The Liebster Award from W. K. Tucker

The Liebster Award exists only on the internet, and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. It pays tribute to new blogs, or blogs with a follower count of less than 1,000–including Twitter.
The word “liebster” is German in origin and has several definitions, including but not limited to: dearest, sweetest, kindest, pleasant, endearing,  lovely, cute, nicest, valued and welcome.
What a nice sentiment from W. K. Tucker who nominated me.

The rules–should you choose to accept the award:
1. Link back to the blog that nominated you. In my case W. K. Tucker.
2. Answer questions that your nominator has set for you.
3. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 5-11 blogs that have less than 1,000 followers to receive this award. (Remember, this includes Twitter.)
5. Create 11 questions for your nominees to answer.
6. Contact your nominees and let them know you have nominated them.

The Questions WK set for me:

1. What is your favorite way to spend a rainy day?
Curled up in bed with a book, or sitting on the back porch to enjoy the rain.

2. Are you a cat or dog person?
Dog! I'll never be a cat lady like WK, but I may end up a dog lady. We currently have three dogs in our house--my two and my mom's.

3. What is your most prized possession?
Cliche for a writer, but my computer. After a year without my own it's heaven not to share.

4. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? (The very first thing you can remember.)
Wonder Woman! Seriously, that may tell my age, but that's the first thing I can remember wanting to be.

5. If you could become a fictional character, who would it be?
Anne of Green Gables. It wouldn't be much of a change, but I loved those books!

6. Do you believe in an afterlife–not necessarily heaven and hell?
Yes I do. I also believe that we will still enjoy the relationships that we have here, especially families.

7. Do you prefer coffee or tea–or something stronger?
Hot chocolate and Mug Root Beer is as strong as I get. LOL

8. If you had the time and/or money to go back to school/college, what would you study?
This is actually really hard because there are so many things I still want to learn. Here's the short list:
CSS/html, Interior Decorating, Culinary Arts and how to play the cello.

9. If for the remainder of your life, you could eat only one cut of meat, (Such as pork bacon or beef steak.) what would you pick?
Can I say chicken breast? You can do an unlimited amount of things with chicken so maybe I wouldn't get sick of it to soon.

10. Do you think time travel will ever be possible?
Not in the sense I think you mean. The amount of energy needed to move that fast through space just isn't practical or safe. Although, I guess astronauts sort of move forward in time the longer they stay in space, but that is so minuscule it almost doesn't count.

11. What prompted you to become a writer?
In the 5th grade I had a teacher who turned me on to reading. It started with Summer of the Monkeys and Where the Red Fern Grows. From there I began reading all kinds of stuff. Before long I started to imagine my name on a book sitting on a library shelf.

11 Random facts:

1. I never leave my toes unpainted.
2. Dark chocolate is an obsession.
3. When it comes to remembering movie stars names I am horrible at it. 
4. October to January is my favorite time of the year. So much going on, so many holidays to decorate for!
5. I'm developing a love hate relationship with blogging. Sad, but true.
6. I'm an ugly crier and that's bad because movies, books, kleenex commercials, everything slightly emotional makes me cry.
7. I've lived in six states over my lifetime. 
8. Although many of those states are southern states, I do not have an accent. Weird, but I don't know why.
9. I have a weak spot for old musicals.
10. The only reason I want to be rich is so I can travel!
11. Coming up with 11 random facts is really hard. 

The Nominees:

CD Coffelt aka "Huntress" at Spirit Called
Marcy Hatch at MaineWords
Kristin Smith at Swords and Stillettos
Beth Fred at Romance World
L Blankenship at Notes at the Jovian Frontier
Liz A at Laws of Gravity
Misha Gerick at The Five Year Project
Jeffrey Miller
Jadie Jones
Rebecca Belliston

Your questions:

1. What's your favorite season of the year?
2. Would you rather know when and where you will die or keep it a secret?
3. What's your biggest pet peeve?
4. What do you think is your greatest strength?
5. Your greatest weakness?
6. When you get in the reading mood, do you look for books by genre or author?
7. Do you still own a camera? Or do you rely solely on your smart phone?
8. What is your greatest possession?
9. Chocolate or Vanilla?
10. What's your favorite childhood memory?
11. What drives you to keep pushing forward when exhaustion or insecurities strike?

Michael Offutt gave me an award

In order to accept this award the rules are:

1) Thank and link back to the person who presented you with the award. Michael Offutt
2) Answer the ten questions below.
3) Share ten random facts/thoughts about yourself.
4) Nominate seven worthy blogs for the Kreativ Blogger Award.

