Ann N Videan

Gentlewomen and Gentlemen of the Vox Chaotica Council! Hello and welcome back to FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDAAAAAAAAAAAY FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Last week on Fanday Friday, we met illustrator/awesome artistic person Stacy! This week it is the return of the Swamp Monster of the Black Pool Part IV! Nah, just kidding, that movie's worse than Titanic II. It's my Mum!

No literally. It's Ann N. Videan–she's my mum.

Lemme give you the skinny (literally a phrase from 1938). Mum is an author. She also does things like visual art, writing lyrics, playing guitar, singing, taking all of the pictures, and editing other author's terrible books (they're not all horrible books, just some–all of them have way too much passive voice though). She is also not a serial killer. When not doing everything for everyone–you know, I was going to make a joke there, but it's actually scary true. She runs her own business (and has done since I was in Kindergarden), is writing a book series, edits an average of three other books at a time, critiques her brother's epic fantasy tome, just started ghostwriting a book for a spiritual healer, makes friends with everyone, keeps up with like six different TV shows, cooks most of the meals, talks with all the baristas at Coffee Bean on a first name basis, and drags her enabler kids around to that place every week so she can feed her Coffee Bean addiction. And that's like a typical Monday schedule for her.

She was born in Arvada, Colorado, but spent most of her growing-up time in a little town called Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Fun fact: they taught everyone in the junior high there to shoot .22 rifles in the gym. She came out to ASU to go to college where she was an interior design major for all of two seconds. She changed into mass communication with hopes of becoming a DJ, but learned beginners' hours suck and the pay was barely two pennies to rub together. So she went into PR and got tired of Corporate America idiotocracy and built her own business from the ground up.

Rhythms & Muse, which she loving describes as "a chick flick in a book," was her first novel. Our hypothetical Internet heckler is thinking, "Yeah, cool. She wrote a book. What's the big deal, I could write a book. I have like ten ideas for books." Firstly, how DARE you say that and not provide empirical evidence that you have already written a book and published it anywhere. That crap is RIDICULOUS. Second, she didn't just write the book, she also wrote, recorded and produced an entire 5-song album that supplements the reading. Freaking who else thinks to even include music that would work well with the book, let alone write specific songs that are key points of the book? Number one smartest writer, EVAR.

But that's not what she loves; she's all about that level 17 Science Fiction and Fantasy. So her new series, Delfaerune Rhapsody, is the story of a slightly unhappy, sort of lost individual named Lark who suddenly finds herself transported to the Fae realm/alternate universe of Queenstown, New Zealand. She then is faced with the tasks of righting the balance between the Noble and Dark Fae (the Dark Fae are all stylized after heavy rock or metal icons), rescuing the ruling members of the Noble Fae, and eventually saving both the Fae and Human worlds. The world-building is absolutely fantastic and is full of fun, quirky little details. Also, because unfortunate Internet troll is still hanging around thinking "But Fae are just faeries. What's so cool about Tinker Bell," I am going to both get sued by Disney and lay down the law differentiating Fae and Faeries. Faeries (or fairies) are tiny little sprites with wings that Disney basically made up because they couldn't translate real Fae stories into child-appropriate content. Fae are traditionally spiteful, nasty creatures who would steal your children and feed on their souls as soon as look at you. Or they'd make a deal with you and if you broke the deal or any of the unspoken rules they could randomly create without your approval, the vengeful buggers would curse you and your family for eternity. Also, did I forget to mention they're usually about 6'4"? [Editor's note: Cutter is exaggerating to prove a point–that little pansy fairies are not Fae. Basically it boils down to Fae having a culture and history while fairies are mostly just a Disney commodity]

Mum likes Muse, Silversun Pickups, Sarah Brightman, cats that she doesn't have to take care of or shoo out of our backyard, and driving cross-country. A few random facts: she's a winter, she cannot stand dysfunctional family dramas, her favourite colour is purple, she used to be an amateur authority on the best Thai food in the greater Phoenix area. She'd love to sell the house and all the things in it to travel to New Zealand and just set up shop there writing and drinking mad amounts of tea. Her favourite drink is either a Cherry Blossom Tea Latte with Chocolate Powder, an Apricot Ceylon Tea Latte with Chocolate powder, or a Green Tea Ice Blended made with orange juice. The song I would use to describe mum would be: Java Jive by The Ink Spots.

tl;dr Cutter thinks his mum is great. She does like a million things all the time, is an amazing role model, is full of love and life, and is a wordsmith of the highest caliber. She's the best.