The Wish House

So, as you can probably guess, all the househunting and moving business of the last few months has made me think about what I might want in a house and what my priorities are for when I eventually graduate college and move out on my own. The boring conclusion I reached from those thoughts is that if I get the job I want in the city or region I want and don't get married before I'm ready to buy a house, I'm likely to end up living in a townhouse (because it seems to fit my probable budget and my current priorities, which I'm happy to explain to anyone who wants to hear them) and I'm pretty ok with that, rather to my parents' disbelief (or possibly annoyance; it's hard to tell). The more interesting conclusion is what I call my "wish house"- not my dream house, because my dream house is Imladris but with WiFi and all the books I could ever want to read, but the house that would be maybe attainable, if I managed to save or acquire a few million dollars and the right resources. So today, I thought I'd share some of the major elements of that house.

The Wish House

1. Lots of trees . . . But also internet. As I said already, I'd be perfectly happy in a townhouse, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't prefer to feel like I'm in the middle of a forest. Ideally, the trees would come as close to the house as is safe, because I have no use whatsoever for great stretches of grass, but trees are quite inspiring. (And when I get stuck, I can stare out the window at squirrels and birds instead of endless grass and empty sky.) A screened-in porch so I could be out among the trees (to a degree) without fear of stinging insects would be nice too. However, it can't be totally in the middle of nowhere, because I need internet for blogging and story research and I have no interest in driving to the nearest library or coffeeshop every time I need to know what the Pittsburgh subway looks like or whether or not a bullet/arrow/sword/dragon's claw can pierce chain mail or how the pumpernickel you cook fresh-caught turkey over a campfire. That's just impractical.

2. My own personal library. Naturally. The library would be the biggest room in the house and would include all the books I could possibly want, from classics to YA to epic fantasy and beyond. There'd be plenty of reading books, each equipped with a table and a lamp and a huge comfy chair or two- the sort that's large enough to curl up in but not so big that you can't sit normally. I'd have a writing desk in there, in one of the corners, or maybe in the very center, something large and solid with plenty of drawers to hold reference notebooks and hard drives with backups of my novels on them, and a sword hung on the wall above it. Between the bookcases, maps and paintings and occasionally weaponry would adorn the walls. There would possibly be a fireplace somewhere in there as well, but I'm not sure about that.

3.Fandom-themed rooms. I'm not sure whether I would base room on a specific fandom or if I would have a mix of fandoms in every room or if I'd have some specific and some mixed rooms, but you get the idea. Some rooms might also be more genre-based; for example, there would be at least one steampunk room (dining room, maybe? or game room?), and the library would definitely be inspired by the fantasy genre as a whole, as I already discussed. And some rooms, like any guest bedrooms and probably the kitchen as well, would be pretty subtle in their fandom-ness. (After all, non-fans might appreciate having a respite from the fandoms, and in the kitchen, practicality trumps all.) In most rooms, though, I'd- well, maybe not go completely all-out, but close to it. Making sure everything meshes well could be a challenge, as could finding or making some of the pieces, but I'm sure I could figure it out.

4. A tower. I'm not asking for a big house. Actually, I'd prefer something on the smaller side, just big enough for me and whatever family I have at that point and the occasion guest or two. However, I absolutely want a tower, even if it looks odd. It wouldn't be large, just one story higher than the house, with a spiral staircase and possibly a parapet and a roof that you could walk around on. I'd put a private study/writing cave in there, with a smaller, elegant desk and extra copies of all my very favorite books. What I'd do with the rest of the space, I'm not sure, but I'd figure it out. Possibly I'd have one room with nothing but a wardrobe in it, just for kicks. It's hard to say for sure.

5. Always another secret. You know how houses and castles in fantasy books always seem to be riddled with secret passageways and hidden doors? That's what this house would be like. I'd have at least one secret door leading outside, for starters. Then, within the house, there would be no fewer than five hidden passages and probably several secret rooms and cubbyholes. All of these would be protected by several layers of riddles and puzzle locks and hidden latches such, some fairly easy to solve, some quite complicated. Oh, and that tower I mentioned? Although it would have at least two entrances, neither would be obvious, and both would be hidden under more layers of secrecy than any other room or door in the house. In short, my house would be the perfect setting for either a middle grade fantasy novel or a Nancy Drew computer game, and it would be fabulous.

What about you? What does your wish house look like? Would you trade good internet access for surrounding trees? And, if you visited me in my wish house, how crazy would my tower with no apparent way in drive you?

