Liebster Award

I opened my blog the other day to find that the lovely oraculargrace from http://oraculargrace.wordpress.com/ , had passed along to me the Liebster Award. Thankyou very much, I was pretty chuffed!

This award is like a helpful chain letter, that is passed along to new bloggers with small reader numbers, in order to help get their blog out there and to make them interact with other bloggers.

A bit like that annoying drunk friend who always tries to make you dance at parties, except this award doesn’t spill rum all over you, and could help you make new friends.

It is totally optional to continue the chain and no one will be befall misfortune if you don’t. But if you happen to win lotto after participating, well……………… It could be a coincidence.

Anyway I chose to accept and am now posting the official rules as found on Wordingwell http://wordingwell.com/

The Official Rules of the Liebster Award

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
2. Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
3. Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)
6. Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.
7. List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

The questions passed to me

1. Why did you start your blog? I love to write and have had the urge to create a blog for a few years. I think too much and the running commentary in my head can often be very helpful and informative. It seemed a shame to not share it. Give my girls something to laugh about when their older.
2. Who or what is your greatest inspiration? I guess my Mum is my greatest inspiration as she infused a love of reading and writing in me very early on, plus she is awesome. As far as writing style, I do love Francis Whiting and her witty take on life.
3. What is your favorite genre of books or movies and why? I LOVE fantasy books and movies. I am an 80’s kid who grew up with Princess Bride, Willow and Labyrinth as my guides, fantasy is in my blood. Escapism at its finest. The world is sad enough as it is, so anything that makes you forget is wonderful. If only my authors would write their next books a little quicker. Hint hint.
4. If you were given the opportunity to host your own talk show what would you discuss with your guest? He he, my sisters are my greatest friends so they would no doubt be guests. When we get together there is a lot of discussion on current affairs, politics and funniest youtube videos ie. Double rainbow, model twisting her ankle on runway. So the talk show dialogue would probably run much the same as that. Might be a bit boring to others but we’d have fun.
5. If you were given the means to make a difference in the world, what worldwide problem would you decide to challenge and why? Yikes, that’s pretty broad. I would love to try and combat the stigma of Mental Illness and in turn reduce the shocking suicide rates. Everyone matters and everyone has a story. I would also like to see people in general be more open minded when it comes to prejudices. I wish prejudice didn’t exist. Love everyone!!!!
6. Where were you born and raised and if given the choice where would you prefer to have been born and raised? I was born in a very large coal mining town and raise in a very small mining town and would not change it for the world. Being part of a town built from scratch is a huge privilege that won’t be seen again in this lifetime. We had a very tight community and I consider all I grew up with as family. I am a lucky girl.
7. What part of world would like to visit? 7 wonders of the Ancient world is on my “once the kids leave home and I win the lotto” list. First stop Machu Picchu.
8. What is your favorite time of the year and why? I love spring. The birds singing, the butterfly’s, the smells of new flowers and leaves, the magpies swooping you on the way to the pool. Bliss. The smells, the colours and the sounds are all magic, so intrinsically Spring. Chlorine and suncream. Yup Spring is awesome.
9. Name one crisis you overcame and how? Hmm, there are many, but one would be officially becoming a writer. Like I said, I have always loved it and knew I would like to make a job of it, but I didn’t know how. So I used to write for fun, I would send short stories to magazines, with no reply, sad, make newsletters and flyers for different family and sporting events and submit articles and letters to the editors to the local papers. All this time I was applying and being knocked back from job after job and losing all confidence in my writing and myself. I began a Freelance Journalism TAFE course online in order to hone my skills, which I loved. With 2 modules to go a job as Journalist popped up in our local paper, I applied and am now coming up to my 4^th year in this position. Lessons learned, Study hard, put it to the universe and never stop writing.
10. Describe your idea of the perfect day? Nothing makes me more content than having my whole family under 1 roof. When that happens, it’s perfect. Any day/night out bush with my crew is also a perfect day. Beers, dogs, tents, campfire, charades and pin pricks of pure white stars flung across a black sky.
11. Name one thing you plan on accomplishing before you die and why? Swim with the Whale Sharks. It has been a dream since I first picked up a National Geographic magazine as a kid. There will be a post coming up on my blog about this very topic soon.

11 Random facts about me

This is a hard one.

1. I have a small addiction to tattoos, but am what you would call an introvert.
2. My only phobia growing up was of wild pigs (thanks Razorback), now one of my to-do’s, is to catch and throw one myself.
3. I work for a newspaper and yet despise the bias media that rages in this country.
4. I didn’t fly until I was 16, my youngest flew at 8.
5. The first live band I ever saw was Pearl Jam. Thanks to my lovely friend and sister. Best weekend ever.
6. I hate peas. HATE PEAS. As encouragement, my father used to use a little golf counter and click it for every pea I ate as a child, and once a year we would take it to show my Grandma. HATE PEAS.
7. My family is filled with amazing female role models, who I aspire to emulate for my daughters and nieces. And nephews. There is nothing wrong with boys looking up to strong women, or vice versa.
8. I weened myself onto beer as an adult to ease bottleshop purchase confusion and esky packing. It really is an acquired taste. But I still find I don’t enjoy it unless I have been working hard. Perhaps a lifetime of advertising is to blame.
9. I had G1 a month after I turned 18. Long story. I’ll blog about it one day.
10. I have my alarm set to go off at 10 minute intervals instead of using snooze. This goes on for about 45 minutes. I hate getting up.
11. The sound of driving over a bridge is one of my all time favourite noises. Reminds me of going on holidays.

My 5 blogs I chose to pass the award/task along to

http://journeytofit14.wordpress.com/

http://travellingtheworldsolo.wordpress.com/

http://iamyourtwilightstar.wordpress.com/

http://decidinglybob.wordpress.com/

http://fourlittlegirlsandforty.wordpress.com/

My questions to my nominated 11- yes they all end in “and why”, as I would like more than 1 word answers.

1. When did you begin writing and why?
2. Name the book that has made the biggest impact on you and why?
3. A day in your life you would revisit and why?
4. Super power you wish you had and why?
5. First thing you notice about a person and why?
6. The one thing you never leave home without and why?
7. Sentimental item that you just cannot throw away and why?
8. What kind of pen do prefer? Scratchy, smooth, ball point, fine point etc, and why?
9. If you had the chance to sacrifice a limb/digit, to gain one skill, what would be the limb/digit you would surrender and for what skill?
10. What era do you wish you were born in and why?
11. Main piece of advice you would give to your 16 year old self and why?