The Questions:
1) What's your favorite song? This might seem weird, cause I don't know why it's my favorite, but Anthem of the Angels by Breaking Benjamin always makes me feel better. Every time. Is this morbid of me?

2) What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate Mousse

3) What ticks you off? People who don't listen to what I'm saying. If you don't want to hear my answer, then don't ask. But if you ask, be respectful and HEAR what I'm saying. I don't have that much time to waste. 

4) When you're upset what do you do? Eat, slam things, hide in my closet and cry. It all depends on what kind of upset you're talking about.

Who likes to sleep on his back

Our puppy Chewy

5) Which is/was your favorite pet? Definitely a dog. They are smart, loving, and are always happy when you come home.

6) Which do you prefer black or white? Black or white what? I prefer to wear black because white stains too easily. I prefer dark chocolate to white chocolate any day. So, um, black?

7) What is your biggest fear? Making the wrong choice.

8) What is your attitude mostly? Easy going, happy. It takes a lot to make me angry. So if you do, you'd better watch out because you'll get all the bottled up anger on top of whatever stupid thing you did or said.

9) What is perfection?  I don't think I've found or seen it yet.

10) What is your guilty pleasure? I have so many! Some might seem silly, but they are things I feel I shouldn't enjoy quite so much. Such as--when my kids make up Yo Mama jokes while we are sitting in crowded restaurants, hiding chocolate in my desk, sneaking a nap from 7:15am-8:30am weekdays, playing computer games when I should be doing other things, homemade almond joy truffles, etc. 

10 Random Facts:

1) I hate spiders. Ron Weasley and I are on the same page when it comes to these monsters.

2) When my mom was pregnant with me she ate a pint of Purity brand cottage cheese every day. That's still the only kind I can eat, but I can't buy it where I live. So, when I go home to visit there is always a pint waiting for me in her fridge.

3) I'd rather talk to my hubby than anyone else.

4) Out of my four children, only one has blue eyes.

5) The first thing I'm going to buy with money from my book sales is a cello. I've always wanted to learn how to play the cello.

6) I once lived in a house with no running water or indoor plumbing. For four years.

7) I learned to drive when I was twelve. My dad would let me drive our little pick up truck on the back country roads whenever I got really mad. It calmed me and gave him a chance to get some reading done.

8) Although I love all the conveniences of city life, I will always be a country girl at heart.

9) I prefer sunrises to sunsets because they are full of hope and promise.

10) I delivered all my children naturally. No meds. And yes, it was the mother of all pain. *grins* See, I have an off the wall sense of humor that no one but me finds funny. Ah, well.

This post brought to you by the supportive spouse.

Yes, my wonderful husband deserves this...

Supportive Spouse Award--Husband Edition

I had a wonderful weekend. It involved a lot of driving, around six hundred miles round trip, but it was well worth it. The reason hubby gets the award is because he let me do it, even though he didn't understand why it was important to me. 

Here's the day's timeline:
5am--wake, dress, eat, get girl's out of bed.
6am--leave for Columbia, SC with girls, hubby, and youth from out church for an activity.
10:30am--eat early lunch at Wendy's with large group of people. Survive straw fight and stray flying tomato.
11:30am--hubby heads home with friends, I fill our car up with gas and head for Woodstock, GA for Janice Hardy's early release party for Darkfall with my two daughters and one of their friends. Turn the radio up loud and sing for all we're worth.
1:00pm--stop at rest area for bathroom break. Wait twenty minutes for girls to decide what they want from the vending machines. Chase pigeons around the parking lot. Never did catch one.
Drive like crazy trying to get back on schedule. Shave off 8 minutes after driving another 100 miles. Listen to girls play the Alphabet game.
2:30pm--hit the first construction area on the edge of Atlanta. Take half an hour to travel 2 miles. Start to get frustrated. Girls start playing Sweet or Sour. (The waved at people in the cars around us. Those that waved back were sweet. Those that didn't were sour. I bet you wave the next time a stranger waves at you!)
3:00pm--Get up to 40mph, think we can make up some time.
3:15pm--move from lane 6 on far left to lane 4 in preparation for the next exit in eleven miles. While doing it watch the crazy lady behind me and chant, "stay in your lane, stay in your lane."
3:16pm--successfully switch lanes without incident.
3:16:30pm--hear a loud POP, look in rear view mirror and see the crazy lady had crashed into a car behind us. Think OMGosh! That could have been us. Thirty seconds earlier and it would have been us. Say lots of thankful prayers. Feel bad that I didn't stop to help, but scared of adding to the wreckage.
3:30pm--hit second construction zone. Feel like pulling my hair out and starting to hope that Janice is still at the bookstore by the time we get there. Think, "what if I drove all the way over here and traffic makes me so late I miss the whole thing?"
4:10ish pm--see the bookstore but can't figure out how to get there because of signs that say "no left turn" and it's on the left. Drive in circles a bit and finally get there. Look in the mirror and cringe at how I look and then realize I don't care.
4:15pm--walk in and see Janice and try not to act like a crazy stalker. You know how you feel like acting one way-A, know you should give people their space so you try to act another way-B, but come off looking completely-C...razy? Yeah, I think it might have been a bit like that.
4:20pm--pay for book and get it signed (plus to showing up late--no line?) Try not to bombard Janice with "do you remember me from your blog?", "you critiqued my story this morning", "I have such a blogger crush on you", "tell me all your deepest darkest secrets..."

