I'm a Liebster and I Know It

The awesome Yolanda Renee from Defending the Pen kindly passed the Liebster Award my way.  She's been a great follower and has left lots of positive comments that always help to make my day.

Rules:

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

1. What monster would you choose for a Halloween costume?  If it were feasible, I would be a Dalek.  Unfortunately, those costumes are expensive and uncomfortable.  Not to mention impractical for getting anywhere. Nevertheless, it would be awesome to say that "Yeah, I was a Dalek for Halloween one year."

2. What superhero would you choose to be?  I'm partial to Superman.  I mean, he's an alien, he can fly, he can run super fast, and bullets bounce off him. Plus being able to see through things would be insanely useful.  I'd also like to be The Doctor.  He's also an alien, and he's saved the universe several dozen times over.  That's enough to count as a superhero, right?

3. What is your favorite genre, reading, and or writing?  I think my regular readers will know the answer to this question right off the bat.  Science fiction is my favorite to read and write.  I love the openness.  You can build any world, and the kinds of characters you can  create within those worlds are limited only by imagination.  With so many possibilities available, I don't understand how anyone doesn't love science fiction.

4. What character is most like you in any of your favorite books, read or reading or writing?  When I stopped to think about this, I discovered something quite disturbing.  Though I am not suicidal (you can trust me on this), I found I have a lot in common with my MC Nella from my flash fiction piece "A Complicated Suicide."  After all, I am also a writer, I have a bit of a snarky attitude sometimes (ask anyone who knows me), and I have epic bad luck.  You can also trust me on this.  When I first meet people, they don't believe me that I have an abnormal abundance of bad luck in my life.  Were I ever to create a hologram of myself as an elaborate suicide note, I have a feeling it would go terribly wrong. That's just the way it goes.  If you could call Nella anything, it would be a caricature of some of my most irritating traits.

5. What is your most memorable Halloween memory?  I have a lot of great memories from Halloween, but I think the most memorable one comes from a recurring dream I used to have as a kid.  I had this dream sporadically, but I always used to have it more frequently around Halloween.  I guess that was my child mind already priming itself for late October scares.  I've already written about the dream in detail, so click HERE to read more about it.

6. What is your most memorable high school memory?  This isn't a specific memory, but it's something that counts to me.  In high school I drove a 1979 Lincoln Continental, and I can jokingly say it was about the size of a small continent.  I looked funny driving it since I could barely see above the steering wheel.  Several of my friends were younger than me, so I ended up being the chauffeur for many of them.  And believe me, you could fit a whole gang of people in that roomy backseat.  Many of my best memories from high school revolve around cruising in that car.  It's nickname was "The Boat."

7. What is your favorite holiday and why?  I love New Years because of the idea that you can start fresh.  We make resolutions that we fully intend to keep, and even our past failures cannot be held against us on that magical night. Sure, those resolutions frequently go out the window faster than we'd like to admit, but for one night of the year, everything seems possible.

8. What is your most personal current wish (one that you can share)? I only wish that I can make my writing work well enough for me that I can help support my family and be able to share a part of myself with the world.  I feel like I have so many stories to tell, and I want to be able to do that.

9. If you could choose any man or woman, dead or alive, who would you choose to get our country back on track and why?  First of all, I am now of the firm opinion that politics suck.  Living in Iowa, I've been inundated with nonstop political ads since 2010.  I'm also of the opinion that the two major parties, Democrats and Republicans, are flying in opposite directions so fast it seems those of us in the middle can't find anyone to represent us.  While I agree with some policies of each party, they also both have points that are deal breakers for me.  The candidates that best represent my views, unfortunately, have zero chance of winning.  However, since this particular question doesn't need to be based in reality, I'll pick my fun answer.  I nominate Morgan Freeman from Deep Impact to be president.  In that movie, he was strong, authoritative, and a great leader in a time of crisis.  He also has that voice.  Even when he tells you the world is about to end, it doesn't sound as bad as it could because of the way he says it.

10. What do you enjoy or hate about blogging, explain, maybe give a point or two for the rest of us bloggers.  The part I dislike most about blogging is when I have to write a post, but I'm feeling utterly uninspired.  It certainly happens that way more often than I'd like.  The fortunate thing about having a schedule is that it forces you to work through those roadblocks, no matter how much you don't want to.  I've tried to use that same determination to work through similar hiccups in my WIPs.

11. What is your favorite day of the week and why?  Friday.  Though the responsibilities of the week haven't yet ended (and I guess as a mother of two, my responsibilities never actually stop), there is still 100% of the weekend to look forward to.  There's something exciting about that.


Okay.  I have a confession to make.  I'm supposed to tag 11 people, and in the past, I've always tried to follow through with this.  However, today my oldest son is sick.  With all the vomiting going on here, I'm on my fourth load of laundry for the day.  So, I'll say this.  I always feel that I inadvertently skip over deserving bloggers when I pass awards on, so feel free to take the award if you want it.

I've still written 11 new questions for anyone who decides to pick up the award. Or if you'd simply like to answer a question or two in the comments section, feel free.  I'd love to hear from you!

1.  When you were a kid, what's the most bizarre thing you wanted to grow up to be?

2.  Who is your favorite character?  It can be a character you've written, or it can be any character from a book, movie, or TV show.

3.  Do you prefer sweatshirts or t-shirts?

4.  What's your favorite season?

5.  What's your favorite holiday food?

6.  What's your favorite beverage?

7.  Do you prefer salty or sweet snacks?  Or maybe a mixture of both? Mmmm.  Chocolate covered pretzels.  Wait!  I'm not supposed to answer these questions, am I?  Ooops!

8. Who's your favorite actor or actress?

9.  What book or movie taught you important lessons about life, and how have those lessons helped you?

10.  How would you describe your sense of humor?  Dry, twisted, nerdy, etc.?

11.  What are you paranoid about?

Okay.  That's enough from me for now.  I have another load of laundry to start.  I hate it when my kids are sick.  :(