Thanks for reading!
-Sarah

Time Travel Touring

Hello, all! First off, a bit of housekeeping: I know I've been tagged with a few things over the last few months, and I am going to get to those soon- but I can't recall all of them. So if you know you've tagged me with something this summer, could you please remind me of what it is in the comments? Thanks. And now that that's over with, we can get to the real point of this post: time-travel.

 

I'm pretty sure everyone is at least somewhat fascinated with the idea of time travel and its potential. While it could be dangerous and also very difficult to use it as a superhero-type power (assuming you don't want to accidentally break history), as a personal ability? So cool- there are so many times and places you could go. And today, I'm talking about the top seven places I’d travel to if I had time-travel ability. (For the purposes of this post: there are no limits to said ability, except that I can’t significantly change history. And, for convenience’s sake, we’ll assume that the ability to blend in wherever I end up is included in the time-travel power. ‘Cause, you know, limits make for a good story . . . but if we’re going for if-onlys, why not pull out all the stops?)

Time Travel Touring

1. Ancient Egypt, early 15th century B.C. The exact year and century doesn't matter so much with this one- any period of ancient Egypt would be cool to visit. But if I'm going to go, I might as well do it when I could see some of the events of Exodus . . . though I might get out of there once the plagues start getting serious. There's some things I'd rather read about than experience, y'know?
   
   
   
2. Oxford, England, sometime in the 1940s (and then again in 1955). I give you all three guesses as to why, and the first two don't count- of course if I have time travel powers I'm going to go back and actually meet C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and maybe accidentally-on-purpose eavesdrop on an Inklings meeting or two (or even on some of their classes at Oxford!). And then I'd hop forward a decade and see if I can get my hands on first-edition (or early edition, at least) copies of LOTR and The Chronicles of Narnia- and, while I'm at it, I'd see if I could get those copies autographed too. Plus, if I felt like it, I could see if I could track down Diana Wynne Jones while she was taking classes at Oxford- she wouldn't have started writing yet, but it would still be cool to meet her.
   
   
3. Medieval Europe. As with modern Europe, there's no one specific location (or event) I'd particularly want to see- I'd rather travel from place to place (and time to time) and visit whatever catches my interest. I'd visit some castles and tournaments, for certain, and see if I could sit in on some significant events (most of which I can't think of off the top of my head just now) and generally do in-person story research. I would be a little bit scared to visit this time as well, not out of fear of death or injury but because I wouldn't want to let go of my fantasies. But I'd still go in the end.
   
   
4. New Zealand, early 2000s and 2011-2012. Specifically, onto the set of the Lord of the Rings  and Hobbit films, where I'd get a behind-the-scenes, in-person look at the process and then sneak myself into a costume to play the occasional extra in whatever scenes I could manage! Admittedly, I'm slightly iffy on whether or not it would be entirely legal . . . but it would definitely be fun.
   
   
5. Judea, 1st century A.D. Because what's a time-traveling tour without visiting the time when Jesus walked the earth and taught the people face-to-face? I'm honestly not sure I'd manage to approach Him, even if I visited that time- I wouldn't know what to do or say. But it would be amazing to hear Him speak and see His miracles.
6. Jerusalem and Judea, various points in David and Solomon's reigns (between 1010 and 931 B.C.). Actually tied with the time of Jesus for the Biblical era I'd most like to see: Jerusalem at its height, during the reigns of David and Solomon! And while I was there, I'd try to be there for some of the significant events- go back a bit to see David defeat Goliath, watch as the Ark was brought home to the Tabernacle, and sit in on some of the Temple dedication ceremony. Plus, of course, I'd explore the city on a few different ordinary days.
   
   
7. The American Frontier/Old West, 1800s. Because as someone who grew up on the Little House books and similar stories, and still finds the frontier and old west era fascinating, I couldn't not stop in on that time. As with Medieval Europe, there's no particular place and time within this region and era where I'd particularly want to go; I'd just travel around and see what I could see. (That being said, I'd probably try to meet Laura Ingalls, because why not?)
   

Too bad there's only seven slots on the list- other times and places that didn't quite make it on there include Victorian-era England, ancient Greece and Rome (though the latter I could probably do while visiting Judea), various locations during the Revolutionary War and the early years of the the USA (including Philadelphia, Fort Stanwix, Yorktown, and New York), the time of Creation, and several concerts that I wish I could've gone to but missed. And, you know, if I have the ability to time travel to anywhere and anywhen, I could theoretically use it to visit my various online friends around the globe . . . and, depending on how far the ability extended, even take them on some of these adventures with me! That would be really awesome.

What about you? Where and when would you go if you had almost-unlimited time travel abilities? Please tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)