Wander the bookstore, talk to some super nice people, talk to Janice some more, she agrees to do an interview for this blog (!), talk to some other friends of Janice's, buy 6 books total, win a prize basket!!! Yeah, how cool is that?
5:15pm--realize I have to leave, even though I'd like to stay all day. Drive, eat, sing to Adele, Kelly Clarkson, and Daughtry at the top of my lungs with the girls to stay awake.
11:00pm--get home in one piece, happy, content, and glad I did what I wanted to do for a change. Even if it was probably crazy.

What did I get out of this? I want to be as cool as Janice and find cute places for book signings and parties. I want to be this relaxed and approachable. The fact that I got to share it with my girls made it even better. They are now reading The Shifter (first book in the series), and as soon as I'm done here, I'm reading my signed copy of Darkfall.

Don't worry, you can pick up a copy next week!

Coming Up:

• I'll continue with the Rejection vlog series on Wednesday.
• More questions from you, my wonderful followers on Friday.
• Review of Darkfall/Interview with Janice on Monday (If she has time, she's got to be busy right now.)
• Final rejection vlog next Wednesday.
• Last questions on next Friday 
• Pre-Nanowrimo posts after that. Yep, it's already that time of year again. Can you believe it?

Are you doing Nano this year?

Seriously Cute and Memes...

Brooke gave me an award this week! Look I'm actually posting it the same week I get it. Isn't he adorable? Unfortunately, my hubby is allergic. *sigh* That means I'm going to pick a few people I think could give him a wonderful home at the end of this post.

I'm combining the award with the Meme Huntress tagged me with.

Motto? "Nothing, what's the motto with you?" No, seriously, I don't know if I have a set motto. Not a catchy one anyway.

My Life Philosophy is "Just smile and nod, just smile and nod." Why you might ask? Because people in my life tend to tell me all kinds of crazy things, do crazy things, complain about all kinds of crazy things, or just act plain stupid. The only way to survive when you have a personality that shines like a marquee flashing "Talk to me I'll listen to everything!" is to just smile and nod and continue plotting in your head.

Disclaimer: I actually do enjoy talking to all my friends even when they need to vent. So sometimes my smile and nod is really genuine. But when I've spent 4 hours straight and you are the fifth person to call/visit and complain--the smile and nod is automatic pilot and most likely I've checked out.

Some Treats or Questions:

What is your choice for a mid-life crisis dream car?
The Pontiac Solstice Roadster. There used to be a cool webpage where you could design color, interior and features. I played there for hours, but it looks like they are discontinuing the car. Such a shame cause I'd look amazing in one.

What do you get complimented about the most?
My infectious smile. I guess I smile almost all the time because people are always picking me in those "get to know you games" and saying things like, "I'm going to pick this lady over here because she's been smiling the whole time and it just makes me happy."

Oooo! I just had an epiphany. Wonder if I was checked out and just doing the smile and nod thing??? LOL, hey, I guess it really works.

How do you release your anger?
I slam doors and pout. I also bang pots around while cooking and sometimes I write scathing little scenes where my characters rip each other apart verbally or physically. I usually delete them when I calm down because I don't want to be locked away somewhere.

What are your favorite songs at the moment?
I listen to the following at least once a day right now.  
Comatose and Yours to Hold--Skillet
Evil Angel, Anthem of the Angels, Dear Agony, So Cold--Breaking Benjamin.
I just love Breaking Benjamin all around.

What are some of the new bands you are getting to know right now?
We are the Fallen and Red. So far I'm hooked.

