Around the World featuring Me!

Today I am the featured blogger over at Falling for YA on her Around the World feature.  I was really surprised to be chosen since most of the blogs featured are from another country other then the US. Be sure to go over there and check out what I have to say about where I live! Thanks to Emily for featuring me!

Paper Riot's Picture This

This week I am featured over at Paper Riot! I love that this blog does this fun meme.. check it out and sign yourself up too!!

From Paper Riot:  I love books. I love photography. And I love getting to know new people. That's why I decided to combine these three things in this little feature called Picture This, where I ask other bloggers to share five pictures with us, bookish and non-bookish. But mostly bookish. This time, we're admiring snap shots taken by angie angela's anxious life!  

Fairytale Retellings… What Makes Them so Popular?

Today I am apart of The Book Rat's  Fairytale Fortnight!  I love Fairytale retellings and thought I would do a fun post about them!  I love Fairytale Fortnight.. there is amazing stuff going on for 2 weeks so be sure to go over there and check it out!  You can go here to read my post or see below!


Hello! I’m Angie from Angela's Anxious Life and I would first like to thank Misty for allowing me to join in on the Fairy Tale Fortnight!  I am here to talk all about fairy tale retellings, which if you think about it, is practically all the fairy tales we know.  I am going to focus primarily on the more modern retellings we have had lately, from feature-length movies and TV shows to vast collection of books.  Some I have loved and some I haven't enjoyed at all.  It seems all of a sudden these retellings are becoming more and more popular, which is just fine with me.  I think everyone has been so used to the classic Disney fairytales that these new retellings are fun and exciting.  Everyone looks for different things in retellings.  Some people like them to be faithful to the original story, some like happy endings rather than the original, not-so-happy, endings (like the ones in Grimm's fairytales), and some like them to adhere to a certain time period.

I think in books we have seen a huge amount of retellings.  Books like Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries are more like the classic fairytales that we know and love.  While more controversial ones like Ash by Melinda Lo are about questions that have to do with a character's sexual orientation (BTW, I will be giving this book away along with this post). You might even go as far as saying books like Pride Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith have become fairytale retellings.  Comic books are also wonderful in retellings.  I am a big fan of Willingham's Fables series (which inspired me to write on this topic).  The stories in these comics have the characters go back to their origins correctly but throws these characters into our world where they have to try to live among us and stay out of trouble.  Also, there are even erotica books out there that are retellings – take Anne Rice's The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty.  Goodreads has a list of fairytale retellings which you can find here.

 

Fairytale retellings on the screen have never been more popular than now.  We of course have Once Upon a Time, a show about fairytale characters that are thrown into our world and we learn of their fairytale lives through series of flashbacks.  There have been plenty of movies based on retellings including quite a few recent ones: Jack the Giant Slayer, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters.  Most people also know about the Broadway show Wicked (which I loved and have seen twice already) based off the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (which I did not enjoy).  Wicked is a retelling based off the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West, which most of us have grown up knowing as the villain in the movie The Wizard of Oz.  Honestly, if you haven't see the show go and check it out!  Rounding out the list of cinematic retellings, we have probably the most well-known perpetuator – Disney.  The thing about Disney is that they have done such a good job of retelling that those who watch these Disney classics have almost forgotten the original telling and think of the Disney version as the real one.

 

I myself am a big video game player.  Though fairytales and their retellings are probably more predominant in the worlds of literature and screen, their mark on the video game industry cannot be denied.  Take for instance the series of Mario games – where Mario is always saving Princess Peach from the dreaded King Koopa.  A more direct link can be seen in Disney's Kingdom Hearts series which incorporates various Disney movie characters and elements. The nice thing about video games is you get to live through the eyes of the characters and really feel like you are in their world.  You also have American McGee’s Alice and Grimm. These two are of a much darker tone and are for mature audiences ONLY.

 

 I always have a lot of fun comparing the retellings to the original fairytales.  If you go back to the fairytales from Grimm you will find rape, murder, blood and gore.  For example, in Cinderella the stepsisters cut off their toes and heels to fit in the glass slipper.  Wow – can someone say desperate?  What I love about fairytales is that they reveal all the flaws and strengths in human nature.  I think by reading them we can see ourselves in them and relate to similar experiences in our own lives, even in the retellings which are more modern.  If you haven't tried out a retelling I implore you to take a chance on one. Retellings can take the exciting elements of the story from the original and give it a whole new meaning.  By retelling and retelling these stories, they will never die.



What are your favorite retellings?  Least favorites?

Thanks again for having me!

