Lori L. MacLaughlin's Blog, page 19

Celebrate the Small Things! and A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 21: Lt. Uhura from Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit and now hosted by Lexa Cain to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here.

Today, I’m celebrating that I’ve almost made it through the A to Z Challenge! Only five more days to go after today. I haven’t been able to do as much visiting of other blogs as I’d hoped, but I plan to make the rounds after the Challenge. A to Z Road Trip!

Moving on to A to Z —

U...

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 20: Trixie Belden from The Trixie Belden Mysteries

T is for — Trixie Belden from The Trixie Belden Mysteries

I loved to read mysteries when I was growing up. I read every Nancy Drew book I could find, and I wrote about her last year for my A to Z “N” post. This year, I’m writing about another teen mystery series I loved: The Trixie Belden Mysteries.

Trixie Belden is a young teen with three brothers who lives in the Hudson Valley of New York. She and her best friend and neighbor, Honey Wheeler, stumble into all kinds of mysteries at home and...

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 19: Spock from Star Trek

S is for — Spock from Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek

Live long and prosper.

Words made famous by Mr. Spock, First Officer and Science Officer aboard the Starship Enterprise. Chief Engineer Scott may have been my favorite character in the Star Trek series, but Spock, played by the inimitable Leonard Nimoy, was the most interesting. Half Human, half Vulcan, Spock fought a continuous internal battle against his emotions, always trying to suppress his Human half and be the quintessential Vulcan —...

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 18: Rapunzel from Disney’s Tangled

R is for — Rapunzel from Disney’s Tangled

When Disney’s 50th animated movie, Tangled, hit the theaters in 2010, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Since the early 1990s, their animated movies had been, in my opinion, less than impressive. I needn’t have worried this time, though. Tangled was delightfully funny with a lot of heart and great music. I laughed and cried. I loved it.

Rapunzel’s story may have strayed quite a bit from the original fairy tale, but I loved this Rapunzel’s personality — h...

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 17: Queen Galadriel

Q is for — Queen Galadriel from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion

Descended from Elven Kings, the fair Galadriel was one of the greatest and most powerful of all the Elves in Middle-earth. She and her husband, Lord Celeborn, ruled the forest realm of Lothlorien, and they aided Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship of the Ring on their journey to destroy the One Ring. Galadriel wears one of the three Elven rings of power, Nenya, the Ring of Water.

Her daughter, Celebrian, mar...

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 16: Miss Piggy from The Muppets

P is for — Miss Piggy from The Muppets

I’ve always loved the Muppets. Last year, I wrote about Kermit the Frog for my K post, so it only seems fitting that this year’s A to Z includes his diva co-star, Miss Piggy.

Miss Piggy began as a chorus girl on the Muppet Show, but soon became one of the stars of the show. Her saccharine-sweet-one-moment, temper-tantrum-the-next personality, her romantic pursuit of Kermit, and her trademark “Hi-ya!” karate chops to those who draw her ire always made me...

Celebrate the Small Things! and A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 15: Olaf from Disney’s Frozen

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit and now hosted by Lexa Cain to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here.

Today, I’m celebrating independent bookstores! Here’s my book, Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble, on an actual brick-and-mortar store bookshelf! Phoenix Books (in Vermont) is carrying it at both their locations, the Burlington store on Cherry Street and the Essex store in the Essex Cinemas...

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 14: Nellie Gomez from The 39 Clues

N is for — Nellie from The 39 Clues series

Nellie Gomez is not your typical au pair. Sporting a punk rocker style with colorful hair, glittery eye shadow, and a silver snake nose ring, she spends most of her time singing to the loud music on her iPod and reading exotic cookbooks. She drives like a maniac and isn’t above whacking someone upside the head if they deserve it.

She takes her job seriously, though, and accompanies Amy and Dan Cahill on their perilous quest to find the 39 clues that...

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 13: Milo from The Phantom Tollbooth

M is for — Milo from Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth

One of my favorite books when I was growing up was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. In it, I met Milo, a young boy who spends his days in perpetual boredom. He has no interest in anything at all and thinks everything, particularly learning, a waste of time. There is nothing he wants to do, nowhere he wants to go, and nothing worth seeing.

Then he comes home from school one day and finds a huge package in his room — a magical t...

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 12: Long John Silver

L is for — Long John Silver from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island

My favorite villains are those whose personalities aren’t all black. Yes, they’re bad, but they have some redeeming quality somewhere that makes you like them in spite of what they do.

Long John Silver is another such pirate of dubious distinction. He’s the main antagonist in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and he shows his black nature by, among other things, instigating a mutiny aboard the Hispaniola and ki...