Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The Leibster Blog Award

Well lookie what we have here, it’s a bloggy award and I couldn’t be more excited because I rarely win awards. Hooray! Plus the award name is giving me a great post - ‘B’ is for Blog Award! – so how could I complain?

Especially when I’ve taken on the challenge of writing every day for 26 out of 30 days in April and this can be one of my posts. So again, hooray!

Here’s the skinny. I’ve been presented with the Liebster Award, a wonderful award for bloggers with smaller followings (under 200). And as you all know I love reading blogs, my favorite of which are usually of the personal variety like mine where friends use their space to share their ongoing digital journal. My favorites of those are many times the underground people who have yet to be discovered by a massive audience but are still raw and wonderful writers.

And it makes me smile to think I could be included in that kind of a category.

To be honest, I’m kind of having a Sally Field moment…you like me! You really like me!

Anyway, back to the Liebster.


There’s the award in all its rock and roll looking glory. Isn’t it kinda cool looking? Now you might be wondering who bestowed me with this fine honor and that person would be Jak Cryton at The Cryton Chronicles. Thanks so much Jak! Those who don’t read his blog should stop on over, he’s also a Writer and is working on a fiction piece set in an alternate universe. Pretty cool stuff.

Now for the rules:

1. Post the award on your blog.
Check

2. Thank the blogger who nominated you for the award and display a link back to their blog.
Check

3. Post 11 random facts about yourself.
Check them out below.

4. Answer 11 questions that the presenter of the award has asked you.
Check those out after my eleven random facts.

5. Nominate 11 new bloggers with fewer than 200 followers that you want to pass the award on to.
And done, just keep scrolling. Like Dory might sing.

6. Ask your nominees 11 questions.
I gotcha questions at the end of this thing.

Eleven Random Facts About Me

1. The main reason why I accepted this award, when many of you know that I made an announcement ages ago I didn’t do the award thing, is because it was all about eleven which is my favorite number.

2. I made up my list of questions before reading what the questions were that I was supposed to answer.

3. I always struggle with naming specific facts about myself and tend to do this part of these types of memes last.

4. I still miss Word 2003.

5. My top five movies that have a fictional band singing an original song are: Rock Star (Steel Dragon / Chris Cole [as sung by The Verve Pipe]), Almost Famous (Stillwater), Reality Bites (Hey, That’s My Bike [Ethan Hawke, who plays Troy and the lead singer of the band, really does sing the couple songs his band is allegedly playing in the movie]), School of Rock (School of Rock), and Singles (Citizen Dick).

6. The most used tag on my blog posts is ‘staving off a nervous breakdown’ with a whopping 43 times used. The next closest is ‘Love that Dirty Water’ with 28.

7. I’m not at all looking forward to baseball season this year.

8. That’s because, after watching hockey so intently the past handful of years, baseball games are like taking a nap without the side benefit of having taken a nap.

9. I recently revived my old blog Green Leaf Reviewer and have enjoyed finding articles in the local paper to research and comment on over there. I’ll probably also bring back the reviews at some point soon.

10. The temperatures will soon be in the nineties and one-hundreds so I bought a stationary bike to workout on every day so I don’t attract harpoons while in my pool this summer.

11. I’m struggling with writing my sequel right now so I’m working on other projects instead. Some of which have nothing to do with writing.

Questions from Jak

1. What is your favorite color?

Purple

2. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Why?

To produce a perfectly written book on the first try. The why should be pretty self-explanatory for those who fancy themselves a Writer.

3. If you were resurrected as an animal, what would you want to be? Why?

A bear. I’ve said this so many times and still hold firm. Either a black bear or a grizly because they can live in cold places but have that honkin fur coat to keep them warm, eat as much as they want and get all plump during their summers spent swimming and fishing, then they spend the entire winter in a cave sleeping. Plus have you seen a bear fight? Bitches be bad ass.

4. What is the last book you read and/or are currently reading?

I just finished The Bourne Deception and yes I know the book is about a decade old but I’m a slow reader and also sometimes slow to catch onto the ‘what’s hip’ wave when it’s actually hip. The book was meh. I’m about to start reading a friend’s book today called Words Falling Like Water by Sonya Vaughn and I’m really looking forward to it!

5. Who is your favorite Author?

Poe. Or maybe King. I write love stories so it only makes sense that I’d read psychological, twisted chillers right?

6. Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo or the A to Z Challenge before? If so, what were your experiences like?

I won NaNo in 2010 and 2011, tried CampNaNo in August 2012 and didn’t come close to the word count. But I got my second book out of that experience so I count that as a win. This is my first try at the A to Z Challenge.

7. What is (or was) your most anticipated movie to be released in 2013?

I’m going to go with the second part of The Hobbit because the first part is one of very few movies I even saw from 2012.

8. Who was your first movie crush?

Mikey Walsh, Sean Astin’s character in The Goonies. The kid is only like twelve years old and a small-framed kid with asthma but he’s being forced to face this huge life crisis where his family is being evicted from their home to make way for a golf course. So when his dreams to chase down a treasure turn out to be not so imaginary, and he ends up leading the charge on this amazing adventure where he can potentially save the house and save the day, it just makes me smile. Plus I was about eleven when that came out and he was so super cute in his jeans and jean jacket with those sparkly hazel eyes.

9. What would your dream job entail?

Doing exactly what I do now – writing fiction and networking – just getting paid a living wage to do it.