Angie

Angela’s Anxious Life

Bloggestia March 2013-Starting Line&Finsih Line

If you haven’t heard about Bloggiesta before, it’s a weekend (March 22nd-24th) where we all sit down to work on our blogs, do those things we keep putting off, as well as network and meet new bloggers and participate in challenges and giveaways. Definitely check it out, it’s a lot of fun! 
I will update just this one post here so people don't keep seeing the same post over and over again.  So head here if you want to see my updates!  Here are my goals:

1.  Set up Feedly and make sure all the blogs I want to follow are there now that Google Reader will be gone (done and google reader and feedly are still linking up)
2.  Participate in some mini-challenges
3.  Go through list of who I am following and stop following those who aren't blogging anymore or don't review content I enjoy.Ughhh that always takes forever!!!  But I try to do this every now and then.  I have to remember not to follow every blog in the world!
4.  Come up with a meme or some type of series to regularly appear on my blog to attract readers.

5. Change the B for blogger in my address bar to a picture that matches my blog

6.  I also run two BIG goodreads groups... and even though they are not apart of my blog necessarily I  need to go through those and read through ALL the posts... keep the groups organized. 

Finally I am done with this.  I try to do this every few months.  It took 2 hours again.  I try to go through all the threads in the groups and make sure no one is fighting and all the threads stay on topic. 

7.  Figure out what in the world SEO is and how it helps my blog

8.  Try to set up some buttons for my blog features that match the layout and say : Top Ten Tuesday, Video Game Reviews,  Young Adult Book Club,
9.  What is google analytics?? ? ? ??  Tried this out.. I don't think it was coming out correct. I mean I set it up on Thursday night and today Saturday it is saying I have had only one view.  I know that can't be right because of the number of comments on this post alone.  So I went in an deleted my account. 
10.  Add and image for Feedburner when commenting on Wordpress.

11. Change goodreads reading challenge widget from 2012 to 2013  done
12.  Go over to Bloglovin and claim my domain (even though I won't be using Bloglovin I guess you are supposed to do this? ) Found out that I don't have to have Bloglovin for people to follow me on there and I get enough spam so I am not going to sign up for this afterall!

13. Back up blog.. haven't done that since last year.Done!

Well those are my goals for this weekend!!  EEK!!

Mini Challenges to participate in :

Organizing Reviews: Learn how to use Excel spreadsheets to keep track of your reviews from Lauren at Lose Time Reading. (@ooohgirlie)
Google Reader Replacement Options: In light of the announcement that we are losing Google Reader soon, Jenn from The Picky Girl has listed some options for her mini challenge. (@picky_girl) using Feedly

Book Charities: Allison from The Book Wheel has a challenge to encourages us to support some bookish charities. (@TheBookWheel)
How to Become a Book Depository Affiliate: Come and learn from Donna from Book Wookie! (@BookWookie) Looked into this and decided it's not really for me.  But good information for others to use.
Through a Visitor’s Eye: An awesome challenge from Amanda at On a Book Bender that shows how to look at our blog in a new way and how to make sure you have everything you need for visitors. (@BookBender)
Getting to Know You: Join Suey from It’s All About Books in discovering one new blogger to connect with during this Bloggiesta event. (@SueySays) Loved this challenge!  It was my favorite one!
Declutter Your Sidebar: Check out this challenge with lots of sidebar hints and helps from Debz at Debz Bookshelf. (@DebzBookshelf) Didn't get rid of anything... though sometimes I think two sidebars confuse people but there isn't much I can do about it with this blog layout.
Reviewing in Many Places: This flashback challenge from Shanyn at Chick Loves Lit will help you get organized and post your review in lots of places, not just on your blog. (@shanynlee)

Jump Start Your Traffic With StumbleUpon: Learn how this less well known tool can help you drive traffic to your blog from April at Good Books and Good Wine. (@booksandwine) Checked this out and I think this is a good idea.  I already have a StumbleUpon account so it's a perfect idea! 


I am the featured blog over at My Little Pocketbook for her Getting To Know You Challenge!! Check it out here!

Colorado Featured Blogger!!

Today I am the Colorado featured blogger for Colorado Book Month!!!  I am very excited about it!  Colorado book month has been a lot of fun.... and if you haven't found bloggers in your state you should really make an effort to do it!! Here is the link to the feature!

