Thursday, March 21, 2013

Not-So-Guilty Pleasures: The Heather Reid Edition


Welcome - boys, girls, children of all ages - to this week's Not-So-Guilty Pleasures!

Walking the tightrope today, we welcome Heather Reid. Heather's debut YA novel, Pretty Dark Nothing, is being released on April 23rd. Very exciting stuff. Plus the blurb for the book sounds awesome. Check it out here.

But before you all go and get lost in Heather's world, take some time to find out a little about the lady herself.



Guilty Pleasures

Want to know all my little secrets, what makes me strangely unique? It would take all day to list the weird and wonderful things that strike my fancy, believe me, my mind is a curious and sometimes scattered place to live. I’m easily distracted by the ‘Oh Shiny’ things in this world from watching documentaries on spontaneous human combustion to wondering how many tiles make up the roof on my neighbor’s house. I can stare out my window for hours daydreaming, and like my mind, a lot of my guilty pleasure change depending on my mood and the weather. With the exception of the five I’m going to share with you today.

     1)      Gamer Girl:
I’ve always been a gamer girl. From Atari to text based PC games like Zork, to traditional role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, and on to modern day console games like Halo, Fable, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Skyrim, and Dragon Age. And let’s not forget the MMORPG’s. I LOVE my games. I even found love playing Star Wars Galaxies online. Yes, it’s true. My Scottish hubby and I met seven years ago on the planet of Naboo and fell in love while fighting the Imperials in the skies above Kashyyyk. “But you don’t LOOK like a gamer.” That’s what I get from friends and colleagues when they find out about my guilty pleasure. I just shrug. What does a gamer look like anyway?

2) Ghost Hunters:
I can’t get enough of Jason and Grant and the whole TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) team. For me, it’s not just about the search for evidence of the paranormal; it’s about the history and the story behind the haunting that fascinates me most. I actually love watching them disprove certain phenomenon as much as I like seeing some of the unexplainable evidence they capture in EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) and on film.

3) Pajamas:
If I see a cute pair I love, I must own them. Purple ones, striped ones, floral ones, shorts, pants, tanks, t-shirts, lacy, geeky, and rocker chick, I have a pair to suite my every mood. No onsies please! Adults wearing onsies creep me out! And my pajamas must match. I can’t put on a pair of non-matching pajamas. That includes the socks. Pajamas rock!

4) Swimming:
Water is like a siren song to me. I’ve been called a mermaid by friends and family all my life. I’ve been on the swim team and did a year of competitive synchronized swimming when I was younger as well as spending my summers kneeboarding and jet skiing on local Texas lakes. I even ventured into the frigid sea here on the west coast of Scotland where the temperature in the Firth of Clyde averages 58 degrees in the height of summer. No, I wasn’t wearing a wetsuit and yes, I know I’m a bit mad. Once you start swimming and your body goes a bit numb, you don’t feel the cold anymore. I wouldn’t dare go in the water in winter though. That’s WAY too cold, even for me.

5) Musicals:
Why does this list suddenly make me feel like I’m a character from Glee? A gamer girl who loves watching Ghost Hunters in her pajamas after a hard day of synchronized swimming, and is a Sondheim loving, former show-choir and musical theater ingĂ©nue to boot? Please don’t slushy me. I have an extensive, if not eclectic, collection of cast recordings from the obscure to the popular. I know every word and every note from Into The Woods, Les Miserables, and City of Angels-- three of my favourites—and just mentioning the name Stephen Sondheim will have me fangirling like crazy. I love him. 


Bio:
Heather L. Reid has always had a sense of wanderlust and a belief in the paranormal. She eats mayonnaise on her fries, loves video games, and getting lost in a good story. This native Texan now lives with her Scottish hubby in South Ayrshire, Scotland, where she spends her weekends wandering the moors in search of the ghost of WilliamWallace and exploring haunted castles. 

Her debut young adult Paranormal, Pretty Dark Nothing, will be released on April 23, 2013 by Month 9 Books.



You're a curious bunch, so I'm guessing you still want to know more. 
Check out Heather at:

http://hugs-and-chocolate.com/
https://twitter.com/HeatherLReid

5 comments:

  1. I'm with you on the socks. Must match. And I'm down with the swimming, too. I think Lake Michigan is just a tad warmer. Fun stuff, Gamer Girl!

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  2. Is it warm enough to swim there in the summer, Vaughn? I would love to try it sometime.

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  3. Haha! Whenever my young children made Mother's Day cards in school, and the teacher would prompt them to write what they loved about their mom--the answer was always "My mom is awesome because she plays video games with me." :P I didn't know whether to be horrified or laugh. I y'am what I y'am.

    I love that you're such a brave swimmer! It's an admirable life-skill in my book. All of your guilty pleasures were so much fun to read. It's easy to see how your creative imagination will take us, the reader, on a delightful adventure. In pajamas. With great background music. And the amiable ghost or two for company. :D

    Best of luck, my friend.

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  4. Thanks, Denise! I hope some day my children can say they loved that I played video games with them. :) Gamer girls unite! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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  5. I have to get Skyrim. There is something about pajamas... And I often watch the ghost shows. Very pretty cover, Heather. Congrats on your upcoming release.

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