The Liebester Award

Many thanks to Emy Sukenaga for nominating me for the Liebster Award! I didn’t even know it existed. But the award is a way for bloggers to nominate other fellow bloggers and help spread your name a little bit. I thought it’s a cool idea.

These are the rules I need to follow for the award:

• Link Back to the Blog that nominated you
• Nominate 5-11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers
• Answer Questions posted by you from your nominator
• Share 11 random facts about yourself (so by the time this post is over, you’ll know way more about me than you probably ever wanted to know)
• Create 10 Questions for your nominees to answer
• Contact your nominees and let them know you’ve nominated them (Since my nominees are all writing-related, I’ll tailor my questions)

Here are the questions Emy asked me:

1. What is one lesson you’ve learned in the past year?
Considering I just finished my certificate in Christian Formation and Soul Care, like, two days ago this has been on my mind. . . in the past year I’ve been really amazed by how similar the creative process/doing art and giving soul care is. They overlap A TON. Both are a form a listening and receiving. I’d love to explore this further, especially since I’m creating every day.

2.  How have you changed/grown in the past 5 years?
The biggest thing is probably a change in priorities. Growing up, I used to be a “go big or go home” type person. Until my body collapsed. Migraines weren’t new to me, I’ve had them since I was born. But they continued to grow steadily worse until they turned chronic. In the past 5 years I’ve really had to learn how to prioritize my body. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Though I still dream big, living big has been replaced by living balanced. I’ve discovered this is a healthier way to live.

3. What is your favorite sport/activity/hobby besides blogging or writing?
PAINTING!!! watercolor mostly 🙂 Also reading. And eating brownies. I’m a professional brownie eater. And hot tubbing. With a good friend or family member. If I can eat brownies AND read WHILE in the hot tub WITH a friend = 8D.

4.  What do you do when you have free time (again besides write or blog)?
I’m going to answer this a little differently. Because I have chronic health issues, I frequently have what people consider “free time”, or time I’m not writing or blogging. However, I don’t consider this free time because I can’t blog or write or read. When I have this “free time”, I usually listen to books on tape, or I paint, or turn down the volume waaaay down on my keyboard and play, or watch Netflix, or sleep. Or I hook up an IV to my arm and just inject liquid stories. Whatever gets it into my system faster 🙂

5.  Why did you start blogging or writing and what do you enjoy about it?
I started blogging when I started editing my first novel. I knew I would need a website for marketing purposes and I love reading the blogs of authors I admire. Especially when they give behind-the-scenes peek into their mysterious author lives. So why not?

I love meeting people through the blog-o-sphere and being able to express myself. I have only not shared a room for a handful of years in my life, but my blog is something completely me. I don’t have to share it with anybody. My colors. My design. Books I like. Art I love. Maybe it’s selfish, but I love not having to compromise with anybody.

6.  Who is someone you have always looked up to as a role model and why?
Barbie (from the movies). Sure, she helped screwed up what we think is beautiful, but we were messed up before she came around. The way I see it–she has great hair, great fashion, loyal friends, always beats the bad guys, has impeccable morals, gets the guy . . . all while not getting her make up smudged. That’s impressive.

7.  Which of your posts is your favorite and why? (you should provide a link too!)
Probably the one on Creative Cross-Training. Because I really believe in doing more than one creative activity, especially since I can’t write all the time. And the old man painting is one of my favorites 🙂

8.  What is your Myers-Briggs personality?
If you asked my high-school or college self, you would’ve received a verrrrrry different answer. Before getting married, I used to be a raging extrovert. Now I think I’m either an INFP or an INFJ. I’m pretty split on the last two and I’m uber rational, so I can be mistaken for an INTP/INTJ.

9.  What are some of your pet peeves?
1) Dishes in the sink. Or dishes soaking in the sink. Or any dish not in the dishwasher where it d*** well belongs (Level 10 peeve)
2) Waking up in the morning only to be greeted by a mess in the living room (Level 9 peeve)
3) People trying to talk to me when I’m reading (Level 10 peeve)
4) When my hubby eats all the good brownies and leaves me the crust. Sad. (Level 9 peeve)

10.  If you could change anything about the world and how it operates, what would you change?
Many things. But considering I’m typing this with a fat headache, I vote for bottled rainbows we can sniff to make headaches and any illness to go away. That and unicorns. And the ability to grant underwater breathing to anyone who returns borrowed books in a timely and unruined manner.

11.  What are three things your thankful for in your life?
1) The hubster. Without whom my feet would always be frozen as I feel asleep at night.
2) Stories. Because without stories I don’t think we would be human.
3) Very squishy pillows. Because they are a hug for my face.

And here are my 11 random facts!
1) I am the oldest of 5 kids.
2) I actually don’t like pets. It’s the taking-care-of part I hate.
3) I’ve worn the same size shoe since the 4th grade
4) I both graduated college and got married when I was 20
5) I lived in China for a couple years when I was little
6) This one guy in junior high I liked got these eye-wrinkles whenever he smiled, so I made myself smile funny so I could get the eye-wrinkles too. It took me years to undo the habit.
7) My now-hubby was my first boyfriend
8) I used to work for an author. I learned tons about social media, website design, etc.
9) I hate tomatoes when they are whole or goopy/dangly/wiggle down the throat
10) I learned how to swim before I learned how to walk
11) I prefer silence over listening to music

Here are my other nominees:
Elsie Elmore (her debut, The Undead, will be published by Curiosity Quills later this year)
Melissa Janda, at melissajanda.wordpresss.com
Kate Lansing (one of her short stories will be published in an anthology later this year)
JMLedwell Writes (writes Asian fiction. Her blog is new, but great if you want to know more about Japanese culture!)
LittleCely (she’s also into art! Pretty cool 🙂 )

Here are their questions:
1) What is one lesson you’ve learned in the past year?
2) How have you changed/grown in the past 5 years?
3) When did you start writing and why?
4) Why do you write in the gene(s) you do?
5) What is your current work-in-progress?
6) What’s your favorite part of the writing process?
7) What is your favorite literary character?
8) What is your favorite character that you’ve written?
9) What are you currently reading?
10) Any advice you’d pass onto other hopeful writers?