Genre Favorites Blogfest

Thanks to the creative Alex Cavanaugh, I didn't have to try and come up with something clever to say in my Monday post. Today is Favorite Genre Blogfest and you can search out all the participants on Alex's Blog.

What usually happens with me is I come up with what I think are my favorites for one of these bloghops, but then when I check out all the other great choices, I think I should have made a different choice.

Favorite Genre of Movie: This has to be fantasy/scifi movies. This broad categories includes Transformers, The Avengers, Lord of the Rings, and dozens of others.

Favorite Genre of Book: Of course it is the same as my movie preference. It's also the genre I write, ranging from epic fantasy to fantasy romance. Give me a Brandon Sanderson or Terry Goodkind novel and I'm staying up all night reading. Most fantasy I read is medieval epic subgenre, but I do like some contemporary fantasy and also futuristic scifi.  I like some contemporary scifi that crosses over towards horror also. Dean Koontz does that with his Odd Thomas series.

Favorite Genre of Music: This is the most difficult genre for me. I listen to all kinds of music but I guess the stuff I jog to on my iPod has to be my favorite. Even that playlist is varied. Give me lots of Maroon Five, some Plain White Tees, and a little Train, 3 Doors Down. Can't forget Adele or Daughtry, David Cook, and Five for Fighting and Green Day. What genre is that? Pop rock? Alternative Rock? I don't know.

Guilty Pleasure from One of the Group?: I can watch hours and hours of light-hearted or darker non-network TV shows. White Collar, Leverage, Hell on Wheels, Suits, Justified, Perception, just to name a few. So many of those shows depend on character interaction and chemistry rather than deep plots or mysteries that I can just enjoy them purely for entertainment.

So are you joining in the blogfest? Have your favorites changed over the years?

One of Those

All members of the human race have them.  One of those weeks.  Then something happens to pick you up and get you back on track.  I slowed down this week after a visit to my elderly mother.  It's difficult to see her slowly fading into confusion.  Her world shrinks as her health issues grow.  It took me a few days to get back on track writing after pounding out almost 25K in the last five weeks.

Over the course of the last few days, I caught up on earlier seasons of a few of my favorite shows.  My daughter and I share a love of the USA network show, White Collar.  I think she loves it for Matt Bomer's blue eyes, and they are amazing, but I like watching a crime show where the crimes have to be solved by outsmarting some really clever thieves.  There are only occasional dead bodies.  We watching all of Season One.

Another show I discovered last year is FX's Justified. It has the clever dialogue and Raylin Givens is a modern day gunfighter masquerading as a federal marshal.  I grew up loving all those great western shows and Clint Eastwood movies.  I haven't watched the entire season yet, because I'm finally back on the WIP.  I also intend to catch up with my blogger friends I ignored for a few days.

So does anything throw you off stride from your writing routines?  What get you back on track? What is the longest you've ignored your writing or blogging?