Saturday, February 9, 2013

Liebster Award

I'm very grateful to be able to say that two of my fellow bloggers have given me the Liebster blogging award. It's a recommendation, basically: a vote for a blog worth following.

Actually, this is kind of old news. I've been sitting on this for a while and haven't said anything, because I wanted to fully participate in the Liebster tradition, and it took me a while to find the time to do it right. So to those who gave me this honor, I apologize for the delay.

My first Liebster came from Billie Thomas (@ChloeGetsaClue on Twitter). The second came a day later from M. Joseph Murphy (@Windswarlock on Twitter). I'd like to say a big "Thank you" to them both.

Billie says:

 So here’s how it works: 
1.) Tell 11 things about yourself
2.) Answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated you.
3.) Post 11 questions for those who will be nominated by you.

4.) Nominate 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

5) Get in contact with those 11 bloggers to inform them that you nominated them.

 So here goes:

Eleven things about myself:

  1. I'm an introvert. (For those not familiar, an introvert isn't necessarily shy. I'm not. It's a person who restores his or her emotional energy through solitude.)
  2. I was home-schooled.
  3. I like both dogs and cats. And humans. And goats. And...
  4. If I were a guy, Billie Thomas would like me (Her number 4: "I like outdoorsy granola guys with sketchy hygiene.") Just to clarify, I don't consider my hygiene sketchy, but Billie might. I do tend to forget about my curls for days at a time, and you never know what kind of trouble unsupervised Irish curls might get into.
  5. I'm actually less than half Irish. I just happened to get the looks.
  6. The field of linguistics fascinates me.
  7. I speak Spanish, but badly. I write it better.
  8. My biggest creative strengths as a writer are in characterization and dialog. My biggest technical strength is in grammar.
  9. My biggest creative weakness is in keeping the excitement in the middle of a novel. My biggest technical weakness is in grammar. It's a great servant but a terrible master.
  10. I grew up on Dickens, Lewis and a little Tolkein, but not television, church hymns but not popular music. So I don't get a lot of pop-culture references.
  11. I can't shake the feeling that I'm leaving out all the important things here.
Answers to Billie's questions:
  1. What is your favorite thing about me?  Your curls, of course! No, seriously, your cheerful friendliness. Maybe it's a southern thing. At any rate it makes me smile when we chat.
  2. If you could keep one celebrity as a pet, who would it be and why? I'd have to do a lot of research before I could give you a name, but it would be the one who causes the most trouble in the world. I'd give him a comfortable cage and keep him from doing any more harm.
  3. If you could steal the muse from another author or blogger, whose would you take? Maybe Tolkein's, as I'm in awe of his world-building talent, and his books certainly don't sag in the middle.
  4. Would you rather have a Sex-in-the-City-caliber closet (clothes and shoes included) or an underground lair? An underground lair, no question.
  5. What’s you’re biggest grammar pet peeve? (Heehee) Could of (or would of or should of).
  6. What is a movie or book you tell everyone you’ve read or watched but really haven’t.(Or even if you don’t actively lie about it, you let them assume otherwise by nodding or laughing when it is mentioned.) Any book by the famous author they just mentioned. I'm terrible about reading books and forgetting their titles and the names of their authors. I also tend to read books by obscure authors.
  7. If you could retire to a house in Miami, a la The Golden Girls, who would be your housemates? And who would be the Rose, Sophia, Blanche and Dorothy? Hmm, I think that show was on when I was a teenager, so I'm only vaguely aware of what you're talking about. I hope I never do something so terrible that I'm forced to retire in a hot place. If I couldn't live with my family, I think it would be fun to live with a bunch of other writers.
  8. If you found yourself being interviewed by Oprah, what is one question you pray she doesn’t ask you? How come you never watch my show?
  9. If you’re eating Jelly Bellies in a darkened movie theatre, which flavor do you dread biting down into? I don't know, maybe anchovy. What are Jelly Bellies?
  10. What is your guilty pleasure? And do you give in to your sin or fight that loving feeling? Coffee, and I've cut back.
  11. What is a quality about yourself that you feel goes unappreciated or makes you, like most artists, “ahead of your time.” Sorry, but you've stumped me on this one. I feel very much appreciated, and I don't think I'm ahead of my time. I think I've been blessed with aptitudes that I don't develop as much as I should, though, mostly in writing and linguistics. I'm working on that.
Answers to Joe's questions:
  1. When you eat the smarties do you eat the red ones last? Nope, didn't remember there were any red ones. I like Smarties, but don't eat candy very often.
  2. What writer's career would you most like to emulate (fancy word for follow)? J K Rowling. The amount of human suffering I could stop with that kind of money is staggering.
  3. What fantasy world would you most like to live in? Narnia.
  4. Have you ever had a story/book idea so bad you decided to not write it? If so, give details. I have them all the time. If you see me start laughing for no apparent reason, I've probably just come up with another one. It's not that they're funny ideas; I'm laughing at myself for dreaming up something so preposterous. An example: Princess Leia's Hairstyle Book.
  5. What superpower would you most like to have and why? The ability to remain alive and well for as long as I want. It constantly frustrates me that there's so much to do and only one lifetime to do it in. I just have to hope others will take up the work when I'm gone.
  6. What was the scariest nightmare you've ever had? The scariest ones can't be described; they don't make enough sense to attach words to them. But in most of my childhood nightmares I was being chased by rotten broccoli.
  7. What is your most favourite part of the writing/creative process? It's that point, usually in the second draft, when the narrative sings, the dialogue reads like real conversation and I'm sucked into the story so far I almost forget where my body is.
  8. List five of the best books you've ever read Zigzag by Jose Carlos Somoza, The Strongbox by Michael Pon, A Stitch in Time by Andrew J Robinson, The Horse and His Boy by C S Lewis, Next by Michael Crichton.
  9. List one of the worst books you've ever read (and why you think it was so bad). Love is a Gentle Stranger by June Masters Bacher. The characters don't feel human and most of the 'perils' are harmless.
  10. Have you spent time thinking about what you would do in a zombie invasion Nope.
  11. List your favourite toppings on a pizza Hamburger, onions, green peppers, fresh tomatoes and extra cheese. 
Eleven questions for my unfortunate victims:
  1. Why do you blog?
  2. What's your favorite/dream vacation spot?
  3. If you had the power to change any one thing in the world, what would it be?
  4. Do you think there are intelligent people on other planets? If so, do you think you'll ever meet one?
  5. If somebody else's paycheck somehow got deposited into your bank account, and you couldn't be punished for keeping the money, what would you do?
  6. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?
  7. Is the glass half empty or half full?
  8. What's the quirkiest thing about you?
  9. How old were you in your first memory?
  10. What else do you enjoy doing, besides writing?
  11. Name an author you admire, and tell us why.
I'm passing the Liebster along to:








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