Half way through a seven-hour drive to yet another rock climbing competition, trapped in a car with three adults, two tween girls, and a metric ton of smelly climbing shoes, I came up with the brilliant idea of making some lists to post on this blog.

How better, I thought (rousing briefly from a groggy haze brought on by Gravol and way too much time on the 401…and trust me, anyone who has driven on the 401 can vouch for how absolutely, mindbogglingly boring and UGLY it is), for my readers to get to know me! 

I pulled out a pen and the little pad of paper I carry everywhere with me in a vain attempt to stop jotting plot notes and bits of dialogue on napkins, bookmarks, parking stubs, and anything else to which I can apply a pen, and very quickly realized that I hate numbered lists. 

Things started out well. I wrote down some titles, each on its own separate page with a neat row of numbers below, because yes, I’m that kind of person. I had loads of ideas and was ready to create a set of fun, fanciful lists that would tell my readers more about me, my tastes, and the things that have shaped my writing. I promptly spent the next hour descending into a wallow of anxiety and self-doubt.  Now, maybe the Gravol, the cramped quarters, and the chaos of being in a closed space with two  twelve-year-olds who managed, in the space of that one trip, to lose a water bottle, a pair of ear-buds, an MP3 player, AND a pair of winter boots, played a part, but I suspect they were only ancillary. My real issue was with the lists themselves.

What happened, you ask? Let’s take my attempt at a “Top Ten Zombie Movies” list as an example.

I decided to start completing the list from the top, with number one. It would be easy, I thought, to name my favourite zombie movie — after all, it’s one of my favourite genres. I couldn’t have been more wrong, and I ran in to trouble right away. Should I give top rank to the original Night of the Living Dead, as foundational to the modern zombie genre? What about the 1990 remake which, while keeping some of the social commentary on race relations, also upped the feminist game by giving Barbara some backbone? Should top place go to Zombieland for its humour and unexpected emotional punches, or to Train to Busan, for its absolutely brilliant brush-stroke character building? And what about The Dead, which took the classic Romero approach but removed the genre from the traditional western setting? 28 Days Later is one of the few movies to give me night terrors, although the sequel left a lot to be desired, and the original Resident Evil was stylish and streamlined; something missing from the later installments in the series. 

The problem, I realized, was that I liked all these movies for different reasons. With no criteria to define my scale (was I picking the top ten scary zombie movies, or international, or classic, or interesting takes on the genre, or, or ,or ,or…?) I found myself with a ten-way tie for first place and an existential crisis about the rest. And that didn’t even cover the movies I own but haven’t had the chance to watch yet: Maggie, Extinction, The Returned, Contracted, and Jeruzelam to name just a few. How could I possibly make a Top Ten Zombie Movie List when I hadn’t seen ALL THE MOVIES!?!?! Add to that the fear that by putting out a Top Ten List I was inviting attack from everyone who disagreed with my choices, and by the end of the road trip I ended up with a note pad filled with movie titles, scribbles, and notes on what I had to watch before I could continue. It was not the fun exercise I’d imagined.

Long story (and car ride) short, I realized that I don’t like numbered lists for the following reasons:

• They are totally subjective (but present the illusion of objective authority) (i.e., any given top ten list is valid only for its creator)
• They force you to compare and contrast things that are better appreciated for their own merits
• They are always incomplete and out of date (New movie released? Damn, obsolete already…)
• They just stress me out

So on that note, I present my “Random, unordered, incomplete, and absolutely subjective list of zombie movies I like”

• Night of the Living Dead (original and 1990s remake)
• Dawn of the Dead (original, although the opening sequences of the 2004 remake were great)
• Resident Evil
• Zombieland
• Shaun of the Dead
• Train to Busan
• The Dead (I and II)
• Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies
• 28 Days Later (Which I will NEVER, EVER watch again. Once was enough)
• Dead and Breakfast (the songs are a riot)
• Dead Set (Arguably a TV mini-series, but it’s my list, so there)
• The Girl with all Gifts
• Pontypool
• The Zombie Diaries
• The Crazies
• Warm Bodies (Read the book!)
• Cargo (The original 5min short is better)

So, as I mentioned in my first post and my bio, I have cats. Strange cats.

