The Liebster Award

Charlie O’Shields nominated me for a Liebster Award over at his fun and inpsiring Doodlewash blog. If you’ve not been to his blog yet, you need to do yourself a favor and go! Not only is Charlie a talented artist but he tirelessly champions other artists. He is also hilarious and writes the funniest anecdotes to go with his doodlewashes (his own invented term). I think he is the next (kinder, gentler) David Sedaris!

THE RULES:

• Use the picture.
• Answer the questions.
• Nominate 10 blogs.
• Ask the same questions.

 

THE QUESTIONS:

1. Which literary genre do you prefer?
   Science fiction is my favorite genre…but I love funny science fiction even more! I also like light, mythology-based fantasy such as Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. I tend to read a lot of nonfiction as well, mostly science books.
2. Which book you know and love?
   As Charlie and Kerfe had observed, this is a strangely worded question (and not just because it seems to be lacking the word “do”). I’ll just interpret it as “what is one of the books you’ve read that you loved?” and answer The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, speaking of funny sci-fi books.
3. Which book you’re passionate about now?
   Right this second-now? I’m guessing the question is related to the previous one and can be interpreted as “what is a recent book you’ve read that you loved?”. I have immensely enjoyed many books, recently, but the one I liked best…i.e., the one I most want to write like…is The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman.
   
4. Why did you start blogging?
   I started blogging over at Blogger back around 2006 as a way to share things with my sister who lives far away from me. Along the way, I started making soaps and met some wonderful soaping friends that way. This WordPress blog is pretty new, only about 3 years old. I started it because I was inspired by other 365-bloggers and thought that it would be a good way to discipline myself to do something regularly. It began as the “What’s For Dinner?” blog and has morphed into a “One Good Thing” blog, almost like a gratitude journal. This past year, I’ve been posting art on here and have met tons of wonderful art-folks through this endeavor.
5. Order or chaos?
   Orderly chaos. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s really chaos. I can’t help it. In any closed system, entropy tends to increase. I don’t have enough energy to put into reversing the tendency. (Har, har…physics joke.)
6. Where would you like to live?
   I’m a Pacific Northwest girl at heart, so I would love to live there again if we could afford it. And much as I don’t like the population density in cities, I’d also like to live in Hong Kong, where I was born, again because it’d be nice to be a majority versus a minority.
7. Starry sky or sunset?
   Starry sky because I once wanted to be an astrophysicist and I knew most of the northern hemisphere stars and constellations.
8. Better the paper book, rather than the ebook?
   I prefer the feel of a paper book, but ebooks are so much easier to read on my phone while I’m brushing my teeth! Some books, like picture books, don’t lend themselves well to ebooks so I always get paper copies of those.
9. What is the writing for you? Do you see it as a hobby or hoping for a future as a writer?
   I’ve been writing with publication in mind since 1990 when I took my first course in writing for children. I’m published in children’s magazines and other magazines/venues, as well as being in e-anthologies that benefit Doctors Without Borders (since The Minnows Literary Group started the anthologies 3 years ago, we’ve donated close to $6,000 to MSF). Not until the past several years did I think I had it in me to write books–the lack of confidence in my abilities is a recurring theme and has held me back in many ways. I’ve been told by established author friends that it is so much harder to break into publishing now than it was back in the 80s. *sigh*
10. What do you think about social networks?
    Some are more accessible than others (I will never understand Tumblr) and some are more fun than others. They’re both useful tools and convenient ways to keep up with, and meet, friends.

I normally don’t nominate others for these things because then people might feel like they’re coerced to do them (and then feel resentful toward me), so I want to emphasize that you are not obligated to play!

THE NOMINEES, in no particular order:

1. Robin Newman Books
2. Myr’s Bytes
3. Create One A Day
4. Minuscule Moments
5. Cindy Knoke
6. W.H. Sim Photography
7. Dumb Sketch Daily
8. Al the Author
9. One Stumble At A Time
10. Feed Your Imagination

If I didn’t include you, it’s not because I don’t love you…it’s because I’m supposed to keep it to a manageable 10. 🙂