Happy Easter! {Smile}

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it. {SMILE} And to those who don't, have a nice day anyway. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

NO tsunami! {SMILE}

Well, the tsunami warning was called off at 2-something or other. No significant damage was reported by all four mayors (the heads of the four counties). The highest waves were in Kahului, at 3+ feet. Hilo's highest waves were 2+ feet. Apparently that was high enough to make some interesting wave action around Coconut Island and the breakwater here in Hilo. {Smile}

Sorry I didn't write sooner; it's now after four. I was napping when the alert got called off. I got up around 3, and kicked the migraine I got up with shortly before 4. As it finished leaving, I got on the computer to tell you about the waves. So I was as prompt as feasible. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Tsunami Warning

Well, my state is under a tsunami warning. Fortunately, our house is at 800 feet elevation, so we don't have to worry about an earthquake-generated tsunami. Unfortunately, we badly need milk. However, there's a 7-Eleven that's fairly close, and no where near the tsunami evacuation zones. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Computer trouble?

I think my computer keyboard just died. I hope so. I just spent the whole evening trying to a) figure out what was wrong, and B) back up my computer when one file in My Files was entirely too big. {bite lips}

If I disappear for several days, it might have been something more complicated than the keyboard. Wish me luck. {lop-sided smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

My birthday

Well, this has been a good birthday. I opened and admired and the presents
this morning. Then this evening we ate and enjoyed chicken piccatta
followed by chocolate cake. Yes, that was a good birthday. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Wow. {Impressed Smile}

Well, a friend I met thru her blog asked the owners of another blog about handicapped heroines, since they often ask readers to help answer questions not entirely different than this. They took some time getting around to posting it, but when they did their readers really got into suggesting books. {BIG SMILE}

See here: http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/gs-vs.-sta-handicapped-heroines/ . When I read it, they had 108 comments, and I don't think they've stopped. A few books come up quite a few times, but still. This should keep me busy for quite a while. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Handicapped Heroines who Get a Guy (Version 1.0)

I've been meaning to post a list "when I get it done." I just realize I may not fully finish for quite a while. Two books are on order, and two more are mentally noted, one of which probably will eliminate itself, but the other shouldn't. {Smile}

I think it's time to stop stalling, and share what I've found so far that I feel fairly certain of. If I don't, this could turn a project all too similar to my Aunt Kitty's family tree. She promises Dad she'll share it "when it's done," but you don't finish family trees. {Smile}

Handicapped Women Who Get a Guy with No Copout

Fictional Woman – Minor Character

Myste is the hero’s love interest in Exile’s Honor and Exile’s Valor by Mercedes Lackey. She’s not a major character, and their relationship isn’t a major plotline. At least it’s there.

Fictional women – Major Characters

Barbara Gordon/Oracle in the TV series Birds of Prey is courted by a male counselor at the school where she teaches by day. The ending wasn’t happy, but that was the villain’s fault, not either Barbara’s or the counselor’s. She’s also in Batman and related comics. She does have two or three romantic interests in the comics, but those romances seem to be on again, off again. The TV series’s romance was steadier.

Veronica Spencer in Vows of the Heart by Susan Fox is on crutches due to a car accident. It’s a modern, realistic romance.

Real Woman

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the poet, eloped with Robert Browning, also a poet, in 1846, after two years of courtship. She was in frail health at the time. She got better, then worse again, but probably was never hardy. They had one son together. They lived in Italy until her death in 1861. So far, her biographical entries have tended to cover their relationship in significantly more detail than his. {smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

A request for recommendations

I've noticed a troubling theme in fantasy and science fiction stories. At least it troubles me as a handicapped woman. {bite lips}

When the heroine is handicapped, she doesn't get a romantically satisfying ending as far as I'm concerned. I don't think it's because I'm being too fussy. Wine, roses, champagne, and the like aren't required. All I want is for her to end up with a guy who, if he were direct enough, could honestly say "I could go it on my own, or find someone else, but I'd rather stay here with you." The only gal I know of is Myste in Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series, and she's the hero's love interest than a major character in her own right. {smile}

Handicapped guys can find gals like that. It doesn't happen often, but there's Carradoc of the Shrunken Arm in King Arthur's legends, Tannim in Mercedes Lackey's Serrated Edge series, Alberich in Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series, Gryffin in The Dream-Maker's Magic by Sharon Shinn, Philip Guthrie in Hope's Folly by Linnea Sinclair, Miles Vorkosigan in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vor series, and a few others I don't remember quite well enough to fetch the books for. {smile}

Now don't get me wrong: this is good. Handicapped guys need the encouragement too, and I'm very glad they're getting it. However... when it's a gal who has a handicap, she's practically never that lucky. I've seen more ways for this to get messed up than I ever expected:

1) The gal ends up with no romantic involvement.

2) The gal doesn't settle down with a guy until her handicap has been fixed, so she's no longer handicapped.

3) The gal settles down on a planet where her handicap isn't a handicap. (Who cares if you're deaf when every non-deaf human has to wear deafening earplugs to keep the local inhabitants from piercing their ear drums with their loud calls?)

4) The gal finds a guy, but they're united by a magical, psychic, biological, etc. bond they have no control over. This bond tends to ensure the guy either can't "make it" with the vast majority of otherwise eligible females, or can't happily settle down with anyone else. If the gal he finds happens to be handicapped, he courts her anyway. {lop-sided smile}

What's wrong with these stories? Nothing individually. None of them quite fit the romantic attitude I'm looking for, but I don't expect every story to end the way I'd like. The problem is that I haven't found any that do work out well. All the stories that don't work out well get frustrating when I look at them together, with so little to balance them out. {pause, bite lips}

That's why I'm asking for recommendations. I haven't read everything out there. Maybe I've missed something, or forgotten something. Does anyone know any science fiction or fantasy stories where a handicapped gal settles down with a guy who stays with her because he wants her, even tho he has the normal range of choices? He doesn't have to be in perfect condition himself. I'm counting both Alberich and Myste when they find each other. {smile}

I'm hoping there's more out there that I've missed, one way or another. {wistful smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in America. I know what I'm giving thanks for.
{Smile}

I am thankful that I made it thru both medical crises this year. Both
the toxic reaction to the cholestorol medicine and the flushing and
blackouts from the niacin were pretty scary. I am thankful that I'm better
in time to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas without worry. {Smile}

I am thankful for the friends and family who stood beside me when I was
sick. I am thankful for the ones who hoped and prayed that I'd get better,
and I'm thankful for the ones who refused to let me face the problem
alone. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

{RELIEVED SIGH}

Well, the switch to time-release niacin worked. I've officially made it
thru a period without a nasty flush. {relieved sigh, smile}

Thank you, God! I needed that so badly. {Relieved Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin