I'm Jo from the East of England. I've been into the whole fantasy genre since I out-grew Enid Blyton books. Back in the 70's there wasn't much for the pre-teen market so I started reading Science Fiction instead. Asimov and Andre Norton to start with then moving onto the Anne McCaffrey Dragonriders of Pern books. I played D&D as a teenager (my female elf Helena Henna was a pun on Kerrang's Pandora Peroxide!) and drew endless pictures of dragons. During the late 80s and 90s the Fantasy genre exploded and I read every series going from Marion Zimmer Bradley to Terry Pratchett via the Shannara books and the Belgariad.
So it seemed logicial when I started stitching in 1993 to stitch fantasy designs. My first large design was Teresa Wentzler The Castle - a rite of passage for any fantasy fan!
If you go into my Picasa photo album you can see all my finished TW's after The Castle (I try to be organised!).
I veer between fantasy and traditional samplers now usually alternating between the two genres. I now have an 8 year old son who shares my love of dragons and fantasy (cross stitch not so much although he does show an interest in what I'm stitching). Together we are reading all my favourite books and some new ones. We have just finished our second reading of the entire How to Train Your Dragon saga by Cressida Cowell. We read The Hobbit earlier this year and are debating whether to dedicate an entire year to Lord of the Rings (that's how long it took my Dad to read it to us!). Right now it's Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. We love Greek Mythology too!
