Favorite Fictional Couples

Again following bookchick. . .

Name 20 of your CURRENT favorite fictional couples, then tag 5 people to do the same.

Definitely a meme for a romance writer (which bookchick is). This one turned out - not surprisingly - to be pretty darned tough for me. I managed to come up with 17, which is more than I thought I could scrape together. As I looked through my book and video shelves, I saw works with couples who used to mean a lot to me, but who aren't really part of my present consciousness. Of the ones I could consider "current," several are of my own creation, either through my own writing or gaming.

The top five can not really be sorted in rank:

( We're like a coin - with a head on one side and a lion on the other. )

Looking at this list, I see for the first time how very many of my favorites come from different worlds, whose love is a bridging of cultures -- and/or religions -- as well as a uniting of hearts. More than a few find love in scenarios of war or captivity. Only in The Philadelphia Story would the couple be an expected pairing -- two people from the same "world" and the same level of power. And I am surprised at how many of these "couples" are people who love each other in a real and binding way but who never actually become "a couple." (It makes sense, I just never realized how many of my favorites follow that pattern.)

Tagging: thomryng, poliphilo, saskia139, _storyteller_, and kateri_thinks -- but everyone is free to play!

ETA: 18. Remington Steele and Laura Holt

Books, Battles and Blue-ness

I took five big bags of books to Half Price Books today and received $52 cash for them. It's a lousy return rate, but still puts me ahead in finances and shelf space, and I don't have the energy or patience to try to wrest better rates out of eBay or zShops and do all that shipping.

I've stopped buying books at full price. Between the used book stores, Amazon (new and zShops), and eBay, there's just no reason for me to buy books at full cover price anymore unless I unexpectedly find myself in the rare situation of being stranded somewhere with nothing to read. Besides, I keep fewer and fewer of the volumes I buy.

For me, keeping house is becoming an exercise of will: an acceptance of the fact that the forces of entropy and chaos will inexorably take over my home unless I exert myself to combat them. Maybe when it becomes more natural for me I'll adopt a more serene, nurturing metaphor, but right now it's war between me and the "stuff."

As I looked at my intensely blue wall the other day, I found myself wondering if the color would please the tempermental water elementals who also seem to reside in my house. I woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain. The sound stresses me out, even though I haven't suffered a major flood in two years. It took me a long time to get back to sleep.