The “Flaming Hot… Five Reasons Why” Tag

Greetings, Martians. I promise this somewhat enigmatic title has a good explanation! Basically, this is a tag where you choose five swoonworthy characters from movies or television and explain why you find them swoonworthy, allotting no more than five sentences apiece. The tag originated with Thoughts All Sorts and Realweegimidget Reviews, but I was tagged...

Yet Another Fandom Tag

Fangirls, fanboys, and fan-nobinary-people, welcome, one and all! The delightful Christine has kindly tagged me with Yet Another Fandom Tag, which is as good an excuse as I ever heard to gush about allllllllllllllll my favorite books and movies and TV shows. I can't wait to get started! But first, some simple tag rules: include...

That Really Long, Gushy, OTP Post

Ordinarily ... I'm a pretty nice person. Under stress, I am not a nice person. Under stress, like (say) a massive global pandemic coupled with weeks of isolation & boredom, Fun, Easygoing Katie disappears, to be replaced by Drill Sergeant Katie: liable to smack people down at any moment for even the smallest offenses.  Some...

The Smashing and Dashing 2019 Character Awards

What is UP, everyone!!!  It's me, it's Charles Baker Harris (well, duh), and it's the end of another year and it's time for The Smashing and Dashing 2019 Character Awards, founded by the brilliant Cait @Paper Fury. The rules are simple: just answer the 15 questions below, using characters from books you read in 2019. ...

Five Favorite Female Characters

Hallo, lovelies! It's been a while since I did a 'favorites' post, and it's been a while since I wrote anything focused strictly on characters (as opposed to a whole book or whole series).  Voilá, then--here you are!  My five favorite heroines, ranked in ascending order. It's easier than you might think to narrow it...

“She is to me.”

This will be a hard post to write, but I still need to try. I know you all saw the news last Monday.  You all saw the flames rage through Notre Dame Cathedral, angry, red-hot flames threatening to devour the entire structure.  Thankfully, most of it was saved, and what wasn't saved can be rebuilt. ...

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, John Donne admonishes us.  It tolls for thee.  'Kay, now I've hit you with that entirely random Elizabethan quote, let me back up and start again.  I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming Avengers: Endgame lately, which means I've been thinking a lot about tragedy and human mortality. ...

The Truly Romantic Tag

Soooooooooooooooooooo it's February, it's the month of romance, and Cordy the Great and Powerful (sorry, Cordy, I'm in a silly mood today) is hosting a blog party about fictional couples!  It's called The Lovely Blog Party, and you can check it out at Cordy's residence, Any Merry Little Thought. This blog party, like any good blog...

“I carry them with me.”

First things first:  this post was inspired by this fan video, which is both a thing of beauty and an ocean full of tears, and it's absolutely imperative you watch it before reading anything I have to say here. Did you watch it? Good. Did you cry? just kidding I don’t need to know that...

A Really Great Year

"What year is this?"   "Blimey, how much have you had?"   In which Charles Baker Harris is too tired to write a proper end-of-year recap or inspirational New Year's post; but still feels she must contribute in some way to the festivities. "2005.  January the first."   "2005."  Pause.  "Tell you what . . . I bet...