Scribes & Archers

Thank you to Grace and Katherine of The Maidens of Green Gables for the tag! I’ve actually done the Liebster Award before, but it’ll be fun to do it again. :)

What is the Leibster Blog Award?

In short, it’s an award for small blogs that’s passed between bloggers to explore growing blogs. Those who accept the nomination answer a list of questions given to them by whoever nominated them, write a bit about their favorite blogger, nominate 5-11 other blogs that have fewer than 200 followers (mine might not all fit that criteria because I can’t see the follower count of some of them), and provide 10-11 random facts about themselves. The official rules can be found here.

Nominees:

1. Hallie at Hallie Jenkins, Author
2. Jess at The Artful Author
3. Rebekah at Hunting for Truth
4. Leila at Wildflowers and Cosmic Tea
5. Kate at Kate Flournoy, Author
6. Sarah at Inkdragon
7. Sarah at The Sarcastic Elf
8. Justice at Justice and Writeousness
9. Anna at Conscious Dreamers
10. Aria at Aria E. Maher
11. Elyra at Two Roads Diverged

My Favorite Blogger

I follow quite a few blogs (as evidenced by how many people I’m able to tag at this point if nothing else, lol), but my favorite is Hannah Heath’s. I love her sense of humor, the constant nerdy references in her posts, and how genuine she is.

11 Random Facts About Me

1. My favorite ice cream flavor is probably chocolate chip.
2. I love the scent of cinnamon.
3. I can make myself taste Sour Skittles if I want to. Like, I can make my tongue feel that sour sensation just by thinking about it.
4. I’ve never had a true haircut, only trims to get rid of split ends.
5. My fingernails are often as long as half an inch from my fingertip. Yes, they’re natural.
6. My current long-term writing plan extends into 2020. (Which is actually kind of annoying, because the Dark War Trilogy won’t be published until at least 2020 on the current plan.)
7. Not counting those I’ve made online, I have four friends.
8. I think my favorite board game is Scrabble. #wordnerd
9. There are 59 stories on my complete list of stories I’ve started, not counting short stories or those I never plan on finishing. (With short stories and stories I never plan on finishing there are 97.)
10. I have two main series planned after the Dark War Trilogy, with another minor series on the side, multiple unrelated short stories/short story series, and possibly companion novellas for The Dark War Trilogy.
11. I can’t keep myself from reading at least two books at any given time. I try to focus on just one and then others insist on being read and then before I know it I’m reading half a dozen books at once and not really reading any of them at all. (I am working on it.)

Katherine and Grace’s Questions

1. What’s your favorite quote?

“Such is the nature of evil. In the vast ignorance it festers and spreads. A shadow that grows in the dark. A sleepless malice as dark as the oncoming wall of night. So it ever was. So it ever will be.” – Thranduil

2. Share your most-used recipe?

Dorito Casserole:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease 13×11 baking pan. Mix 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can diced tomatoes, and 1 can beanless chili in a bowl. Dump almost 1 bag of Doritos into greased pan. Pour mixture overtop. Top with cheese. Cook for 20 minutes.

(The only recipe I have memorized.)

3. Are you an author, and do you have any published works?

Yes and yes! (Wow that’s weird.) I published my Short Story Collection Vol. 1 in February, shortly followed by Lost Girl as a standalone. They haven’t gotten very many reviews, but what reviews they have gotten have been really positive. ^-^

4. What are some of your hobbies?

Aside from reading, I love singing (I’ve part of an amazing choir for nine years) and I do some drawing (primarily fashion design).

5. Are you a fan of musicals?

YES! Musicals are the best! The Greatest Showman is my favorite movie. ^-^

6. What fond family traditions would you like to continue when you get married and start a family? Or if this joyous series of events have already arrived, what have you implemented already?

My family has a specific way we decorate the Christmas tree to point to Christ in our decorating and really think about Christmas as we decorate, and I can’t imagine not continuing that with my own family. (I didn’t explain it well, but my mom wrote a book about it that has all the Bible verses and songs we use, so you can also do it if it seems cool to you.)

On a sillier note, my extended family also has a hat contest for 4th of July with multiple prizes (tackiest hat, most beautiful hat, tallest hat, etc.) that used to be an annual tradition and now I’m sad hasn’t been as big a thing lately. I’d like to continue that with my kids, too, if I have any. :)

7. What is one particular trait that you’d like to train your future children in?

Just one? Creativity is the first thing that really came to mind, but I feel like that’s a really unchristian answer, and I know that in the grand scheme of things it’s not that important a thing. I mean, there are things like honesty and patience and generosity that are more important. But I want to say all of them and the more generic ones are kind of assumed and I have to pick one, so I’m going to go with creativity anyway. :P

8. What’s a boy’s name that you like? What’s a girl’s name that you like?

I like both Daniel and David for boys. As for a girl’s name, I’ve had the same name picked out for years that I want to use for a daughter someday: Naomi Brea. According to BabyNames.com (character names) it means “gentle (Naomi) beauty beyond sight (Brea).” And I just think it’s a really pretty name. ^-^

9. Tell us a favorite joke?

I’m one of the unfunniest people ever, I think, and all the generic jokes I’ve ever heard just flew out of my brain, so allow me to tell you a cringeworthy pun that a friend told me a while back.

A couple of friends and I played a game of questions all the time, where we’d just ask each other random questions back and forth. So I asked them “Pens or pencils?”

Punny friend: “Pens. But I could make an argument for either.”

Me: “You’re in speech and debate. Of course you could make an argument for either.”

Punny friend: “Exactly. I’m in speech and debate. I can argue over pointless things all day.”

Punny friend: “Although…”

Punny friend: “In this case they both have a point.”

10. Recommend three books?

Only three? D: Okay…

Chasing Jupiter by Rachel Coker (link to review)

The Wilderking Trilogy by Jonathan Rogers (What, did you think I wasn’t going to count a series as one book?)

*goes into reader-panic-mode as she tries to decide on just one more* Noooooooo! D: D: D: I have three more I want to recommend!

I can’t pick. I have to list all three.

Colors of Fear (and the rest of the Terebinth Tree Chronicles) by Hannah Heath (link to review)

The Eleventh Hour by Michael Phillips

Echoes by Miranda Marie (link to review)

(I just recommended 16 books, because almost every book on that list has books following it in a series. Wow. I tried not to overwhelm you with book recommendations! I did exert some self-control, because that list could be a lot longer. I guess the most I can say at this point is… happy reading.)

11. What is a period drama you love?

…I don’t watch period dramas? The closest I come is Legends of Tomorrow, because time travel. XD (But I don’t love that show, so :P) Yeah, I just don’t have any good answer to this question.

11 Questions for my Nominees

1. Recommend three books in your favorite genre?
2. If you’re an author, do you have any published works? If not, can you give us a description of your current work-in-progress?
3. What’s your favorite self-published book?
4. How many started stories do you have?
5. What’s your favorite type of humor?
6. What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
7. What hobby have you been working at the longest?
8. What’s your favorite board game?
9. If someone wanted to really understand you, what book should they read, song should they listen to, and movie should they watch?
10. What three books have been the most impactful to you?
11. What’s your favorite card game?