The Versatile Blogger

It is time I actually passed along one of these blogging awards. I think this one is pretty. ;)

Follow the Rules
The rules that apply with accepting this award are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award:
Thank you, Bryan from the Time Guardian Blog for this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself:

• Ok, Bryan used this one, but I had already considered blogging about it so it deserves a mention. My dreams really stick with me. I have bizarre sci-fi dreams. Every dream sequence in Sendek? One of my own. I just changed the names. (Mia, are you creeped out that I dream of the end of the world so often?)
• I have a love hate relationship with cake. I love to eat it. I love to bake it. I hate the mess. I hate the stress. 
• I'm going to die young unless I can learn to say no. I just like to make people happy and I enjoy helping. Unfortunately, I overload myself and then crash. 
• I secretly wish I was a professional Latin ballroom dancer. It just looks like so much fun! As a teen I wanted to do the Smooth division--you know dress and dance like a princess. Then, well, I changed my mind. Who wants to be a princess when you can be a hip swaying Latin diva? (Unfortunately, I have no rhythm so hubby and I waltz and foxtrot.)
• I met my hubby when I was twelve years old. Ten years later we married and have been together fourteen years this fall. 
• As a teen I lived in the woods without running water for five years. We had an outhouse and everything. Maybe that's why I don't camp very often?
• Sometimes I miss quilting. I picked it up in college, but haven't made a quilt in years. Life is too busy. Maybe I need to make a quilt to help me slow down and refocus? It may sound like an old lady thing to do, but it is very therapeutic, and it makes me feel mathematically smart. 

3. Pass the award to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who think you are fantastic.
OK, bloggers: I pass The Versatile Blogger award to some old favorites and a few new to me:

1. Mia (she also has a new site dedicated to sharing her vast knowledge of zombies.)
2. Elana Johnson
3. Jody Hedlund
4. K.M. Weiland
5. Shannon Whitney Messenger
6. Roz Morris
7. Janice Hardy
8. Michael from writer to author
9. Suzanne Vincent
10. Laurel's Leaves
11. Natalie Whipple
12. Roni Griffin
13. Alyson Peterson
14. Eisley Jacobs
15. Eric Trant

Ok, now I know why I don't do blog awards. That took forever and I feel like I left out a lot of my regular blogging buds. Such as Roland, Andrew, VR Barkowski, Amalia, Raquel, Mason, oh, and so many others! I'm sorry if I didn't mention you this go around. If you want this award, please take it and pass it on.


4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

I'll try my best. :)

Ok, some real writing related blog posts coming up this week. Time for me to get back to work!

Deep thoughts and Goals

Today I scribbled a couple of quotes on the side of my calendar while sitting at church. I am privileged to spend the Sunday School hour with our youth, and today we had a guest teacher. WAIT, before you run away, I promise this has to do with writing. He chose to speak on the topic--Who are you? I won't go into the spiritual things we talked about, but here are the three things I wrote in the margins.

1. Did you know that 2/3 of our thoughts during the day are negative. (He said it has been scientifically proven, but I don't have a reference for that, so believe it or not as you see fit.) Why is that? (We discussed...) Then he said, "Negative thoughts are like a hole in our confidence bucket."

How many times to we knock ourselves down with negative thoughts or comments about our writing abilities? Each thought depletes our confidence by another drop. Every time we give ourselves credit for trying to improve, spend time revising, recognize a sentence that comes out just right, we begin to refill that confidence bucket.

2. "At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." Albert Schweitzer.  

When he read this quote, I thought of all my new blogger friends. Thank you for sharing your spark with me. Many times I feel down, and then I read someones blog and feel lifted and ready to plug along my journey a little longer. So, THANK YOU for sharing and being you. No one can replace or fill the spot you fill in this world.

3.  "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." Henry Ford.

Wow, think about how true that is.

He also quoted Yoda from the Empire Strikes Back. At one point in Luke's training he tried to raise his X-wing from the swamp and fails. Yoda then lifts it and sets it on solid ground with ease. Luke complains that it is impossible and Yoda replies, "That is why you failed."

Now, I'm not going to point out the obvious connection between these three things and our goals as writers. I simply want you to think about these things and how it can apply to you personally. Are you depleting your confidence with negative thinking? Are you failing to reach your goals because you secretly think it is impossible?

