Get to Know Me! A First Post for a First Blog

This tag was made by Ashleigh from For the Love of Books, back in 2017! I shortened it quite a bit because I didn’t want to fill up the post with questions I had boring answers to. Hopefully the ones I chose give a good picture of who I am!

Name: Abigael, call me Abi

Name meaning: Father’s joy

What did you want to be when you grow up?
When I was little, it was always a fashion designer! I’ve had an up-and-down relationship with sewing, though. It became author after I discovered writing for fun, now it’s literary agent.

Career goals:
I just want to work with books! I’d love to work in editing, agenting, or promotion.

Hobbies:
Reading (obviously), writing (when inspiration strikes), embroidery (not particularly well), sewing (even worse!), playing Sims and scrolling tumblr.

Something you wish you were talented at:
If I could sing well I would literally never shut up. The fact that I cannot is something G-d will answer for one day.

Who is your role model?
Joy Ladin, author of Through the Door of Life and The Soul of the Stranger. She shows so much empathy and compassion through her writing, it makes me want to be more kind and forgiving than I am.

If you could give your younger self any advice what would it be:
To be more vocal about approaching people you want to be friends with, be nicer to your mom (high school was rough on both of us), stop keeping your feelings locked inside and uhhhhhh go to therapy.

Five random facts about me:

1. I am hard of hearing, and have worn hearing aids since I was four years old.
2. All my stuffed animals from when I was little have the most descriptive and uncreative names (Froggy the frog, Platy the platypus, Floppy the bunny). It is my greatest shame that I was not a creative child.
3. I should have picked my blog name based on The Princess Bride (back when I chose it while signing up for tumblr), because that’s my favorite movie, but instead I have a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference.
4. As a kid my favorite movie was Cinderella, entirely because of the scene when the mice sew the pink dress.
5. I consider the Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits CDs my parents always had in the car to be the soundtrack of my childhood.

Can you stop reading at any time, or does it have to be a certain page or chapter?
I can stop any time if I have a reason to stop, but if left to my own devices (say, there’s no one to make me stop reading and go to bed except me), I’m likely to decide I’ll stop at the end of the chapter—and just as likely to ignore that decision once I get there.

Do you eat or drink anything whilst reading?
If I’m sitting down to read for a while I might make myself some tea, but I find it hard to read a physical book while eating. An ebook is fine though, if I’m alone at the dining hall I often pull out my current ebook for company.

Can you read listening to music or watching TV?
Nah, I either tune out the noise and just read or get distracted by it and stop reading. Listen, I’m just not a good multitasker.

One book at a time, or several at once?
Several at once! I usually have some kind of long term book that’ll take me a few months to get through, a physical book, an ebook, and sometimes an audiobook too. I need a book for every situation! Depending on what my life is like at the moment the combination will vary; I don’t always have a current physical book while I’m at school and read less, and I don’t always have an ebook at home where I can sit and read at length instead of stealing moments while on line or before class. And whether I have an audiobook going depends on whether I’m in an audiobook or podcast mood.

Reading at home or everywhere?
Everywhere, which is why I need a handy ebook on my phone!

Reading out loud or silently in your head?
Silently. I used to read my favorite books to my little sister, and I loved that, but it’s not my usual thing.

Do you read ahead, or skip pages?
No, but sometimes I have to hold a hand over a page to keep from spoiling myself if I’m nervous about what’s going to happen!

Breaking the spine or keeping it new?
I tend to keep my books looking as nice as I can on the outside, so if a book of mine has a broken spine, it probably came from many rereadings.

Do you write books, or just read them?
I have written 2 and a half books (wattpad lol), and many short stories. But I write a lot less now than I did in high school, and my feelings about it have changed a lot. It used to be my dream to be published. Now, knowing how few authors make a living from writing and how much self-promotion you have to do, I think I might be okay just putting my writing online for the rest of my life. I do need validation for my writing, but I can get that without going through the publishing grind myself, you know? I might not always feel this way. One day I might decide it’s important enough to me to try to polish something to a shine and submit it to an agent. But for a while now my Big Unreachable Dream has been to be that agent instead.

5 of my favorite books:

1. The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen’s Thief series)
2. Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce (The Protector of the Small quartet)
3. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
4. Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
5. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

What are you currently reading? Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson (YA fantasy), A Little Light Mischief by Cat Sebastian (Historical fiction romance), and A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (if you can call that “current”… I’m reading it with two friends but with everything going on, we haven’t been holding book group regularly so I haven’t opened it in a while).

Five of my favorite films:

1. The Princess Bride
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Ten Things I Hate About You
4. Clue
5. Stardust

Five of my favorite songs:

1. Don’t Ask Me Why — Billy Joel
2. Brilliant Disguise — Bruce Springsteen
3. Eden — Hozier
4. Island of Lost Things — Molly OfGeography
5. Gravel to Tempo — Hayley Kiyoko

Five favorite bands/singers:

1. Billy Joel
2. Loona (especially Odd Eye Circle)
3. Molly OfGeography
4. Halsey
5. VÉRITÉ

Five favorite TV shows:

1. Galavant
2. Avatar: The Last Airbender
3. Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir
4. One Day at a Time
5. Merlin

Favorite fairytale:
Fitcher’s Bird.

Do I have interesting answers? What are you guys reading now? And most especially, what’s your favorite fairy tale?

While I think Fitcher’s Bird is my favorite base fairy tale, in terms of retellings I have a soft spot for Beauty and the Beast… in theory. In practice, I feel like they never live up to my high expectations? While I wouldn’t call Cinderella or Snow White my favorite fairy tales, my favorite retellings are of them: Ash by Malinda Lo, Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell, and Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust (More on them in an upcoming post).

I don’t know how to sign off posts yet. Let’s try:

Next post coming soon! In the meantime, stay safe, read good books, and practice turning into a dragon.

—Abi