 

LiteraryCO Spotlight: Angie

Hello all! My name is Angie and I love to read. My blog is Angela’s Anxious Life .  I love to see the Colorado blogging community grow. I not only run my blog but I also moderate the Young Adult Book Club and the Stephen King Fans group on goodreads. I have a lot of fun in both these groups. I love Colorado! I lived here through most of my childhood and then my dad was stationed in TX for my high school years. I then ended up back here in 2006 for work and am so glad it happened. I plan on never leaving! I have joined a few of the blogging events in Colorado and met several of the other bloggers who have been very nice. I look forward to meeting more of them!

Do you have any non-book related hobbies?
I love art, NASCAR, football, fashion, movies, outdoors, fishing, traveling, cooking, gardening and yard work. I love a variety of things
Books open up infinite worlds, what book would you love to live in? I would love to live in Harry Potter’s world. I can just imagine being at Hogwarts. When the Wizarding World of Harry Potter first opened I went and it was a blast.
What is your favorite part of being involved in the book world? (the signings, the people, the fact you get to write for a living, free books, etc…) My favorite part of the book world is being able to meet people who have a hobby in common with me. No one in my life really reads, so when I discovered goodreads in 2007 I was in heaven. I am able to discuss books and learn about new books as well from all these other readers.
What is your movie/book/TV guilty pleasure? Mine is the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harrie and the show True Blood on HBO.
What kind of books do you wish there were more of (ie, books with love triangles, social commentary, zombies, etc…)? And conversely, what type of books do you wish were just done?
I wish there were more books like the Fire and Ice series by George RR Martin but I wish the author would write it in a time frame that isn’t years apart! As far as the books that I want done I wish that all these YA books weren’t trilogies. I swear anytime that a book is popular in the YA category then next thing I know it’s a trilogy!
Take a hike, see a Broncos game or chill out by a mountain lake?
Broncos game of course!!! BRONCOS COUNTRY!
What online guilty pleasure causes you the most procrastination? (ie, pinterest) Pinterst, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blogger, you name it!
What is next on your reading list? Asunder by Jodi Meadows

Dear Teen Me

 

 

 

I have been checking out the feature over @Lost in the Library and have really enjoyed reading the different people who have stopped by and written a letter to their teen selves.  I also decided to join in...  today you can stop on by there and see my note: Dear Teen Me.

I am also going to post it here:

Dear Teen Me:

Hello… I remember you.  Sometimes doing things you didn't want to do to fit in.  Yea you!  There's a few things that I think you should know though I know you won't listen.

You know your body?  The one that is skinny.. so skinny you won't even wear shorts.  Wear those damn shorts.  In less then 10 years you will be the only one out of your high school friends who hasn't gained 30 lbs.  You will still be the same weight as in high school and you will love it.  So embrace it now.  And those bad boys you keep dating.. YUCK!  Though you know what?  Go ahead and date them so you know who not to date and who to marry.  But don't just have sex with just anyone!! 

 Also… that 40 hours a week you are putting in at McDonalds like they need you?  Please Mcdonalds will run just fine without you… trust me they will still be there 20 -50 years later!!  So tell them 40 hours is way too much.. 20 hours a week will be just fine.  Plus $4.25 an hour is NOTHING!   Don't feel lonely.. learn how to be friends with yourself.  Eventually you will be your own best friend.  Be KIND.  Be respectful to mom and dad.  You are constantly battling with them and someday you will realize they really are the best parents out of all your friends.  The time they made you take back the Christmas lights you stole?  Yea… first off that was a terrible thing to do, and second mom and dad were trying to make you a better person.  

Love yourself, and LOVE life.  Just because in high school you aren't the cheerleader or one of the preppy people it will be just fine.   I am so proud of who you turn out to be. 

Your best friend,

yourself 

I am not the best writer but there it is! What would you say to yourself?

Follow Me Friday-I am the featured blog!

 

Hello!!  I am happy to say that this week I am the featured blog... I just can't believe it!  It is great to be featured.  I want to welcome all my old followers this week and all my new followers!  So welcome thanks for stopping by and feel free to look around. Now... time for the follow me post:

This is the day of the week where we get to know each other better by answering a question devised by our lovely hostesses Parajunkee & Alisoncanread. We also gain new followers by joining each other's sites via GFC, so please let me know if you're a new follower. And now for this week's question....

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with your blog? Is it to one day become an author yourself, just for fun, maybe get some online attention, or maybe something very different?

A.  What I hope to accomplish with my blog is just having fun.  I try to post interesting topics and be informative.  I try to keep updating my blog and learning new tips to make it even better.  I really love the book blogging community and just enjoy being apart of it!  Hoping that my new followers have fun and find things to talk about here at my blog!!

Leave a comment for your Follow Me Friday so I can stop by and say hello!