In Reponse to my Blog Awards

I hope it is not a no-no to combine my posts here, but because I’m behind in posting this and my thanks, I will do so this time.  Thank you to Sharla Shults for these awards from her blog sites http://catnipoflife.wordpress.com/ and http://awakenings.wordpress.com/  Please stop by to check out Sharla’s blogs everyone.

What is the Lovely Blog Award?

Rules for the Lovely Blog award are to thank the blogger who nominated you, give seven facts about yourself, post the blog award badge on your site, and nominate 11 noteworthy blogs, notifying them you did so.  Therefore, here goes:

1.  I LOVE cats!!!!  As if you guys didn’t know that already.

2.  I grew up on a cotton farm in south TX.

3.  I’ve lived in five states, so far, counting Alaska in which I spent the five coldest winters of my life.

4.  I HATE, HATE, HATE cold weather!

5.  I’m a free spirit and a night owl, much to my husband’s disgust.

6.  I hate negativity and the word “I can’t” because I persevere in everything I do and I will always find a way, even if it means teaching me something new.  I am not a quitter and being tenacious, I usually figure stuff out, even if it is frustrating at times.

7.  I love peace, quiet and chocolate.

The awards go to:

http://valeriedavies.com/

http://jenowenby.wordpress.com/

http://jamesosbornenovels.com/

http://cheesewillsetusfree.wordpress.com/

http://kenradaniels.com/

http://ldarbygibbs.blogspot.com/

http://mythicscribes.com/

http://darlenecraviotto.com

http://www.marshlanders.blogspot.com/

http://brucelouisdodson.blogspot.com/

http://jessicahaight.blogspot.com/

Just follow the rules above when you’re ready and don’t forget to grab the Lovely Blogger Award button from my blog.

What is the Liebster Blog Award?

The Liebster Blog Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.  Liebster is German for pleasant, valued, and many other synonyms.  The rules for this one state that you answer the 11 questions asked of you by the Blogger who gave you this award.  In my case that would be Sharla Shults.  Thank you Sharla.

I’m then supposed to nominate some blogs for this one and leave my list of questions for the bloggers.  I could name all the ones above because there are so many good writers that you can learn something from everyone’s blog.  However, I want to name different blogs than the ones above.  Of course, there is no way of knowing if all of these have less than 200 followers because you can’t tell on the Word Press blogs, so I’ve done my best.

First, here are my answered questions:

1. Who do you admire most and why?

 This is a hard one because I don’t think there is anyone alive right now that is famous (meaning all of you would know) and that I would admire all that much.  If this pertains to present day, I would probably say Christopher Reeve or Terry Fox and folks like that because they didn’t/don’t let handicaps stand in the way of their dreams.  If we’re talking ancient times, it would have to be King Arthur without a doubt.  He was brave and chivalrous.  (Now, don’t look at me like that.  I happen to believe he was a real person.)  Honestly, we need leaders like this today.

2. What is the best book you have read this year and why would you recommend it to others?

I have read a few books this year, but nothing as splendid as a set of books I read last year.  Those I could wholeheartedly recommend to anyone because they are extremely well written historical novels about Scotland in the 1700’s.  I found the first in this set of books by chance in the local library basement sale.  Being the lover of fantasy that I am, the subject of time travel and historical Scotland attracted me as this kind of thing always fascinates me, so naturally I snatched up this book.  I am talking about the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldan.  These books are full of adventures, battles, some romance, but nothing over-the-top.  I highly recommend them, but I must warn you there are seven in the series and they are each about 1000 pages long.

3. Where do you get your inspiration?

I find inspiration everywhere, just looking out over the gorgeous view from my office window is inspiring.  My house backs up to the desert where many forms of wildlife roam free and carved red rocks and old black lava flows rise up out of the sagebrush and various arid plants growing back there.  Sometimes reading, listening to music, or watching movies can be inspiring as well.  It rather depends what mood I’m in, but I have a great imagination.  It usually isn’t hard to get me off onto something I can write about and expand upon.  Sometimes ideas even come to me through dreams.

