My super wonderful critique partner and fellow writer/blogger, Christa Wojo, has nominated me for the Liebster Blogger Award! I am not all-together familiar with this award, but you can bet your sweet bippy I’ll take it!

This is what Christa’s post said I’ve gotta do:

Subsequent to being nominated, there are a few things you’ve gotta do:

1. Post 11 random facts about yourself
2. Answer 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you
3. Nominate 11 bloggers (with less than 200 followers) to do the same
4. Let the bloggers you have nominated know they have been nominated”

Here’s my totally unnecessary, but absolute favorite, add-on:

You gotta add more cowbell . . .

Okay, so here we go . . .

First things first:  11 Random Facts about me:

1. 3 of my 4 kids are in a rock band called Forgotten Faces. And they’re really good. Seriously, I’m not the only person that says that. Their facebook page has more likes than mine.

2. I probably laugh/giggle about a hundred times a day and 90% of those chuckles come from stories happening in my head.

3. When I was growing up, my family was wicked-poor. I think we might have starved if it weren’t for our local church and the Salvation Army monthly food boxes.

4. Though #3 is a depressing fact, I am oddly grateful for growing up in a state of want.  It’s given me a sense of perspective and endurance that I don’t think I would otherwise have.

5. If stalking were a socially acceptable behavior and as long my husband didn’t mind, I would SO stalk Robert Pattinson.

6. When I am alone in the car, I turn up the music really loud–almost to the point of pain–and sing along at the top of my lungs.

7.   I have a knack for falling flat on my face amid large crowds. If there is a company picnic, family reunion, birthday party composed of 50+ guests . . . Sugar, I’m going down!

8. I have never met anyone super-famous (Not yet, anyways. I’m coming for you Pattinson!). But I have met every member of the band P. O. D., more than once. In fact, the lead guitarist, Marcos Curiel, is also the founder of an indie band called The Accident Experiment–whose song, Sick Love Letter, inspired the plot for my upcoming novel September Rain.

9.The best advice my father ever gave me was this simple truth: “People are idiots. So think for yourself.” Words to live by!

10. I am great at talking about myself, but terrible at self-promotion.

11. I have never been in a fist fight. Well, not with anyone other than my older brother.

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Now, lets get to Christa’s questions for her nominees:

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?  Let’s see . . .  sugar. That should count because I always feel guilty after binging.

What’s your weirdest quirk?  I smile when I’m nervous. Not so bad, I guess, but when I’m super-nervous I start giggling. Since I’m not usually nervous except in tense situations, it’s irritating. Because people around me want to know what’s so funny. Oddly, laughing in the middle of a crisis does not make for a great bonding experience.

Are you mommy’s or daddy’s boy/girl? When I was younger, I was definitely a daddy’s girl. Now that I am older, I’m leaning more on my mother.

What’s the biggest disservice one can do to oneself?  I think it’s not allowing oneself the space to find what you’re meant to do. I believe that every person has a talent and/or gift. I didn’t know that mine was writing until about 8 years ago. Knowing this and being a parent, I feel it’s my duty to push my kids to find their own gifts. It’s like the old saying goes; “Find something you love, then find a way to make money at it.”

Who’s your current movie/TV star infatuation? Oh, this one’s easy.  I started digging into Rob Pattinson as research for my character, Rhys Matthews from Between Octobers. He’s modeled after Rob. Since my main character, Grace, was modeled after Queen  Esther, I had to find her a King. Americans don’t have a monarchy, so I went for the equivalent: a celebrity. And the Twilight movie, New Moon, was being promoted at the time. I had read the books, but didn’t have interest in the films. But everyone else in the free-world sure seemed to!

So I began to study Rob Pattinson as a celebrity and a person; the way he seemed to have no idea what he was doing half the time, and seemed to try and not take anything seriously–I loved that about him. Still do. And he’s proven to be quite the formidable actor. Critiques are raving about his performance in The Rover for a reason!

Name your greatest attribute. My sense of humor. I’m also a really good speller. And a pretty good judge of character. Well, I’m kind of awesome I am at everything I do. Is that an attribute?

. . .  No! Wait! I changed my mind.  It’s definitely my endless humility. Yeah, I’m so freakin’ humble!

Are you a health nut or a junk food junkie?I like healthy foods.  I crave them, but I’m addicted to caffeine and sugar. I’m not sure what that makes me.

Name the bad habit you want to break the most. My compulsive editing. That, and my inability to write according to an outline. I’m a total ‘panster’ when I’m writing, so a story or plot may start one way, but it often ends up entirely different.

Top or bottom?

I’m not sure what you mean by this. Or maybe I’m just not sure I want to know what you mean by this. So, I’m going to play it safe, and assume you’re referring to bunk beds–in which case, I gotta go top-bunk!

Name your biggest pet peeve. Without question, it’s folding laundry. I have an irrational hatred for folding clothes.

What’s your favorite topic or theme to write about? I don’t know. It’s not really a theme, but my favorite thing to write is the hard stuff. When I get to put a character into a really big/bad situation that they can’t fix or have any idea how to handle. Those  defining moments when a person has to “shi#t or get off the pot.” (forgive the language) I think that those moments are when people find out what they’re really made of.

Whew! Glad that’s over.

Now for my Nominee’s:

1. Devon, over at the Reading Until Oblivian Blog 

2. Penny and Lisa of Penny For My Thoughts Book Blog

3. LN Russell of Finding My Muse blog

4. Elsie Elmore, a great writer and blogger

5. Margot Kindberg, the awesome mystery novelist

6. C.S. Boyack, of the Entertaining Stories Blog

7. Veronica and Ashley, from citygirlscapes blog, once they’re back from vacation

8. missjennym over at babbleworthy

9. Megan Cutler over at Cosmic Desire

10. Kendra Ayers over at her awesome blog

11. And last but not least, the talented Shonda Brock

My nominees must answer the following questions:

1. What is your greatest passion?

2. How old were you when you discovered this passion?

3. Name your biggest celebrity crush:

4. All-time favorite novel:

5. What was it about that story/character drew you to that particular novel?

6. Favorite TV show?

7. (I’m stealing this from Christa) What is your pet peeve?

8. If you could meet any person, living or dead, who would it be and why?

9. Would you rather have super-strength or super-intelligence?

10. What one thing are you most proud of?

11. Name your favorite band and post your favorite song.

Hope you enjoyed the post.