Last Week's Goals:

1. Make a plan for which days I will blog so my readers know the plan. I need to blog less and write/revise more.Yay! The plan, in case you missed it is--M W F posts and goal posting on the weekend. I have many written and scheduled.
2. Get back into the editing groove on my WIP--goal ten pages (the writing is super sloppy where I'm at!) I did edit 10 pages worth, they just were scattered throughout the wip.
3. Work on Blogfest scenes--baking, body language, last line (see sidebar for links) Body language is written, I have two baking ones started, and I chose a section for the last line.
4. Survive Saturday--deliver baby shower cake, run another 10 miles (last week before 1/2 marathon), get kids to their activities, go to Church Prom with the 16-18 year old's (don't worry,  my hubby is my date). It is going to be a crazy day. I'm still alive! Forgot to take a picture of the cake, only ran 5 (but did fast intervals), kids had a good day, and Prom was a blast!
5. Get one more follower and work on dance video. :) I hit 100 and new friends are still coming! Welcome. Tuesday night my girls are going to help me record the dance clip. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Goals for Next Week:

1. Continue revising. Goal--get through the "meets Jaron, second battle scene". Oy, it needs a lot of work. Almost paralyzing, but in view of today's lessons, I will be positive and say, "I know I can do it."
2. Stick to my training schedule. See that counter at the top? It is way too close to race day and last week I didn't do very well.

What I learned:
I need to post, or write down when I get awards. Sorry I'm so bad about passing them back out. I think all the blogs I follow are AWESOMESAUCE and many times I find my Silver Lining in their lines. So, feel free to take either award and pass it on.

This came from Stina Lindenblatt and Nicole. Thank you!

This came from ??? I can't find who sent it, but I remember getting it. Can you remind me so I can link back to you. It was about 2 weeks ago?

And this was from Laurel.

Thank You!

Catching up with Awards

**I started this post at 9:30am this morning. It is now 10:20pm and I am just getting to sit down and finish it. What a long busy day, but a very good day because I prefer to be busy. Here is how my day went:
7:00am--3 year old crawls into bed with me and hubby. He tosses and turns and no one sleeps in on Saturday. I get up, dress,eat breakfast, feed family, prepare my kitchen and downstairs for the company that is coming at 10am.
9:30am--I try to squeeze in a post--unsuccessfully.
10:00am--The young women (12-18 years old) from my church show up to begin mixing, molding, and dipping in chocolate hundreds of Easter eggs for their summer camp fundraiser. We start with peanut butter.

These are just the peanut butter before dipping. 

1:00pm--we take a break for lunch.
1:20pm--we start on the coconut eggs.
3:00pm--I leave the girls and leaders working in my house to get in my 8 mile training run for the Country Music 1/2 Marathon coming up on April 24th. The weather was beautiful and I met my goal of running all 8 without walking and doing it in 1:29:22.
4:30pm--return home in time to help sort and organize the finished product and say goodbye to the girls.
5:30pm--shower
6:00pm--go to my best friend's 3rd annual cook out and Peeps Roast. :) Roasted Peeps and Starburst are awesome!
8:00pm--watch the Young Women's Broadcast at church with my daughter.
10:00pm--get home.

No writing time today. I usually don't get writing time on the weekends, that's why I have to be good M through F. :) And now, back to what I started this morning.**

I've been neglecting some awards. Not on purpose, mind you. I received the following from several people, which is so sweet. I didn't really see rules for it, so I choose to see it as having a positive outlook on the future. This came from Christi, Nicole, and I think Mia may have sent it to me a week or so ago...

Mia also gave me this award, in which you get to make up stories about your best blogger friends who you feel "get" you. (I think I need to have a Mia appreciation day next week. She has a great blog, and I'm not saying that because she mentions me a couple times a week. I have found lots of great posts and new blogs to follow thanks to her reporting skills.) The quote on her blog says it all: Insanity is when the voices stop.

I want to post what Mia made up about me. She has NO IDEA how close to the truth she really was. It is amazing and I think Anne Shirley would definitely label us 'kindred spirits' because Mia GETS me!

Charity recently returned from Paris, she was undercover trying to "out" a Multibillion dollar company scamming rich folk for much moolah in exchange for "the secret to flying". She didn't out them to the world and now plans to follow their example after discovering it was not, in fact, a scam but a real sound piece of advice...*Charity floats by above our heads waving*... yup, not a scam at all.

Can you guess which one is me? In college I had a small group of friends with good imaginations and one talented artist. We each had alter egos and powers. I may have been a side-kick, but I had all the powers I have ever wanted.

Solstice--a luminescent being that can move at the speed of light, fly and shoot lasers from her palms. Ah, I miss those carefree days of flying around the planet. When I'm rich and famous, I think I should have my outfit made for real. What do you think?