Monday, June 25, 2012

Awards

Aw, man, you guys are awesome. And because of that, I have a bunch of awards to give out today. And because they all have stuff associated with them, this post is going to be kind of long. So in order of... whichever link I clicked on first, here goes.

I got the "One Lovely Blog Award" from Mina Lobo (thanks, Mina!). Here are the rules:

  • Name, thank, and link back to the blogger
  • List seven facts about yourself
  • Pass the award to 15 other bloggers and leave them comments on their blogs to alert them

Here are 7 facts:

  1. I love making lists, preferably alphabetical ones.
  2. I could eat cherries and string cheese every day.
  3. I can't remember a time before I wanted to be a writer.
  4. When I was little, I tried reading while riding my bicycle. It didn't go well.
  5. I'm a huge college football fan.
  6. When I was around three or four, I used to watch Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers every single day. Then I watched it again every day in high school when I found out it was on at 5:30 in the morning while I was eating breakfast.
  7. I name all my laptops and refer to them by name often enough that my mom has taken to calling them by their names too.

Next, Alyssa over at Life is Good gave me the Liebster Blog Award (thanks, Alyssa!). Here are the rules for this one:

  • Post 10 facts about yourself.
  • Answer 10 questions the tagger has given you and give 10 questions to the people you've tagged.
  • Choose 10 people with fewer than 200 followers and link them in your post.
  • Tell them you've tagged them.
  • Remember, no tag backs!

I'm going to use the 7 facts from above, and add three more:

  1. I watch around 30 television shows per season (not including the summer, which is usually far lower).
  2. After spending a month in France, I can say exactly two things: "Sorry, I don't speak French; do you speak English?" and "I would like a medium cup of dark chocolate ice cream, please."
  3. I had a goldfish that lived for six years. When I got it, it was small and black. By the time it died, it was orange, over an inch long, and its eyes bugged out of its head. It mutated to adapt to its surroundings.

And these are the questions from Alyssa:

  1. What's your favorite sport? (To watch or to do.) To watch is probably college football, though everything in the Olympics (especially beach volleyball), hockey, and the Little League World series all come close. To do is probably swimming.
  2. What genre do you write in? And if your not writing a book, what genre do you like to read in? Most urban fantasy, though I've been working on a contemporary YA book as well.
  3. What's the scariest movie you've ever seen? The Ring. And I know it's not really that scary, but I don't watch scary movies. This was a mistake I made when I was 15 and thought it was wimpy to be afraid of scary movies. Turns out, I should have been a wimp. I didn't sleep for a week.
  4. What was the happiest moment of your life? I honestly can't pick out one moment that stands out above all the happy moments I've had. I spend a lot of time being happy.
  5. What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving. Food, family and fun... what's not to like?
  6. What book are you reading right now? Stolen by Kelley Armstrong. Again.
  7. What superpower do you wish you had? I think my answer to this questions changes a lot. Maybe the ability to fly. Or to control fire.
  8. What is your favorite drink? Vanilla Coke.
  9. If you could make a wish come true what would you wish for? Be honest. World peace. No, um, I'd wish for health and happiness for the people I love. And maybe for the ability to do more to give that to everyone else. (I sound so noble there. It's actually a massive guilt complex that makes me think like that.)
  10. If you could be a character in one one of the books you've read, who would it be? Jo March from Little Women. I've always related to her, and I love how she was tough and successful, but also dedicated and loyal to her family. With all her faults, she always strove to be a good person, even if she didn't always understand what that meant. But she held her own when she wasn't willing to compromise (which wasn't an easy thing for a woman in the 1860s).

Next up, Jaycee DeLorenzo gave me the Fabulous Blog Ribbon (thanks, Jaycee!). For this one:
  • Name five of your most fabulous moments, either in real life or in the blogosphere.
  • Name five things you love.
  • Name five things you hate.
  • Pass the Ribbon on to five other bloggers. (Leave them a comment to notify them of this.)

Five Fabulous Moments

  1. The day I finished my first novella at 12 years old.
  2. The day I got my black belt in karate.
  3. The day I was hired as a salaried employee with benefits at my first job.
  4. The first time I stood up for someone else on the playground, even though it got me teased more.
  5. Being made the senior production manager at the news station I worked for in college.

Five Things I Love

  1. My family and friends
  2. Laughing
  3. Writing and reading
  4. Movie trailers
  5. Ice cream

Five Things I Hate

  1. Hypocrites
  2. Passive aggression
  3. Love triangles
  4. People who complain about the government but don't vote (or try in any way to fix the problems)
  5. Homophobia

And finally, Kathy McKendry gave me the Booker Award (thanks, Kathy!). For this one, I have to share the top 5 books I've ever read. I can't tell you how difficult this was.

  1. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - Read my A-Z Post to find out more about why.

  2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - It took me three tries before I was finally able to finish this, but I've read it about once a year since then. I just love the relationships in it, and the way the characters develop into adults.

  3. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie - Seriously, what's not to like about Peter Pan? I read the book long after I saw the movies and fell in love with it, and the book is really beautifully written. Simple enough for a child, but artistic enough for adults.

  4. Bookends by Jane Green - I don't read as much contemporary as I did when I was in high school, but this is another book I try to read once every couple years. There's nothing overly special about it, but the characters are so well done, and I get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time I finish it.

  5. Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong - Technically, this is the third book in her Otherworld series, but it was the first one I read. It was also the first urban fantasy book I ever read. Now I've written an urban fantasy book and read more of them than I can count. And if this book hadn't been so darned good, none of that would have happened.

And I'm tagging EVERYBODY! Because you're all awesome and deserve shiny awards. So anyone who wants to claim it can. And for the Liebster Award, here are my questions:

  1. Who's your favorite Harry Potter character?
  2. What's your perfect age?
  3. What's your favorite dessert?
  4. Would you rather be a contestant in a beauty pageant or on Fear Factor?
  5. Would you rather be dumb as a brick but beautiful, or a certified genius and ugly enough to crack mirrors?
  6. If you see a crime happening and you can safely stop it but choose not to, are you accountable for what happens?
  7. How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man?
  8. What's your favorite smell?
  9. Who was your favorite teacher when you were in school and why?
  10. What would you do if you woke up one morning with an extra eye that could see through walls?

And that's that. Happy Monday!

7 comments:

  1. Congrats on all the awards!! I have a bunch of them too, but I haven't got round to posting them yet!

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  2. Oh my goodness, it's raining awards! I didn't know they still made Vanilla Coke, lol.

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  3. Congrats! It's good to get them all dealt with. Your questions are great! Re the reading and cycling, maybe that's what exercise bikes were made for?! Lol.

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  4. Congratulations on the awards! :) I could eat string cheese every day too.

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  5. Congrats on your awards! I haven't read that Peter Pan book...yet. :D

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  6. Congrats on all the grooviness! And LOL about naming your laptops! :-)
    Some Dark Romantic

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  7. I absolutely loved Bookends. It is easily one of my favorite books.

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