Intro Blog Post

Hey ya'll! This is Bailey (one of the class veterans) and I'm super excited to be back on one of Andy's blogs! (not gonna lie, I missed blogging when I got super excited about something really nerdy...)

So, that said, yes, I am a nerd, and darn proud of it, which means I do have experience with fantasy. Of course, I am a major Harry Potter fanatic, so that would throw out #1. I also get pretty excited for Tolkien, esp. Lord of the Rings. (Gandalf is my homeboy). I am a number one Disney kid, and I would say that qualifies as fantasy... I also had a near-obsession with "The Neverending Story" movie as a child that continues on into today. I really like wizards and magic and zombies and WITCHES. Gregory Maguire has made me pretty happy by twisting old fairy tales into full on novels that are slightly too believable. (for those who don't know he is the author of Wicked, but also has written several other novels that are just as amazing) As for horror, I have read some Stephen King short stories like "Children of the Corn" and "Night Shift" but I would say horror fiction is definitely something I would like to read more of since it so appeals to my morbid side. I have already read some of the books for the class and I am already impressed/hooked/coming up with paper topics! I will read pretty much anything fantasy, and at the top of my list I really want to read that Unicorns vs. Zombies short story collection/battle that I heard about last semester from Holly Black's blog...

Of course I have ghost stories that include:
-cry baby bridge (Leeds-ish, AL) where it is rumored you can hear the baby a mother threw off the bridge crying (I've never heard the baby, but I always get the most horrifying feeling driving down the road that goes to the bridge... quite terrifying. This area also has a Sacred Hollow road, I'll let your imagination run...)
-A graveyard in Irondale where my neighbor and his friend were sitting in an unmoving car when a bible on the dashboard unexplainably flew into the backseat with far too much force
-And finally, the house my mother has inherited from my family is a 100+ year old Victorian 6 bedroom home that all the local people say is haunted. I don't think so, but, then again, would my own family harass me in our home? Don't think so. But friends who have stayed there with me swear all the floorboards creak and door open/close of their own accord. Class field trip?

Looking forward to the semester! Keep up with your blogs and reading :)