I’ve once again been tagged for the Liebster Award and the Sunshine Blogger Award. Noah, who nominated me for these, actually did three tags over on his blog (two Liebster Awards and a Sunshine Award), so go check those out. He’s pretty cool, and he has great taste in Captain America gifs. Thank you, Noah, for the nomination. :)

Rules:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you.
• Display your award.
• Answer the questions you were asked.
• Nominate 5 bloggers.
• Ask 6 new questions.
• Let your nominees know they were nominated.

Questions:

1. Who are you, and why did you start your blog?

I’m Ariel. I’m a Christian author, homeschool senior, and singer, among other things.

I don’t remember why I initially started my blog (probably just because my mom had a blog and I thought it would be cool to have one of my own), but when I revamped it in August of 2017 it was to start building a platform for my books and to help other young authors.

2. What do you do for fun?

I sing all the time. I also dance every now and then (if I had more opportunities to ballroom dance, I’d take them in a heartbeat), read, watch TV shows and movies (read: analyze TV shows and movies; it drives most of my family crazy), and I enjoy studying ancient history and mythology.

3. What if you had a sidekick? Who/what would it be? What would s/he do? Or are you the sidekick?

My author assistant, Zeke, would make for a fun sidekick. (Thank you, Mariposa, for the drawing. ^-^)

But if I were to have a separate sidekick, a black tabby cat named Kalmar would be awesome. He’d keep me company while I’m writing/blogging/editing and cheer me up when I’m stressed. And he’d have the power to travel among fictional worlds and take me along so I could see and explore all the awesome places I’ve only experienced through words.

4. Favorite animal, real or fantastical?

Phoenixes. Primarily because of my brief obsession with Phoenician purple and my theory that the words “Phoenicia” and “Phoenix” are etymologically related is because the phoenix (whether the mythological bird or some real-life bird it was inspired by) was a reddish-purple color like Phoenicia’s purple dye… which is probably nothing more than a theory, but it’s a fun theory. Plus, phoenixes are just cool in their own right.

5. What is your most visited nostalgic moment?

Fun fact: I have an entire document of memories that make me smile. I’ve nicknamed it my “Happy doc” and I can’t even open the file without grinning.

I’ve probably visited any moment on that doc roughly the same number of times, but the one that immediately came to mind was an interaction from camp. Camp has a craft table set up in the afternoons, and one of the crafts a couple years ago was painted rocks. One of my friends found a shield-shaped rock and decided to paint the Hylian shield from the Legend of Zelda games, and he had a reference hanging to paint from, and at one point I asked if he was going to include the designs over the tri-force (since the rock made the scale pretty small), and after saying yes and continuing to paint for a second I remember his eyes just lighting up and he looked over at me with a grin and said “Wait, you said tri-force. You know what this is?” and we ended up talking about LoZ for a minute. Seeing people get excited about things they love is one of my favorite things, so that moment stuck out. ^-^

6. What do you want your legacy to be?

*takes a deep breath* Well… I want to be remembered as always having time and space for people who needed it. I want to be there for people, and I want to welcome people into my home when I have one of my own. I guess I just want to touch lives in really real and tangible ways? I specifically want to minister to young people, and if I could get teenagers fired up about the gospel and strengthening the Church and influencing the culture in a better direction and be remembered for that, that would be awesome. And if/when I have kids, I want to instill in them similar values and pass on a passion for hospitality and ministry.

New Questions:

1. If you could live in any fictional world, what world would you choose?
2. What’s a hobby or interest you’ve pursued for a really long time, and how long have you been doing it?
3. What’s something people find strange about you that you don’t understand the strangeness of?
4. What’s your favorite song right now? (Or one you’ve recently discovered and enjoyed)
5. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
6. If you could be instantly fluent in any language, what language would you choose?

(I’ll share nominees after the Sunshine Award.)

Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link back to their blog so others can find them. Thanks again, Noah.
2. List the rules and display an award logo on your blog post. 
3. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
4. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and notify them by commenting on any of their posts.
5. Ask the nominees 11 new questions.

