambling and I hope you forgive me!
The Fandom Friday is a weekly feature, with each blog post written by a new contributor.
This is the weekly post where either myself, or a guest blogger, talks about a new fandom. See, I’ve had the experience in my life where I’ve been made fun or put down about my particular fandoms. And that has made me feel pretty crappy. But I’ve also put down other fandoms as well.
So I’ve decided to change that. I’m opening my world up to new fandoms, and the best way to do that is to bring people in to write about various fandoms. I’m very excited about this segment.
If you guys are interested in becoming a guest blogger for the Fandom Friday, feel free to email me at whatanerdgirlsays at gmail.com or contact me HERE
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This week’s guest blogger is Cher, and she’ll tell you more about herself later. Now, let’s take the time to dive into one of her favorite shows (and definitely one of mine):
Tagline:
There are two sides to every story.
Premiere Date:
October 23, 2011
Network:
ABC
Genre:
Fantasy
And they lived happily ever after…or so everyone was led to believe. Emma Swan knows how to take care of herself. She’s a 28 year old bondsperson who’s been on her own ever since she was abandoned as a baby. But when Henry-the son she gave up years ago-finds her, everything changes. Henry is now ten years old and in desperate need of Emma’s help. He believes that Emma actually comes from an alternate world, and she’s Snow White and Prince Charming’s missing daughter. According to his book of fairy tales, they sent her away to protect her from the evil queen’s curse, which trapped the characters of fairy tale world forever, frozen in time, and brought them into our modern world.
Of course, Emma doesn’t believe a word, but when she brings Henry back to Storybrooke, she finds herself drawn to this unusual boy and his strange New England town. Concerned for him, she decides to stay for awhile, but she soon suspects that Storybrooke is more than it seems. Its a place where magic has been forgotten-but is still powerfully close-where fairy tale characters are alive, even though they don’t remember who they once were, and where the Evil Queen, known as Regina, is now Henry’s foster mother.
In order to understand where the fairy tale world’s former inhabitants came from, and what ultimately led to the Evil Queen’s wrath, you’ll need a glimpse into their previous lives to learn their origins. But it might just turn everything you’ve ever believed about these characters upside-down.
Meanwhile, the epic battle for the future of all worlds is about to begin. For good to win, Emma will have to accept her destiny and fight like hell.
Good day, dearies! My name is Cher, but my pen name is belovedbeauty (and you can find me at Tumblr here), and I’ve been writing and creating graphics since I was about thirteen. I’ve always been a Disney girl, even at twenty years old, Disney fairytales will always be my favorite thing-and the one thing I turn to when my day hasn’t been the greatest. Knowingly, most Disney stories are based off of the Grimm tellings, and re-worked to have happy endings. When I first saw the commercial for Once Upon a Time, I was utterly hooked. Not just because of the fairy tale plot, but because the creators (Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis) were writers for Lost (and let me tell you, Lost was probably one of the most mind-blowing addictive shows there ever was).
Going into the show, and watching the first episode, I immediately became more obsessed than I had imagined. The protagonist of the story, Emma Swan, was easily relatable, her son Henry was the icing on the cake, and the inhabitants of Storybrooke were a shroud of mystery. It didn’t take me long before I was counting down the days until a new episode aired, reading fan’s theories and thoughts, and joining in on avid discussion.
The great thing about Once Upon a Time is that it doesn’t follow Disney’s or The Grimms Brother’s stories. It creates a path all on it’s own, which leaves the fan in a constant state of curiosity as to what they’re going to change next. Each character is lovable in their own way (Even the Evil Queen Regina, and our dear Rumpelstiltskin). As the first season came to a close, and everything that had happened finally settled in my brain, I was irrevocably addicted.
The fans of ONce Upon a Time go by Oncers, and though we have a ship that we’re on board with (Snowing, Rumbelle, Swan Queen, etc), we come together together in our absolute adoration for the show. Each time something insane happens, we easily fall together to grieve, plot, theorize, and explain.
We’re a dysfunctional family of fans, but I think that makes the dynamic so much more interesting. You can sit there thinking you’ve gotten everything right as fan, chosen the rightful ship, figured out the next plot device, and then you read another fan’s thoughts, be they against your own or not, and you began to question your own reasoning.
Once Upon a Time is in it’s third season now, with more questions than ever before. The writers have introduced a new land, new characters and villains, and continue to delve into the lives of the fairy tale folk in flashbacks.
