Fanatical Fans

So I am about to date myself.  When I was younger I was a HUGE fan of the Coreys, those of you my age will know of whom I speak.  I had Lost Boys and Dream a Little Dream on VHS and would watch all the time, we lived in a rural area so we went to town only a couple times a month and I would pick up Teen Beat and stare at their pictures imagining what they must be like. But that being said I don't think I was like fangirls of today.  My every moment and thought was not consumed by the celebrity crush I had. I didn't cry or rage at the thought of them having a girlfriend.

So I began to wonder what had changed. First I looked at my own current obsession Norman Reedus and his fans.  I realized that I am currently basically cyber stalking this poor man, following him on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram. Spendig entirely too much time scouring the internet for images, gifs and memes . Pinning things on Pinterest, tweeting things about and to him( as if he is reading them). But for the sake of research(yeah right) I spent some extra time this week watching Youtube videos and reading comments on all the feeds.

I found a new type of fan one I call FANactical.  The fan who I find seems to think they are truly connecting with this person confusing the person with the character or blending them into one being. They write things like "I LOVE YOU" "We are destined to be together" or "we should ....insert any sexual thing you can possibly think of".  I wondered about this intimacy these fans feel with the subject of their fanaticism and I realized that in this age of social media there is a level of contact that there has never been before.  You can do exactly like I did this week ..spend hours watching interview clip and find pictures and follow these people on every kind of media there is. 

And this is how you end up feeling , like maybe just maybe they are speaking to you.  I should say that a fangirl/boy is defined as

A rabid breed of human female who is obesessed with either a fictional character or an actor. Similar to the breed of fanboy. Fangirls congregate at conventions and livejournal. Have been known to glomp, grope, and tackle when encountering said obesessions.

Hugh Jackman: 'ello.
Fangirl: SQUEEEEEE! *immediately attaches to Jackman's leg*
Jackman: Security!

No I don't know if I would consider myself a fangirl but I would possibly consider groping Norman.  I don't think I would SQUEEEE but I will let you know when I meet him next year;)

I should also say that a lot of celebrities(actor and writers) are granting us fan access to them that to me at least seem unprecedented. Karen Marie Moning has her get together where she hangs out with us, Christine Feehan does the same and I can't forget Eric Etebari letting us totally take advantage of him:)

 And the always wonderful Phil Gigante who not only gave us eargasms but also was such a sport in New Orleans.

 

Alphas and Why I LOVE them

I think my love of Alphas started with Charles H. Troutt. Who the HELL is that you ask. My grandpa, he was a true alpha in my opinion. He ran the family, did what he thought was best for us but loved me with a love like I have never known since.  

 I started thinking about Alphas when a friend looked through my nook and was like what is with all the Alpha men in you books, honestly I hadn’t even realized it until then.  But I have since begun to ponder this love of Alphas.

I searched the internet and when you type in Alpha male over 1 million entries comes up.  I read some but none of them hit just the right spot for me.  I think I have known only one true Alpha since grandpa, he was an officer I used to fly with and as my friend Jen could tell you we were shall I say focused on him.  He is hard to describe as are most Alphas.

It seems a lot of people want the male character to go through some big emotional change, not me I want him to be himself. I mean, really people, in real life 9 times out of 10 people don’t change don’t find yourself a fixer upper because he is going to be the person he is and you are going to be disappointed.

If we look at Alphas in books Jericho Barrons from Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series is uber alpha and we(her fans) adore him.  The question was asked once if he should have been different, less Alpha and the answer was almost 100% HELL NO, that’s why we love him so.  (Below is Eric Etebari Karen's inspiration for Jericho and a great guy because he lets all her fans have fun with him at her parties.)

 Look at J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, which I love full of big strong alphas.  I think people often confuse Alpha with asshole you know someone who doesn’t have any emotion but I don’t see that at all.  An Alpha feels things more strongly than the lesser man, this makes his love all the more irresistible, it swallows you whole and you can lose yourself in it knowing he will keep you safe.

  I think the reason I love Alphas is because I am one in my real life, as most of the people who really know me would confirm.  When I searched alpha female it is defined as

“An Alpha Female is a dominant female in a group. She dates as many males as she wants, is strong and confident, and a hard worker as well as often busy. She is usually sarcastic because she's powerful and playful. Alpha Females are intelligent, intellectual problem solvers; and though being an alpha female is more of a state of mind than a physicality, an alpha understands that dressing up or sexy increases her power in society, so she does it. Alpha Females are often terribly misunderstood by Beta and lesser males, as evident by the other posts about Alpha Females, and when this happens, she's called a bitch, a cunt, or a whore ... Alpha Females prefer passion over romance, although if it's romance coming from an Alpha Male, a hootttttt one, that's another story...”Urbandictionary.com

Now I have been called most of those things and honestly I could care less so yeah guess I am alpha.  And I love Alphas in books because I can lose myself in the fantasy of having someone take control and losing myself if only for the time I am there. In reality I don’t think it works since I have found most men don’t know how to take control without being dicks about it;)

What do you think why do you love alpha males?

Quantum Leap and Butterfly Effect

Quantum Leap was a favorite of mine, one that I will still watch on Netflix.  The very idea of going back in time, I mean who hasn't thought about that.

And of course that lends to the ripple affect of how you change things.  And who couldn't feel for poor Sam never being able to get home and never knowing what was going to be happening to him.  the Uh oh moments.  That and the crap equipment he had to deal with. You would think if they could send you hopping thru time and space and into other peoples bodies that the handheld Ziggy would work at least 90% of time but no.  We saw how little changes made a big difference in the peoples lives and possibly in Sam's life.

Fast forward to 2004 and you have Ashton Krutcher's character in Butterfly Effect who goes back to try to make things better and the results are to say the least disastrous. I mean we are talking serious consequences to the tiniest of changes.

So the question is if science fiction became reality would you go back and change something knowing it could change everything?  I lost my mom 18 long years ago and I would give just about anything to have her back but I wouldn't give my kids and chances are if she had lived I wouldn't have them.

Sci-Fi Nerd Girl before it was Cool

   I was a Sci-Fi chick before it was cool, before Sci-Fi became SyFy so girls would be more interested.  It all started with the original Star Trek...you know with Shatner before the travel commercials.  I can thank my dad for that.  My favorite was the Tribbles please remember I was a little girl who also loved Unicorns.

Fast forward a few years and since we lived in a rural area books were my next Sci-Fi adventure I read Jules Verne and comic books and also my choice of cartoons foreshadowed my love of all things Science fiction and paranormal. My favorite cartoon was Wildfire...I mean come on a horse(all girls love horses) that traveled to another dimension what more could I have wanted, when we finally got cable I was in heaven.

Imagine my utter joy the first time I saw Doctor Who.

I could go on and on but the point is now there are Cons and costumes and everyone is into Sci-Fi ....and that is good but I was Sci-fi when this would have gotten your ass kick:)