Meet Mutant Cat 1

And Mutant Cat 2.0

My cats are both Cornish Rex; a breed that originated in Cornwall, England in the 1950s and is known for its ultra-soft, curly down coat, and…unique appearance.  Yes, they look a bit naked sometimes, and yes, when they sit in the window just right, you can see the sun through their ears AND the skin between the bones in their lower legs. And yes, while I think they are absolutely lovely (evocative of Egyptian statues, even), I fully understand that cats who look more than a little bit like bug-eyed, bat-eared aliens are not to everyone’s taste. (Don’t listen to them babies; you’re beautiful)

Now, although we find their earnest, goofy faces and tip-toe gait charming, we chose our Cornies not for their appearance but for their personalities. Affectionate, cuddly, and family-oriented do not even begin to describe our boys. I think their breeder said it best when she informed us that “These cats don’t just want to be under the covers with you, they want to be in your pajamas with you.”  She was right. I spend a fair deal of time with a cat up my sweater (or down my overalls) and choose my hoodies based on cat-accommodation potential.

What our breeder failed to tell us was that in addition to being cuddly and playful, Cornish Rex cats are crazy. Insane, bonkers, wonder-if-they’ve-been-possessed level crazy. Imagine a Siamese. Its a breed known for being curious, intelligent, and mischievous when bored, right? We should know, we’ve had two. Now give that Siamese twenty cans of Mountain Dew…and some coffee…and methamphetamine, and you might….might…get a picture of a Cornish Rex cat in the grip of the 10pm crazies. I count myself lucky that they sleep pretty much twenty hours a day.

So, without further ado, I give you my ever-evolving list of “Strange things I’ve had to say to my cats”

• Don’t lick the cheese-grater
• Don’t lick the knife
• That’s my avocado
• No, you can’t have my popcorn
• NO! My popcorn!
• Get out of (insert name here)’s shirt
• Maybe ask (insert name here) if she minds you crawling up her skirt?
• Why did you carry the drain-plug down the stairs?
• Where is my bookmark? What did you do with my bookmark?
• The GM’s screen is not your sworn enemy; leave it alone!
• Don’t eat the curtain/wooden spoon/stuffed animal/tooth pick/blanket!
• Did you eat my running sock?
• Get off the toaster!
• Get out of the frying pan!
• Aug! Did you sit in the curry?

Hey there!

Since this is my first post, I thought I’d take the time to tell you little bit about myself.

My name is Megan M. Davies-Ostrom. The M. stands for Myfanwy, and I’m not even going to get into how to pronounce it. It’s Welsh. Blame my parents.

If I’d been I boy I would have been Luke, apparently. Given that Star Wars came out when I was one, I guess I dodged a bullet on that one. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE fan, but also very happy to have escaped a life time of “Were you named after…?”

I’m a Canadian writer with a particular penchant for Adult and Young Adult horror, urban fantasy, and apocalyptic fiction…or, given my druthers, some weird and wonderful combination of all three.  I am a member of the Canadian Author’s Association.

For my day job (and yes, I definitely have one of those), I’m a Senior Performance Analyst with Canada’s Federal Civil Service. I have a Master’s Degree in Cultural Anthropology and have spent more than fifteen years working in intercultural settings.

As a voracious (and eclectic) reader, I think the best way to really get to know anyone is to talk about books, so without further ado, here are some woefully incomplete lists that will tell you (in no particular order) at least a little bit more about me.

Books I loved when I was young(er) and still hold a place in my heart:

• The Lord of the Rings by J.R. Tolkien
• The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman
• The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey
• The Icewind Dale and Homeland Trilogies by R.A Salvatore (and yes, I TOTALLY had a crush on Drizzt when I was thirteen. I mean, who didn’t?)

Books I will (and do) reread endlessly

• The Foreigner Series by C.J. Cherryh
• The Shining by Stephen King (Actually, pretty much anything he’s written, but The Shining stands out as one of my favourites)
• The Relic, Reliquary, and Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (As an anthropologist by training, I really enjoy these novels)
• World War Z by Max Brooks. (I’ve loved the zombie genre for years, for all the same reasons I like disaster movies, but this book was ground-breaking and, for better or for worse, brought the genre into the mainstream.
• Anything featuring the Witches or Guards by Terry Pratchett
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Patient Zero, Dead of Night, and Fall of Night by Jonathan Maberry
• 8.4 by Peter Hernon
• The Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz
• Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and Congo by Michael Crichton
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
• Rachel’s Holiday by Marion Keyes
• The Tony Foster books by Tanya Huff

Books and stories that left a footprint on my soul:

• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
• Nation by Terry Pratchett
• Boo by Neil Smith
• The Ruins by Scott Smith (I have a tattoo of the flowering vine from this novel on my back, so I guess I have to say it had an impact!)
• The Things they left behind (Short Story) by Stephen King

Books I just really like and don’t really fit into any other list here:

• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
• The Locke and Key Graphic Novel Series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
• The Courtney Crumrin Graphic Novel Series by Ted Naifeh

I’m not afraid of the dark unless, of course, I’m meant to be alone in it, and I’m not.