You never really know how one character’s full life has been. Each flashback creates a new layer, and even as you watch that character in the present, you’re still wondering, “What has happened to you?”
One line that has stuck with me is this: “Evil isn’t born, dearie, it’s made.”
But the one thing that is always streaming through each story, that the writers always make sure you remember, is that there’s always hope. There’s always a chance for you to find your happy ending, or your true love. No one is clearly good, or bad. Each character has made choices that took them down another road, and forces them to try and make it right. Emma Swan isn’t a perfect guy, and Rumpelstiltskin hasn’t always stayed on the path of evil. Just those little things make a viewer see that, “Hey, I may make a mistake but that doesn’t have to define me. I can change the path I’m on.”
As Emma Swan said in Season one, Episode Four: “People are gonna tell you who you are your whole life. You just gotta punch back and say, “no, this is who I am.” You want people to look at you differently? Make them! You want to change things, you’re gonna have to go out there and change them yourself, because there are no fairy godmothers in this world.”
This show isn’t just about fairy tale characters in the modern world, but about choices made and how they face them. It’s about correcting wrongs, and working with the skills you have. Each character relies on one thing or two to make it through each challenge they face. And you, as the viewer, are along on each journey with them.
And hey, it helps that the entire cast is extremely attractive. Each character has a memorable line. They’re all very realistic, with sassy one-liners, to perfect eyebrow raises and dubious looks. Once Upon a Time is a well-rounded, beautifully written show, that hooks you from one episode to the next. And each actor brings their character to life perfectly.
I can’t tell you exactly why I love this show. Whether it’s the characters, the storyline, the lands, or the undercurrent of constant hope, I can tell you that as long as it’s on air for my viewing pleasure, I’ll be sitting on my couch watching ever single minute of it (a couple of times over during those long hiatuses).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15__iA1MTqc
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I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Fandom Friday! Once Upon a Time is one of my absolute favorite shows!
I hope you are all able to give the show a chance. The first two seasons are on Netflix, so definitely check it out!
They could totally bring back Sheriff Graham though, I would NOT say no to that haha!
Happy Friday!
I have SUCH an awesome thing to share with you guys,especially those of you who are aspiring writers.
I am happy to announce that What A Nerd Girl Says officially has FORUMS!
Yes, you heard me right: Forums!
Now, viagra buy as if Cassandra Jean, couldn’t get any cooler than she already is, a Shadowhunter Men calendar for 2014 was announced.
For those of you who don’t know, Cassandra Jean is an artist, most known for her Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices fan art. She also does work for original graphic novels, and other YA works like Beautiful Creatures and The Raven Boys. She did a set of tarot cards using the characters from the various Shadowhunter series: The Infernal Devices, the mysterious TLH, The Mortal Instruments, and The Dark Artifices.
So when I found out there would be a calendar, featuring all the steamy men of these series, done in the brilliant artwork of Cassandra Jean, I was SO excited!
Here are the art pieces for each month!
January 2014: Featuring James “Jem” Carstairs of the Infernal Devices trilogy
February 2014: Featuring Magnus Bane and Alexander “Alec” Lightwood of the Mortal Instruments series celebrating Valentine’s Day
March 2014: Featuring William “Will” Herondale from the Infernal Devices trilogy
Hubba Hubba
April 2014: Featuring Matthew Fairchild of TLH, the parabatai of James Herondale.
May 2014: Featuring Jaime Rosales of the Dark Artifices trilogy
June 2014: Featuring Jace Wayland Morgenstern Herondale Lightwood (depending on what you call him) of The Mortal Instruments series.
I call him Jace Lightwood. I can do that because I’m so marrying him. Sigh <3
July 2014: Featuring Julian Blackthorn of The Dark Artifices trilogy
August 2014: Featuring Mark Blackthorn of The Dark Artifices trilogy, brother to Julian.
I think I’m going to really like Mark…
September 2014: Featuring Simon Lewis of The Mortal Instruments series.
Can I just say, the fact that his shirt references the Oregon Trail game is just too hilarious for life?
October 2014: Featuring Raphael Santiago of The Mortal Instruments series, looking very creepy for Halloween haha.
November 2014: Featuring James Herondale of TLH
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Aren’t all those pictures absolutely amazing? AND super steamy and hot. I don’t know about you ladies but I’m pretty excited about those Will Herondale and Jace Lightwood months…
And I know what you’re wondering, where’s December! December is going to be a GROUP picture, and its coming soon. Even better news, there will be a GIRL character calendar as well.
I am so excited!
