My First Follow Friday/Blog Hop

I'm popping two cherries at once tonight, with my first Follow Friday, hosted by parajunkee.com, and my first Blog Hop, hosted by crazy-for-books.com.


So here goes!  This week's question from Parajunkee: What makes up your non-human family?


For years we were a dog house, with a giant German Shepherd that resembled a bear.  These days, we have two cats: Jojo, the snob who gives the most withering of looks if she thinks you're insulting her cat-telligence, and Baby, the shit-for-brains kitten.







And from the Blog Hop, courtesy of crazy-for-books.com:
"Why do you read the genre that you do? What draws you to it?"
I've always been drawn to outlandish, imaginative prose.  Not necessarily the kind of fantasy that takes place in alternate worlds with elves and orcs, but more the kind of storytelling that transports you out of your everyday life, while still remaining believable due to its real world setting.
Modern horror is a staple in my literary diet: Stephen King being the author to whom I return time and time again.  His characters are relatable, grounded human beings, and it is always a pleasure to watch them thrown into otherworldly struggles and see how they evolve.
Neil Gaiman's brand of fantasy appeals for similar reasons; in American Gods, the protagonist is everyman Shadow.  In Neverwhere, it is office worker Richard.  They are both led away from the world they know, and into a place of magic and darkness: but this odyssey is rewarding because we know exactly where they have come from.
Other authors who excel at this are Joanne Harris (her earlier paranormal novels The Evil Seed and Sleep, Pale Sister are fantastic), John Connolly (blends the real world grimness of the 1940s with a young boy's fantasies in The Room of Lost Things) and the supernatural romance authors Laurell K Hamilton and Kelley Armstrong, who introduce vampires, werewolves and witches as a part of modern society.
If anyone knows of other authors who tell wildly imaginative stories, do let me know!