They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Juliette Cross, whose latest installment of the Dominion series, Hardest Fall, comes out today from Entangled Bliss!
What does Juliette love when she’s not writing about angels and demons? Spoiler alert: theorizing on the end of an epic fantasy era (and its music), another reason to love all things Marvel, and a behind-the-scenes peek at the magic of speculative fiction. Curious? Read on to learn more!
To narrow down my speculative fiction/film obsessions down to a few is rather difficult, but I’ll do my best. Here it goes.
Game of Thrones and the composer Ramin Djiwadi’s magnificent score are definitely on my most favorite things list. You can’t throw a stone without hitting a fellow Game of Thrones fanatic, but if you happened to be living in a cave, it’s the epic fantasy empire created by George R.R. Martin and then adapted to television by HBO. I truly love deep-diving into theories about the characters and the show by listening to the quirky and hilarious podcast Binge Mode, hosted by Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion. That’s where I can really get my nerd on and feel right at home with fellow GOT crazies.
The World of Marvel is a close second in my list of favorite obsessions. Any and all movies and television shows, from Guardians of the Galaxy (wink-wink to Chris Pratt) to Avengers (Tony Stark is the MAN) to Jessica Jones (my spirit animal) on Netflix until recently cancelled. (Kill me now!) I love and adore them all. It’s a family affliction, because we own every movie made and do family movie night rewatches all the time. My coolest story related to our love of all things Marvel is about Jon Bernthal, also known as Frank Castle in The Punisher.
My husband does an annual trip to Wizard World Comic Con in New Orleans with our sons. This year was the first year my eldest, Justin, who is overseas in the Navy, couldn’t attend. My husband brought Justin’s military picture to ask Bernthal to hopefully hold when they got their celebrity photo later in the day. So when he was getting his comic book of The Punisher signed by Bernthal, he asked if it would be okay. Bernthal then tells him “it would be my honor” to do so. He then stepped from behind the autograph table and took a picture on the spot with my husband and the photo of my son, and signed a poster specifically to our son with a heart-melting message to stay strong. All free of charge. What an outstanding guy. This only solidified my love of Bernthal as an actor, and he’s gained fans for life with me and my family.
The Face Off reality show is a favorite of our whole family, too. Face Off is a reality television show on the SYFY channel. It’s a competition between make-up and special effects artists where each week they compete on a specific theme and someone goes home until the final three contestants are left. Each episode, they have a guest professional who offers tips or engages with the artists, and I find this side of the Hollywood film world fascinating.
The themes range from the truly beautiful to alien to horror. Highly creative contests that really test the skills of the artists. I really enjoy watching the artists’ interactions with the models and seeing how they use the features of their models to make the most of their character they’re creating. The finale is always interesting, because they typically have a multi-character competition which ends in creating a short film. It’s a unique art form that is often overlooked. As someone who loves sci-fi and fantasy films, it’s like taking a peek behind the curtains of the magic. Truly a must-see if you’re a fan of the genre.
Juliette Cross is a multi-published author of paranormal and fantasy romance and the co-host of the podcast, Smart Women Read Romance. She is represented by Rachel Brooks at BookEnds Literary Agency. She is a native of Louisiana where she lives with her husband, four kids, black lab named Kona, and two kitties, Pumpkin and Betty.
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Author Photo by Adriana Portraits
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“Light of the Seven” is an absolute favorite of mine. I even wrote about it in the early days of this blog! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you, Shara! Yes, it is mine, too! Such a beautiful piece, especially with the storyline it accompanies. Thanks so much for having me. 🙂