And a little surprise for you all, I have an exclusive interview with the artist herself coming tomorrow!
What do you guys think of the Shadowhunter Calendar artwork? Which ones are your favorites? As always, share in the comments!
One of the best parts about running this blog is having the ability to meet some really cool people, try and some of the coolest people that I have met have led me to really cool blogs. I’ve said it before, no one’s blog is 100% original but everyone’s voices are different so there are blogs that I love to read because I love the writer, and I love the passion that they show for what they are writing. They are fun and interesting to read and they inspire me to get better and better in my blog.
So I decided to do a feature (inspired by Megan at the Nerdy Girlie’s Geek Girls Gab), where I profile the bloggers that I love. Not only do I get to find out more about them, but I also get to share them with you guys! Most of the bloggers that I follow are like me, nerd girls, fan girls and they enjoy the same things as me, and you! Every blogger that I profile is one that is super important to me and I urge you to check them out!
If you are interested in being featured on the Blogger Spotlight, feel free to contact me, please! I would love to hear from you, to feature you on the blog and to help spread the word about it!
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This week’s blogger is ME!
I realized that the most logical thing for me to do is to feature myself as the first ever Blogger Spotlight but I didn’t do that. Then I realized I didn’t have anyone to feature today because I’ve been busy and I’m sure the bloggers I’ve sent the interview to are busy, and well, now I’m the featured blogger!
My Twitter
My Tumblr
My Facebook
My Instagram
My GoodReads
Me in my Ravenclaw get-up before WonderCon 2013Well, I’m 25 years old, and I am currently going to Cal State University, Fullerton, working on my BA in history. My real passion though is reading and writing, and this blog. My goal is to make a career out of writing, somehow, though I wish to write young adult and new adult fiction. I live at home with my dad, my nana, my uncle, my three brothers and my two sisters. I have two dogs named Scout and Sabet and I’ve been with my boyfriend Jon (who I am sure you alllll know about because I talk about him so much) for nearly six years now. I spend most of my days reading, writing or working on this blog, and watching lots of movies, tv shows and Netflix, and a lot of time with my boyfriend. Some of my favorite things to do besides all that is to go meet authors. I am constantly looking for author events!
Well, if you’re reading this, you know about this blog. This blog is NOT a fansite, its not here to bring you news, though sometimes I do report news. This blog is about fan opinions, fan reviews and fan experiences. Its a place where I can come to share about all the things I’m passionate about. Besides just my Blogger Spotlight, I do Book of the Week posts, as well as other book reviews, movie reviews, I do Tuesday Top Tens where I talk about my favorite things. I do event recaps of the amazing things I get to experience. My life is wrapped around the book and fandom world and I love being able to share how passionate I am and how happy I am with all of you!
Myself with Stephen Chbosky, the author, screenwriter and director of The Perks of Being a Wallflower There were two different inspirations for my blog. One comes from my friend Jackie who runs the blog, Seeking Bazinga. I had just met her and she was SOOO super awesome and I loved reading her blog. I thought, I could totally do something like that. I never realized that I could write about those sort of things and that people would actually read them!
Then, at the same time, I was taking a children’s literature class (that also had a heavy focus on young adult lit as well), and we had to do all these journals. They were all these kind of opinionated ones, about observing bookstores and what books would you recommended and I just felt like I enjoyed it a lot. I thought, maybe I could write about these sort of things on my blog, and thus What A Nerd GIrl Says was born.
I feel like I’ve been so incredibly lucky. I’ve been able to meet some of my favorite authors like Meg Cabot, Cassandra Clare, Sarah Dessen, Morgan Matson, Veronica Roth, and so many, many more.
I think my three favorite memories are: the first time meeting Meg Cabot, because she is one of my biggest influences at an author, meeting Cassandra Clare for the second time and being able to interview her (which you can see here) and the City of Bones Los Angeles premiere. I had been dreaming and hoping for the best when it came to City of Bones and the premiere and it was the most amazing experience that I’ve ever had and it blew my mind away, at how extremely happy I was, meeting all the stars.
Myself and Andrew McMahon from Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin, aka my musical savior As far as books go, I am seriously looking forward to Cassandra Clare’s City of Heavenly Fire, Veronica Roth’s Allegiant, The House of Hades by Rick Riordan, Just One Year by Gayle Forman, Unsouled by Neal Shusterman, The Shadowhunter Codex by Cassie Clare, Champion by Marie Lu, Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith, Unforgotten by Jessica Brody, Just One Year from Gayle Forman and so so so so many more. I’m a book addict.
