And I Humbly Accept...

The Liebster Award!

Given to me by the lovely Tamara over at  One Magic Bean Buyer Thanks!

Rules:
-Answer the presenter's 11 questions
-Choose 11 lucky recipients
-Formulate 11 questions for them to answer
-Plaster the award on your blog

Here were Tamara's questions for me:

1. What is your favorite month of the year? 

Soooo easy. October! My birthday, Halloween (also my anniversary), beautiful foliage, energizing weather, no more bugs, I could go on...

2. What's the number one most played song on your iPod?

Radiohead Lotus Flower (I just cannot listen to that song enough, and I'm not even sure why)

My Favorite Earworm

3. Name three writers you admire and tell us why. 

Jeanette Winterson (inventive and passionate)

Daphne du Maurier (suspense genius)

Tracy Chevalier (dreamy prose w/fascinating historical settings)

 

4. If you were reincarnated as an animal, what would you want to be? 

 

I WAS going to say one of my own spoiled rotten doggies.

But then I thought a Phoenix would be even better - reinvent yourself whenever those gray feathers start showing up...

5. What is one of your favorite quotes? 

Those three words
Are said too much
But not enough

(Gary Lightbody lyrics)
Everyone knows what the 3 words are, even though he didn't actually say them. Brilliant.

 

6. What chore do you hate doing? 

What chore DON'T I hate doing...

Weed-whacking. Hot and buggy, makes my arm hurt after a while, and I always end up with several nasty nicks out of my shins from flying debris.

Another reason to love October-no weed whacking.

7. If you could throw any kind of party (money is no object) what would it be? And for whom?

Ha! A book release party for me, of course! Ideally sometime in October, and in costume.

For anyone who wants to come, especially if they want to buy my book. I'd like it to be in a massive old barn, at night, with great food and music.

8. If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, what age would you stay?

25. It was a great year :)

 

9. If you could have any talent in the whole world, which one would you choose?

That's a tough one because there are so many possible answers.

I think I'd like to be able to sing like Adele.

Excorcise my own demons. Travel the World. Entertain people.

Make heaps of money doing something I love to do.

 

10. Which superpower would you pick if they were up for grabs? 

Reincarnation. One life is NOT enough.

 

11. If you had to change your first name, what name would you want? 

Katherine - mostly because I like all the nicknames (except Kitty, that's just silly).

This prestigious and higly coveted award can only be given to those whose blogs have fewer than 200 followers - but not for long, eh?

Here are the next Lucky Eleven-

1. Chris Allen-Riley

2. E L Adams From the Writer's Nest

3. The Writerly Exploits of Mara Valderran

4. Brianna Shrum A Shortcut to Shrums

5. Catherine Scully

6. Kristina Perez

7. Yolanda Renee Defending the Pen

8. Heather Riffle

9. Robbie MacNiven

10. SJP's Title by Jaq

11. Aldrea Alien-Thardrandian Thoughts

And here are the 11 Questions

1. If you were to choose a Nom de Plume, what would it be?

2. What is your favorite flower?

3. If you had to live prior to 1900, what century would you choose, and why?

4. What is your motto?

5. Lake or ocean, and why?

6. Tell us three things about a favorite character you've created.

7. You're in a car and this song comes on the radio - you can't change the station fast enough.

8. Which author influences you most as a writer, and in what way?

9. When you get writer's block, doing this helps. (If you never get writer's block I'm blowing raspberries at you).

10. What movie scared you (and maybe scarred you)?

11. What's your favorite Halloween candy?

Thursday's Children 10/11/12 Thoughts on Halloween

I'm taking a break from my Dwelling Places Series because...

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! 

Christmas is nice enough, but personally I MUCH prefer Halloween. No presents, no pressure, and the holiday meal is...CANDY.

Here's part of my Halloween Stuff Collection 

The skull was purchased in London and is extremely realistic looking.  It raised a few eyebrows going through Gatwick Security. 
The other head is a sculpture I did at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston. 
His name was Charlie.
At this time of year I get to revel in all things Gothic. And nobody thinks it's all that strange.

On Halloween, adults are allowed to be children again, or something even scarier.

Here I am as Lucrezia Borgia, you can't see it in this photo of a photo but I had a lovely little cut crystal ampoule in my hand with a mysterious white powder.  (Alright, alright, it was baby powder).
I made the dress from a tablecloth. 
My "date" was the illustrious Marquis de Sade. 
We were returning from the dead, hence the zombie-esque makeup.  ScaryMatchdotcom. 
Actually, we ended up getting married. On Halloween. The bride wore black.