4. What is your favorite part of nature?

Oh my, this is a hard one because I think all areas of nature have something great to offer.  I’ve been fortunate to live in places where I’ve had plains, the desert, mountains, and the ocean, all right at my fingertips.  I probably would miss the mountains more than anything, but I like the bare mountains with all their grooves and crevices and rocks, not the tree covered ones.

5. Would you rather be a bumble bee or a butterfly?

I would definitely be a butterfly.  I love to watch them fluttering from flower to flower in their graceful way.  It seems they try to enjoy nature and life as much as they can everyday.  That’s a good lesson to all of us.

6. When did you first begin to write?

This would have to be in school when we had to read books for class and do essays on them.  Because I’m the oldest of a big family, I also would tell stories to my siblings.  I did get away from this for a time, going back to my first love of drawing.  Then I got interested in art class in high school.  I took up oil painting in a big way, but still kept up the sketching I’ve done all my life and still do when I have time.  I went back to writing big time in the 90’s and joined some writing groups, etc.  Things escalated from there.

7. What is your favorite sport?

I’ll have to disappoint everyone here because I’m not into sports and never have been.  This may sound shocking, but I hated PE class, although I did play a bit of tennis in those days.  I didn’t want o waste my time there, but to be in art class, which I considered the only reason I even got up to go to school in the first place.  If hiking in the hills around here can be a sport then I guess that would have to be it.

8. If you had a choice for a pet, would you rather have a gerbil or an iguana?

If I couldn’t have a cat and these are the only choices, it would be a gerbil.  I think I can relate easier to a gerbil running around, frantically, on his wheel as fast as he can.  Sometimes I feel much like that myself, moving at a frenzied pace because there are never enough hours in a day.

9. If you could be reincarnated, who would you like to be?

Well, unbelievably, I have thought about this because I do believe in reincarnation.  However, this is still something to ponder.  Possibly Emily Bronte, Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Mitchell, or perhaps someone like Princess Diana so there would be no worries about money the next time around.  This would definitely take more thought than I have to give it right now.  Don’t get me wrong because I know rich people have their own share of problems and I don’t think we get to choose anyway.  I’m sure we are born into roles where we’ll learn what we need to know in that lifetime.

10. Which would best describe you, a cool cucumber salad, or a hot tamale?

I’m definitely the cool cucumber.  I take everything in stride and very little rattles me, which is something many people can’t understand.  If there is some disaster, I deal with it in a calm, organized way instead of screaming and running around like the sky is falling.

11. What is the best food you ever ate and where?

This is a hard one because I’m not a big eater and when I am hungry everything taste good.  The only thing that comes to mind right now, besides a fresh fruit salad or big dish of ice cream in the summer, is when my husband and I went to Hawaii for the first time and we sat outside for breakfast.  I had grilled catfish, sliced potatoes, and eggs.  There was an orchid on my plate.  That was a wonderful meal sitting there with all the hibiscus and plumeria’s blooming all around us.  A few palm trees waved in a brilliant blue sky, the breeze carrying along the fragrant smell of flowers.  Of course it could have been the ambience too because we had flown in from Alaska in February when it’s gray, snowy and the temperature never rises above 20 degrees.

Sorry for getting long-winded everyone, but that’s the writer in me.  I can never shut up.  I hope I didn’t bore everyone to death.

The award goes to:

http://marysbooksblogger.blogspot.com/

http://thecelticroseblog.blogspot.com/

http://angel011.wordpress.com/

http://solowomenathomeandabroad.blogspot.com/

http://mjb-wordlovers.blogspot.com/

Michael Murphy, Author at Goodbye Emily

http://raaniyork.wordpress.com/

www.spiritualchocolate.com

http://pstrack.blogspot.com/

http://plainjanemadlibby.blogspot.com

Here are your questions:

1.  What is your greatest achievement so far and why?

2.  How do you spend your free time?

3.  What is your favorite season and why?

4.  If you could live anywhere besides where you do now, places today or times back in history, where would it be and why?

5.  To date, what has been your worst disappointment in life?

6.  How did you get interested in writing?

7.  What advice would you give a new writer?

8.  If you could start all over in life, would you change anything?

9. What is the most exciting thing you’ve ever done?

10.  Are you scared of anything, or do you conquer all your fears and do it anyway?

11.  What are the best five words that would describe you?

Don’t forget to grab the Liebster Award button for your blog.