10. Who has been the most influential person in your life?

There’s no chance I can answer this question. Everyone in my life has influenced me in one way or another be it for a moment or for decades. I could never pick just one.

11. Do you believe in the supernatural? If so, any experiences?

I do and yes I’ve felt the presence of ghosts or spirits before. Two distinct times in my life –when I was living in New Hampshire there was one incident I saw a great aunt in my room, the second was the not so Casper like ghost that took up nighttime residence in my second floor bathroom in the 1850’s farmhouse Matt and I slogged through in Springfield.

And here are my nominees for acceptance…insert drum roll here.


Eleven Questions for those who Accept the Award

1. What’s your earliest childhood memory?
2. What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?
3. Do you remember your third grade teacher’s name without looking it up?
4. Would you rather be too hot or too cold?
5. Have you ever traveled outside your own country?
6. Where do you think would be the scariest place to discover a body?
7. What’s your favorite book and why?
8. What is your name?
9. What is your quest?
10. What is your favorite color?
11. What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Hope you enjoy and play along!

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge B is for Blog Award

24 comments:

Kathe W. said...

entertaining post- I'll pass on answering all those questions as I don't have the time to follow through...I know my limits heh heh
Have a great day!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks Kathe for checking it out. I know, it was pretty long to respond but yesterday afternoon was some downtime for me so it worked out pretty perfect for today's challenge post :-)
Enjoy your day too thanks!

Rob-bear said...

Congratulations on the award! Well done, I say. And coming back as a Bear is an ideal choice. My "B" choice for A-Z Blogging today is Bears — check it out and expand your horizon of possibilities about which Bear you might want to be. (I think I might return as a Sloth Bear.)

Blessings and Bear hugs!
Bears Noting

J.L. Campbell said...

Congrats on your award.

Jak said...

Yay! I am glad you accepted, it is well deserved and hope we both meet a slew of new people during A to Z.

I can't believe I forgot my Sally Field moment. I told myself not to forget putting that in even. I would never have thought of that super power. Sad Panda :( lol All my mind reading powers would accomplish would be hearing everyone think about how fantastic all of your novels are!

2 down! Ain't no thing but a chicken wing :)

Jak at The Cryton Chronicles & Dreams in the Shade of Ink

Danica Favorite said...

Congats on the award! I like your answers!

Launna said...

Jenn, thank you so much for the nomination... I really appreciate it, I wanted to give you a blogger award but I remember reading that you didn't really do the award thing but I think you are amazing. I love reading anything you write.

I am thrilled you are posting more regularly... I always know I will smile or laugh at something you write, thanks :)

Anonymous said...

A great big hug to you Jenn! Thank you. It might take me awhile to think about the questions you asked and exactly how to put my thoughts into words. You are brilliant at this. Me, not so much. I look forward to each day this month reading, laughing and enjoying your written words.

Judi FitzPatrick said...

Congrats on your award - well deserved.
Thanks for the nomination, I'll try to come up with something - an acceptance "speech" and some answers, etc. later this week. (Probably have to watch "Holy Grail" first though. ;-) )
Loved reading your answers to the questions - didn't know about purple, the rest aren't surprising even if new info.
Thanks again!
Love you, Mum <3

Suldog said...

Congrats on the award. You know how I feel about them (in general, although I'm certainly pleased to have been thought highly enough of to have received any.)

As for writing challenges, I find it challenging enough to write, period, without putting unnatural challenges on the table. Best of luck!

Karen Goltz said...

Great answers, Jenn, and thanks for the nomination. I'll try to follow up sometime this week.

Alice said...

Sweet. Thanks! I will try desperately to answer. I've been quite MIA recently.

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks so much Rob! I'm off to check out your b for bears post right now. Seriously they're the coolest animals ever!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks so much J.L.!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

I have definitely met some amazing people already, this challenge is realy a lot of fun! Mind reading isn't too shabby because I'm sure you'd get some amazing character building from some of the whacko stuff that goes through people's minds!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks Danica, I appreciate you stopping by :-)

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Hey Launna thanks so much! I hope you do have a chance to do this challenge, will be excited to see what your answers are :-)

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Absolutely Joan, I love reading your blog though I'm usually drooling on my keyboard most of the time I'm over there heehee. No worries, I understand that its a lot of work for this one (really long!). And no pressure at all, I just wanted to give you all shout outs!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks Mum! I hope you can do this one, I think it was fun even though it took a while to craft the responses. I'm so glad you got the Grail reference, would've been shocked if you hadn't :-)

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

It is definitely a challenge right now but I'm enjoying the part where I'm being forced to write every day, I took too much time off from this! Its fun getting back to the old key plucking all day.

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

You bet! Looking forward to reading your responses my friend!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

You're quite welcome but no pressure on responding, you can or not and I won't be offended. I was MIA for a while too and its kind of nice to get back and writing again to be honest but it did take this challenge to force it out of me. Sometimes we're just not feeling it right?

disabled account said...

hahahahaha!! I love your questions at the end. One of the reasons I love you...you're always good for a kick ass movie reference. :)

Sorry it took me so long to respond to this and thank you so much for the nomination. you're so sweet. xoxo I don't know if I should accept though because I honestly don't know 11 people who currently blog anymore. There's you and Judi. No one else from the old crew really writes anymore. Whattayathink?

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

No worries on the delay, I didn't run around telling everyone they were nominated. Cause I'm lazy like that. Plus I know its a long one.

With that said however I'd love to see your responses. I think Chris gave it back to only one person, no strict rules around here! Do whatcha feel :-)