Initially this post was simply an ode to Halloween. It didn't really fit the Inspiration Theme.
But then I realized something.
The dressing up and pretending to be scary/scared is all about the fun of being someone else for a night. Writing gives me that same thrill.
I explore different worlds, live different lives, and at the end come home, safe and sound.
This is what drives, or inspires, me to write.
Whew, that worked out quite well after all.

What inspires you to write?

This week I started off the Halloween Inspiration Relay-
I am passing the torch (or Jack O'Lantern) to the lovely Kristina Perez and she will blog about Halloween next week. There are plenty of pumpkins to go around, so feel free to stick with the Halloween Inspiration theme if you want-but if Halloween isn't your thing, that's okay too.

And because Halloween provides a good enough excuse for a gratuitous cute doggie pic...

Daisy-Mulan

I think she's managed to look fairly dignified. Or maybe she's plotting revenge. Can't be sure.

And a Blog Award Goes to...

Me!  My Little Hatchling-Blog got an Award today!

Yes, I know, I use too many !s and too many ...s, but right now they are completely warranted.

Here is where I thank the person who gifted me with this lovely thing - Robbie MacNiven. 

He's riding the GUTGAA wave along with me, and Listen Up Ladies - he wears a kilt! 

(Disclaimer:  he probably wears it only for special occasions.)

But all swooning aside, he's appallingly talented for someone of relatively tender years and he's writing what promises to be a stunner of a book.  And he's a history geek, totally "in" right now.

Read all about his WIP, in his own charming accent, right here
Robbie MacNiven - A Writing Blog

Here are the Rules of the Game (for those I'm about to nominate):

1. Identify and show appreciation to the blogger who nominated you.
2. You must add the reward logo to your blog.
3. Tell your readers 7 things about yourself.
4. You must nominate 5-10 of your favourite bloggers for this award.
5. Inform you nominees that you nominated them.
Easy peasy, right?

Seven Things about Me:

1.  Halloween is my favorite holiday.
2.  My first real job was cleaning stalls at a racehorse stable.  So, yes, I do really know how to shovel the sh*t, but I leave this off job resumes.
3.  I blush way too easily.  In fact I blushed when I received this award, but fortunately none of you could see that.  The internet is a beautiful thing.
4.  I have a horror of public speaking.  See #3.  I used to pray for death the nights before oral presentations in school.  Things are only marginally better now.
5.  When I was a child I often forced my extended family to re-enact scenes from "Bullwinkle" and I always played Natasha.  Bit of a stretch for a blonde five year old, but I managed.
6.  My favorite movie "scene" of all time is the ice palace in Dr. Zhivago.

7.  Writing lets me do all the things I loved about painting, but with almost no mess.

I hereby award the coveted Reader Appreciation Award to (drumroll please)...

Beyond The Hourglass Bridge Because she ate glass, and survived.  GLASS.  And she's my newest CP.

D. D. Falvo's Website/Blog Drakaenwood If you haven't been, go.  Go now.  You're in for a cinematic experience and some damn fine writing (check out the Black Bee story)

Jessie Humphrie's B-Word Blog If I could bestow an award for multi-tasking she would also get that.

Laura Crampton's Stranger Than Writing She has a book with "Souls" in the title, like me, and in her most recent post she gives us (writers) permission to ramble.  At least for the first draft.

Robin Kalinich's Ink and Alchemy Title of her most recent post - What do chickens and the male member have in common?  How can you NOT go read that?

Heather M. Bryant's Into The Cuckoo's Nest Because who doesn't want to go cuckoo sometimes?  And because her blog contains the word "Nest" just like mine.  And because she follows my blog.  Karma, people, karma.

Tamara's One Magic Bean Buyer Yet another Multi-Tasker Extraordinaire - Mom of 5??? My head spins like Linda Blair's in The Exorcist just thinking about it.

Kristina Perez Last, but by no means least.  This woman could tell you off in at least a dozen languages, including Middle Welsh, but she wouldn't because she's far too nice.  Also a wonderful CP and brilliant writer.

I would have liked to award some other blogs too, but it would look too much like sucking up when they're judging contests I've entered.  You know who you are.