Questions:

1. Who are you?

*points to first answer*

2. What’s your dream job?

Youth/music minister and line-/copy-editor. Less-than-spectacular experiences in church youth groups or with church worship, plus the fact that my dad used to be a youth pastor and music minister, have resulted in a strong passion for those areas of the church and I really want to minister to teens and through music. And similarly with editing, I see a lot of indie-published books with great potential that didn’t reach that potential because they weren’t edited as cleanly as they could have been, and I want to help authors polish their books–and learn to polish their books–so they can be as effective as possible and the communication of the story isn’t hindered by a bunch of misplaced commas or confusing line breaks or modern slang that jolts you out of a fictional world.

3. What’s your all-time favorite movie?

When I first watched The Greatest Showman, I thought for sure it had beaten The Princess Bride out of this spot, but… I think it’s still The Princess Bride.

4. All-time favorite book?

Either The Monster in the Hollows or The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson. It’s a really hard pick. I think I’m going to say TWatWK just because it made me cry so much harder than any other book, but both were fantastic.

5. What are three hobbies you have?

Reading, singing, and writing.

6. How many musical instruments do you play, if any?

None, unfortunately. But I’ve been wanting to take up the ocarina.

7. What’s a habit you don’t want to break, but you know you should?

Staying up late. I’m such a night owl, and I often stay up past midnight. Which would be fine, except then I sleep in wayyyy too late the next morning, and I know I need to get into a more normal (and consistent) sleep pattern.

8. What’s a habit you do want to break, but know you shouldn’t?

Depending on the season, prayer journaling can fall under this category. XP Sometimes I love praying and I have no problem keeping on top of it and prayer journaling every morning; other times it feels pointless and I don’t always push through those feelings and do it anyway even though I know the feelings are lying. And, unfortunately, I’m kind of there currently. :P

9. What’s your favorite word?

Oooooh. “Snickerdoodle” is awesome just because it’s fun to say (and because snickerdoodles happen to be delicious). But “sonder” is a really beautiful word with a beautiful meaning. (For those of you who don’t know, “sonder” refers to the realization that everyone around you is living a life equally as complex as yours.) So… probably one of those.

10. What is the quintessence of your life?

My faith is at the core of my life. I don’t always perfectly live like it is, but I see everything through the lens of my faith and my desire is to live in such a way that benefits the kingdom of God and honors Him. It’s something I’m constantly working on living more completely, and surrendering my life to Christ is something I’m always working at, but my relationship with Him is always impacting my life.

And, far less important in an eternal sense, music is a huge part of my life. I’m practically addicted to music; I constantly have music playing–if not from a playlist, then in my head–and I’m frequently singing. I’m in a choir I’ve been part of for nearly twelve years, and music is super important to me in many areas of life. Not only do I use music to get in touch with how I’m feeling, but I also love learning more about the other people in my life based on what music they listen to, and music is one of my favorite kinds of worship.

11. What is a belief you will carry to your death bed?

The gospel, as a whole. But since that’s kind of a given… the belief that God is completely sovereign. I find it’s not a popular belief among many Christians, but I firmly believe that God is fully sovereign in and in control of everything that happens in the world, good and bad, and He uses everything to His glory and for the good of those who love Him. Nothing is beyond His control or His reach, and everything is controlled by His power. (I have a whole post on my second blog about why I believe in predestination and the total sovereignty of God, if anyone’s interested.)

New Questions:

1. If a genie gave you three wishes, what would you wish for?
2. What’s your favorite mythological creature?
3. Have you ever been fascinated with something super specific and unusual? What was it?
4. What’s your dream job?
5. If you could live in any decade of the 1900s, which would you choose?
6. If you lived in that decade, would your ideal job be the same? If not, what would you do instead?
7. What’s your all-time favorite book series?
8. How do you feel about tabletop RPGs?
9. What’s one unpopular opinion that you hold?
10. What book is at the top of your TBR?
11. What’s your favorite quote?

Nominees:

1. Eden at The Happy Hedgehog
2. Edna at Bleeding Ink
3. Allie at Of Rainy Days and Stardust Veins
4. Leila at Wildflowers and Cosmic Tea
5. Ruby at The Sea Calls Us Home
6. Felicity at The Wonderous World Around Us
7. Elyra at Wandering to Find My Way Home
8. Evelyn at The Rain-Drenched Writer
9. Keturah at Keturah’s Korner
10. NC at Weird As Usual
11. Acacia at Acacia’s Story Corner