Way To Your Heart blog hop - post 1 (with prizes)

Less Than Three Press is turning four years old! To commemorate the anniversary, we're having a bloghop called "The Way to Your Heart" from April 1-14.  Each blogger's "assignment" is to talk about the things that mean the most to them, things that make their hearts soar or even soar, in a good way of course.

The masterpost with all the awesome participants is HERE at LT3  and many are offering shiny giveaways. So sit back and read what makes my heart do little flip-flops then go check out all the others. Happy belated Easter by the way.

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If you've ever read my blog before or just looked at the pretty pictures I post, you'll know I'm a little prone to obsession. To be honest, I think obsession makes me happy, lol, because it occupies a mind so filled with hurrying thoughts and ideas and characters and plots and scenes that there's little room for any coherence most of the time. Obsession makes me take time out from the whirring to seek out pretty pictures or stories about whatever happens to be my heart's delight at the time. This may seem like it would add to the convoluted nature of my brain, and in some ways, it does, but in others it stops the madness and makes me a little clearer. It's very hard to define so I'll stop trying.

I intend on doing more than one post for this hop, mostly because my decision-making skills are pretty much nil and there are a number of things that make my heart soar. I'll be giving away one $20 gift certificate to All Romance Ebooks, plus ebooks from my backlist. If I do three posts that would mean I give away the gift certificate plus 2 books, four posts would be the gift certificate plus 3 books - you get the idea. Every time you comment on a post, your name will go in the overall bucket so comment on two posts=two chances, three posts=three chances - again, I think you get the picture. Now on to the good bits.

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So I've decided (I rarely say that by the way ;P) to use my current obsession... I mean love as my first post. *drumroll please* THE HOBBIT!

Betcha didn't see that one coming, right? Or if you've been to my blog, Tumblr, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook, or anywhere else I lurk, it will be no surprise at all. I'll start by saying I read the book to my boys when they were in elementary school (I think that's when it was) and it never set off any bombs in my head. I also enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies but meh, nothing magical happened then either. When The Hobbit movie came out there was still no fanfare in my head. My middle child had tickets to see the midnight show of it's release and I was like, "really? why?" It took me over a month to finally decide I might like to see it and only then because I found out two actors I adored were in it; Aidan Turner and Dean O'Gorman. 

So off I went, popcorn and crutch in hand, unsure whether I'd be able to sit through an almost three-hour movie that didn't involve two men falling in love and kissing and hugging and stuff. Plus my attention span and the shape of my knee in one position for two long were also of concern. I couldn't have been more blown-away had Thorin Oakenshield himself, knocked me over the head with his sword. 

The movie immediately sucked me in, even before I met my two beloved boys that I knew were playing sweet dwarf brothers. The last movie that had done that to me was The Avengers but it was already familiar in ways of characters and actors that I'd seen in the roles before - don't get me wrong, I loved the Avengers, saw it 4 times in theatres and bought the DVD as soon as it was out, even wrote one fanfiction about it but The Hobbit... just did something extra for me.

The first time I saw it was in 3D and despite those glasses making me freaking crazy because They Are Just Not Made To Put Over Other Glasses, I lost myself in the adventure, the scenery, the awesome characters (especially the dwarfs or dwarves as Tolkien decided to spell it). After years of depression and other issues, I didn't remember much from the book so it was a new world and story to me. 

I have a propensity for falling in love with characters very quickly and I knew from small clips and photos of Aidan that Kili had already won my heart. The movie proved that to be no different, except I ended up with three dwarfs invading my heart instead of the one or two (Dean of course) that I had suspected. Thorin, Fili and Kili - heirs of Durin - code name Sexy Dwarfs.

Thorin Oakenshielf, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain was the first dwarf to have a scene. His backstory was sad and emotional and he was one damn sexy, passionate dwarf. It's Thorin's quest that is the centre of the Hobbit, even though the title represents Bilbo Baggins the hobbit in question. To me it's a dwarf story not a hobbit story, but the next two movies in the series will change things so I guess I'll let them keep The Hobbit title rather than write Peter Jackson and tell him it should be changed to something like The Dwarfs (Dwarves?), Durin Hotties or The Sexy-ass Dwarfs' Most Excellent Adventure (though it's not so excellent later on :(). Anyhow, Thorin is the king in more ways than one, actually he isn't a king at all because as of yet he hasn't reclaimed his kingdom of Erebor. 

He's the leader of the dwarf company, the strong silent type who is good at giving orders, allows for humility and humbleness when he's wrong, cares for his kin and his kind with a big old heart and has a tendency to get lost. ;) Richard Armitage portrays Thorin to a degree you completely forget Thorin isn't an actual person/dwarf in real life. Check him out, he has an array of television series and films, one of the best being his role as Guy of Gisborne in the BBC series Robin Hood. He's hot and his voice could melt a goddamn metal factory.