As far as movies, I can’t wait to see Catching Fire, The Desolation of Smaug, Vampire Academy, Ender’s Game, Divergent, The Maze Runner, and so many more.
I can’t wait for Gallifrey One 2014, WonderCon 2014 and more!
Myself and Cassandra Clare at the Mission Viejo Meet and Greet, Where I Interviewed HerI really enjoy reading mostly young adult literature, of the fantasy genre, but I like contemporary, paranormal, sci-fi, and dystopian. I also like adult novels as well. Some of my favorite authors include: J.K. Rowling, Meg Cabot, Cassandra Clare, Cinda Williams Chima, Tamora Pierce, Rick Riordan, Veronica Roth, Morgan Matson, Sarah Dessen, Marie Lu and so so so many more.
I absolutely love Seeking Bazinga, The Nerdy Girlie, FanGirlFeeels, I Am Divergent, Page to Premiere, That One Geek Girl amongst others. I follow a lot of geek girl blogs :)
Jace Wayland Morgenstern Herondale Lightwood and Alec Lightwood from TMI, Will Herondale from TID, Han Solo from Star Wars, Sirius Black from Harry Potter, The Doctor from Doctor Who, Han Alister from the Seven Realms Series, Tony Stark from Ironman, Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock, Rhett Butler from Gone With the Wind, Michael Moscovitz from Princess Diaries. Since I like girls as well, my girl crushes are Caroline Forbes from The Vampire Diaries, Isabelle Lightwood from TMI, Tessa Gray from TID, and Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy.
Myself and Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Jace Wayland, at the Los Angeles Premiere of City of Bones!Oh that’s hard because it seems like there are many that did so. I would definitely say, easily, Harry Potter. Harry Potter did SO much for me. I discovered the book series when I was 10 years old and followed it all the way until the last book came out when I was 19. It changed my life, and continues to change my life every day. It was an escape for me when my parents fought, when I had to step in almost like a third parent, when I moved away to a new school where no one knew me or liked me, when I was bullied, when I was broken hearted, all of that. Without those books, I’m not sure who I would be. They also taught me to expand my imagination, to be a better writer, so many things.
There are three different characters I really wish I could be. One is Hermione Granger, because she is exactly who I sometimes wish I could be. She’s super intelligent, witty, loyal, brave, and pretty. She’s perfect. She’s almost too perfect which is why she’s totally not my favorite character in the series haha but I would totally LOVE to be her. I also wish I could be Clary Fray from The Mortal Instruments. She’s a Shadowhunter, which is equal to be desire to be a wizard or a Jedi, and she gets Jace! And she’s got beautiful red hair, and she’s talented and brave, and yeah. Lastly, I would want to be Princess Leia, because I’ve wanted to be her since I was about five years because she is the toughest female character ever.
My boyfriend and I in front of the Bluth Banana Stand, from Arrested Development!The most rewarding part is being able to create this community of people who all enjoy the same things. I love being able to meet and talk to you all about books and movies and TV shows and books and books and books. I love knowing that we are there for each other to talk about these things. Its just awesome. That is part of my motivation to continue writing it. But I also continue to write it because I love it. I love writing this blog, and I love making books and my nerd life known to all and showing my passion for it.
Oh god. Jace Lightwood. Hands down. Han Solo comes in a close second. If I was being entirely realistic though, it would be Michael Moscovitz from Princess Diaries because he reminds me SO much of my boyfriend. He was my first fictional crush and apparently I used that subconsciously to find a boyfriend haha.
It was incredible. When I met Jamie, Kevin and Lily back in March, at WonderCon, I think I was a lot more calm because it just didn’t seem real yet. I had just seen the very first full length trailer and I was really excited but I don’t think I really fully grasped that one of my favorite books was coming to the big screen. At the premiere though, I had slept in a chair on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles overnight, and I was exhausted but running on excitement and adrenaline and I was meeting people that I had been dying to meet, like Robbie Sheehan and Aidan Turner and Godfrey Gao. And meeting Kevin, Lily and Jamie again was amazing. It was an experience I definitely will never forget.
Myself at an Angel game last year, 2012. I love my Angels and I adore Mike Trout.* * * * *
I hope you all enjoyed getting to know me a little better! It was kind of fun answering those!
Don’t forget you can always check out previous spotlight bloggers here, and that I would love to spotlight YOU as well, so please contact me if you’re interested!
Happy Monday!
