I very rarely take part in award posts these days – primarily because I forget I’ve been nominated if I’m going to be completely honest, but I was pleased to be nominated by Medieval Otaku and I like the questions so I thought I’d give this one a try.  So, firstly, my thanks for the nomination and let’s press on with the Q&A.

Here are the rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog so that other people can visit them – affirmative
• Answer the 11 questions put to you by the nominator – done
• Nominate 11 bloggers of your choosing and provide them with a new set of 11 questions to answer – no and yes.  I’m not going to nominate anyone but suggest that if you’d like to have a go at these questions then feel free
• Notify the nominees by commenting on one of their blog posts – see above
• List the rules and display The Sunshine Blogger Award logo within your post or on your blog site. – done.

To the questions – and don’t spare the horses:

1. Are you fluent in a second language or studied enough to understand basic conversations in one or more?

Sadly, no.  I do have what I call ‘tourist’ French.  I can make myself understood, ask for directions, order a drink, but, I usually go into a bit of a spin if then somebody thinks I can understand and starts conversing with me at great speed.  I have a little bit of Italian and a little bit of Spanish and I am also trying my hand at Portuguese – but it’s very early days.

2. What is your favorite American comic strip?

This is a tough question – I think I would have to go with Peanuts.

3. If you had to live the rest of your life in another country, which would you choose?

This would probably be somewhere with a slightly warmer climate than the UK – and maybe with less rain.  Spain, Portugal, Greece.  Difficult to pin just one down.

4. What is your favorite city?  Or do you hate/love metropolitan areas so much that you can’t choose one?

I have a number of cities that I love. Paris and Venice immediately spring to mind.  Plus I love Granada.  But, if forced to choose I think i’d have to say Paris.  I had such a fantastic time there, it’s a beautiful city and there is simply so much to see.  Great food, fantastic wine, amazing atmosphere.  Art, riverside walks or boat trips, markets.  I’ll stop there.

5. What is your favorite manga?

Well, unfortunately manga is not something that I really watch – not because I don’t like it, just I don’t really watch a lot of tv and then when I do I tend to binge watch a whole series.  I’ve watched plenty of anime and love the Studio Ghibli films.

6. What manga or light novel are you reading currently?  Or, what novel are you reading now if you’re reading neither of those two?

In terms of light novels I did start Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and I’m really enjoying that and would like to complete the series at some point.

7. If you could have any book or movie remade into an anime, which would it be?

I have two suggestions for this one.

Firstly, The Girl with Ghost Eyes (The Daoshi Chronicles #1) by M.H. Boroson.  This is a fantastic book and I think it would be perfect for adaptation and here’s why:

It’s the end of the nineteenth century in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and ghost hunters from the Maoshan traditions of Daoism keep malevolent spiritual forces at bay. Li-lin, the daughter of a renowned Daoshi exorcist, is a young widow burdened with yin eyes—the unique abil

ity to see the spirit world. Her spiritual visions and the death of her husband bring shame to Li-lin and her father—and shame is not something this immigrant family can afford.

When a sorcerer cripples her father, terrible plans are set in motion, and only Li-lin can stop them. To aid her are her martial arts and a peachwood sword, her burning paper talismans, and a wisecracking spirit in the form of a human eyeball tucked away in her pocket. Navigating the dangerous alleys and backrooms of a male-dominated Chinatown, Li-lin must confront evil spirits, gangsters, and soulstealers before the sorcerer’s ritual summons an ancient evil that could burn Chinatown to the ground.

With a rich and inventive historical setting, nonstop martial arts action, authentic Chinese magic, and bizarre monsters from Asian folklore, The Girl with Ghost Eyes is also the poignant story of a young immigrant searching to find her place beside the long shadow of a demanding father and the stigma of widowhood. In a Chinatown caught between tradition and modernity, one woman may be the key to holding everything together.

Secondly,  Julie Kagawa’s Shadow of the Fox series – which is also proving to be a great series packed with imagination.  The synopsis is below:

One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.

8. Is a zombie or vampire apocalypse more frightening to you?

Definitely zombie.  They just give me the creeps massively – plus vampires are not totally stupid – they know they can’t kill us all because we’re meals on legs.  Hey, they might even be tofu eating, sparkly vampires who just want to get along with us humans.  You never know.

9. What counts as your most controversial post?

Haha – I’m not sure if I’ve had a really controversial post.  I do take part, as a judge, in the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off competition and some of these posts can be quite highly anticipated – particularly when choosing a finalist.

10. Do you ever write a draft of a post with pen and paper before typing it up on the computer?

I used to do this but very rarely these days.  It was more note keeping than anything else but I just tend to open a draft document and make notes there.  I do keep lists of my upcoming reads and tend to carry around a notebook with all things book related plus lots of sketches and doodles.

11. Are you more of a tea or coffee person–or neither one?

I drink both.  Coffee in the mornings – to wake me up. Usually two cups but no more after that.  Tea in the afternoon.  Coffee keeps me awake at night.

Thanks again for the nomination.