Moving on, we have Fili. First son of Dis who is Thorin's sister, making him Thorins' heir apparent and sister-son number one. Fili is played by the fabulous Dean O'Gorman from New Zealand. He's not as highly known as Aidan or Richard but I knew of him because of my love and addiction to anything gay. He's not gay, that I'm aware of, but he is in a movie I have in my collection called "When Love Comes" where he plays a young, strung-out hustler trying to find his heart - that's my description anyhow. He was in Young Hercules as Iolaus and currently stars in a popular Kiwi series called The Almighty Johnsons as the raunchy, arsehole (a lot of times naked) God of Poetry, Bragi - or Anders as his human name.

Fili is the strong silent type as well, but not in the brooding, emotionless (for the most part) way of his uncle. Fili is a watcher, an observer, and right from the beginning you can see one of his most important roles in life is to protect and watch over his baby brother, Kili. Dean was the 2nd actor to play Fili in the movie, the first having bowed out very early on due to personal reasons. I've seen the other Fili in costume, seen him interact a bit with Aidan but to me, the chemistry wasn't the same but then again I am a little Dean-biased. Fili is clearly missing from some of the scenes and Kili appears to get more screen time because there were a few scenes already shot with the old Fili in place. You can actually pick out the original Fili in a couple scenes but you have to look very, very closely. Lol. But I digress. Fili is the golden-haired dwarf with fabulous flowing hair and killer mustache braids. Dean has the most amazing dimples and sometimes you can see them through Fili's scruff, that always makes me smile.

Kili is one of the babies of the company (only 5 years younger than Fili though), but also one of the more hyper and free-spirited dwarfs... unless he has a bow in his hand. He's the only one whose first choice in weapons is the bow and arrow and there are a few times in the movie that Thorin calls on him to do what he does best, "Kili! Shoot them!" In some interviews, the other dwarf/actors have called him the sexy dwarf because he doesn't have as much of the face prosthetics or freaky hair thing going on, and let's face it, there's no way to really "ugly up" Aidan Turner.

I love Kili's cheeky spirit which Aidan brings to life in the very first scene he and Fili are in (love that door scene) where Kili goes from serious to excited back to serious then to determined in a matter of a minute. (I'm posting the scene just because I think it's awesome). The brothers are usually together, whether it's around the fire, around the table, on horseback or in battle. There are other brother dwarfs as well, but maybe it's Kili and Fili's youthfulness that makes their bond seem so strong. It's one of the things I love about  the two of them, their strong bond can be seen without it being broadcast. Aidan is an awesome actor by the way, if you haven't already picked up my addiction to him. ;) I first saw him in the UK series of Being Human, he's in seasons 1-3 as John Mitchell, loveable but confused vampire. He's beautiful in it.

There, have I rambled enough? I should also mention that seeing The Hobbit five times in theatres (in every format including 48 frames a second) watching it 4 times at home already (I swear I pick out something new every single tim, too), stoked my muse back into an awakened state after him being dormant for a few months of hell. I wanted to write dwarfs so damn bad, but not any dwarfs - "my dwarfs".

I fought and battled with my muse, telling him in no uncertain turns would I be writing Hobbit fanfic since besides that one little Thor/Loki fic, I hadn't written any in over two years. Alas, my muse won and in doing so, allowed me to continue on with the WIPs I'd be worrying over and stuck on. Did I also mention, I met a kindred soul through my love of the Hobbit dwarfs? It was a very huge perk. :)

So now I write Thorin/Fili/Kili (yes, Durincest) in different combinations and though I have only posted on Fili/Kili so far (plus some RPS Aidan/Dean) and because I'm working from a couple different prompt tables, there are many more in the works. (if anyone's interested I can give you the links). I've decided if I have to bribe my muse to finish my WIPs by offering Durins and Aidan/Dean, then I guess I'll just have to struggle through that. ;D I'm also a bit of a collector as you can see.

I also have each character poster (the pics of my dwarfs above), a beautiful movie poster
<-- this one, and a t-shirt. Lol. Research, honest. And that's only for the first movie. There are 2 more coming out, December 2013 and December 14 - the next one "The Desolation of Smaug" has a lot of elves running around - not sure I'll like them overshadowing my dwarfs and then the last one, *sighs*, I may not be able to watch it right to the end. I try not to think about that though.

Okay, end of post... for now. Should I make you think for your entry into my draw? Yes, I think I'll be mean that way so leave a comment telling me which dwarf or even just a recent movie character made your heart soar or just wiggled their way into your heart (you can pick a dwarf simply by the pic or description if you like, too, I'm not fussy, lol). 

Make sure your name and email address is with your comment, then I'll be making the big draw on April 15. Stay tuned to my blog for more posts for The Way to Your Heart Blog Hop - I think the next one might be a music or concert post. Now here's a couple Hobbit videos of scenes I love. I admit the Bag End scene is one of my faves of the whole movie.

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Fili and Kili - at your service. ;)

Thorin arrives at Bag End - late but in charge immediately.

This song and scene captivated me at the theatre and on DVD. It's just so rich, so beautiful.