Armchair BEA: Introductions

I'm late to the party on this one, but I couldn't pass it up!  I'm joining into the Armchair BEA this year!  To kick things off, here is my introduction post!

Please tell us a little about yourself: Who are you?  How long have you been blogging?  Why did you get into blogging?

Wow, what an opener! First off, my name is Melinda and I'm a stay-at-home Mommy and reader and writer; I'm a Christian (but the "happy" kind, not the "dark" kind--I believe in loving one another, not judging on another) and a non-affiliated voter with strong views that lean to the left.  Thankfully for you all, I don't go into politics here!

I've been blogging in one form or another for probably a decade.  I started because I liked to write and I had things to say.  In all those years, I've focused my blogging and this blog is now just a book blog.  Because, when I'm not writing, I'm reading (or, you know, I'm doing Mom things...).

Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures. 

photo credit: Ninga via photopin cc

I sort of live here.  No, I don't know who is getting married.  I took a picture off Photo Pin.  This the metro part of West Metro Mommy, with a hint to the west part.  I actually live here....

photo credit: rocket ship via photopin cc

I took that off Photo Pin, too.  Thank goodness for random people who are willing to put their pictures in the public domain.  Or, at least, they don't know that they are doing that.

As for some interesting facts:

• Believe it or not, this is the birthplace of the Mai Tai
• You can take your dog into a pub here
• You can get married in a donut shop (but not just any donut shop....)
• We are the home of the oldest orchestra in the west
• We average 144 days of sun a year.  Which sounds like a lot until you realize that we average 221 days of clouds and/or rain.
• We have the world's greatest bookstore

photo credit: shichahn via photopin cc

Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you. 
I'm terrified of Monkeys.  Not necessarily chimpanzees, but the little rodent-looking ones.  Marcel on Freinds gave me nightmares.

What literary location would you most like to visit? Why? 
I'm going to twist this around a bit and tell you my favorite literary location that I have visited, that would be Louisa May Alcott's house in Concord, Massachusetts.  As a girl growing up reading Little Women, this was like coming home.  And, if you are the Thoreau persuasion, Walden Pond is not far away.

What is your favorite part about the book blogging community?
Um, my ever-growing TBR list?  Well, yes, there IS that.  There is also a community of people who are as crazy about books as I am.  I have a few friends--my closest friends--who are of the same mind, but I don't see them as much as I'd like. The blogging community gives me a chance to discuss books when I can't get together with my friends.

And there, my new friends, is my humble little intro!