Welcome to the newly re furbished Lavender Lady's blog. Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Evie Cotton and I was born into a pretty awesome family. Due to my parents life's work, we traveled pretty extensively and I found myself growing up in all kinds of fantastic places, such as the Virgen Islands, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Taiwan.
While living in St. Croix (USVI), my parents discovered that I was dyslexic. They did not have many resources for dealing with different kids at the time and my parents were forced to take me out of school. That may have been the best thing that they have ever done for me. At night, my parents would record my lessons for me. During the day, I would listen to them and follow along in my school books. In the beginning, that was the only way that I could read.
As I got older and my brain was better able to focus, I learned different reading techniques. I began reading more difficult books and by junior high school, Jane Eyre was my favorite book. I loved all of the Bronte sisters and was fascinated with their lives, devouring biographies and reading anything Bronte-esque. In high school, my parents allowed me to study on my own for the first three years. We were pretty cutting edge at the time. While all of my friends we IMing by fax, I was introducing them to the internet and pagers. Who remembers Juno? One of the greatest things about the internet was the availability of source material. My parents purchased an encyclopedia program for me which had an online library. It was amazing! I would sit in front of my computer for hours at a time, watching historical videos of the A-bomb and WWII. I loved to study words and would read the histories of the origins of words. I was such a nerd that when I went to boarding school for my senior year, I ended up helping to teach Senior Etymology.
I wasn't one of those crazy social outcast that you hear about being home schooled. I was on a rock climbing team, two youth groups, hung out at the mall and was a part of a writer's club. I also LOVED the Emma Thompson version of Sense and Sensibility and hosted movie viewing parties for it. That movie opened me up to Shakespeare and William Cowper. I can still quote it in my sleep. I tried to read Sense and Sensibility as a teenager and since I was never able to make it all the way through the book, I decided that Jane Austen was a horribly boring author and that I would never read her work!
I avoided Austen at all costs.
Thank goodness for Colin Firth. If I had not seen the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice while on spring break in college, I might still be lost. A friend of mine convinced me to give P&P a try and I immediately fell in love with it. I read that book so many times that I could see the pages in my sleep. One day, many years later, I came across Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. From that moment on, I have been a JAFF Super Fan and THAT is what this page is all about. My goal is to connect on a more personal level with JAFF authors and fans and bring them together to the common good of the JAFF community.
