Liebster Award - What a great idea :)

The lovely Chrys Fey nominated me for a Liebster award and I managed to totally miss it because I have had my head down trying to finish a book. Thank you so much Chrys. I am honoured that you picked me to be one of your 11 nominees.

For those, like me before this moment, who have no idea what a Liebster awards is, this is the low down:

The Liebster Award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers. The goal is to help people find these blogs that are worthy of a bigger following. In German "Liebster" means kindest, beloved, valued, and welcome. (Totally lifted this description from Chrys, hope that is okay).

The current rules for accepting this award are:

1. List 11 random facts about myself.
2. Answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated me.
3. Nominate 11 more blogs who have less than 200 followers and let them know they've been nominated. (I have seen some people doing 5-11 blogs so I assume it's variable).
4. Post 11 new questions for those bloggers to answer (if they wish to accept the award - it’s completely optional).

11 Random Facts About Me (you have been warned :))

1. I am a vampire nut, especially 80s vampire movies - I love them.
2. I have two Savannah cats - Savannah's are a percentage wild serval so tend to be quite large and the closer to serval they are the flightier they are. Ours are an F2 (1/3 serval) - she's a diva, and an F5 (much further away) and she's almost a normal cat - I say almost. They are lovely, but at the moment they are in hate with each other mode and trying to destroy the house :).
3. The first Fantasy novel I ever bought myself was Terry Brooks The Wishsong of Shannara - I won a token at our school prize giving and that's what I chose to buy.
4. Comas are my nemesis - my sister always has to correct my comas no matter how hard I try to get them right. Beware my subordinate clause that never ends.
5. I love to sing - I used to run the local church choir before my father retired as vicar there.
6. My favourite place in London is the National Gallery, I can spend hours in there with their audio tour. What I love most is there are so many places to sit and just look at the paintings.
7. I have talipes (club foot) in both feet. I was born with it and have had operations to correct some of it, but I still can't walk all that far and these days I use a crutch for anything more than just puttering around the supermarket.
8. I can't jump - another aspect of talipes because my ankles don't move so I have no spring in my step. When we used to do long jump at school I never even made it into the sand pit :P. Also the only way I ever got over a hurdle was to dive over it - lol.
9. I write any genre that takes my fancy from gay erotica to YA and I love all of it. I write what I like to read and whatever inspires me. The current book I am working on I refer to as 'asexual, cross-gender Indiana Jones in space'.
10. I have always loved art, I took Maths, Physics and Art as my A Levels at school, which was kind of unusual :). (That was way back when we were only allowed to do 3!)
11. I used to be a database developer and systems consultant before becoming an author.

The 11 Question from Chrys Fey to her nominees

1.If you were allowed to read books by only one author, who would it be and why?

David Eddings - the Belgariad is my go to comfort read and I love his writing. If I could only have one person's books it would be his.

2. What is your favorite dessert?
Gypsy tart -  tart made with dark brown sugar and condensed and/or evaporated milk - it is heavenly. However, when making it, it either works or you get slop - there is never an almost okay moment :).

3. On a Friday night, what are you most likely to do?

Sitting in front of the TV chillin' and getting over the week :).

4. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and why?

My ability to procrastinate to the detriment of my productivity (a little procrastination never hurt anyone, but a lot is not good).

5. Who is your favorite literary character? (You can pick one hero and one heroine.)

Polgara from the Belgariad - I love her. She is strong and yet feminine and oh so very much in charge.

6. What is your biggest dream?

To become a successful author able to make a proper living off this writing that I so love.

7. What song could you listen to over and over again?

Rise Like a Phoenix by Conchita Wurst - I love it.

8. If your house were burning down, what would you take and why?

My hard drives - they have all my work on them, my cats and my husband because I love them (not necessarily in that order of significance ;)). I would miss my other stuff, but I can live without it.

9. Who is your inspiration, your hero?

My father - he is patient and incredibly clever and he gave up a career in the RAF to follow his calling into the Church of England. Now that takes balls. He's a spiritual man who is also completely down to earth and practical and I love him dearly.

10. What advice would you give your teenage self?

Don't be narrow minded - the world isn't quite how you think it is and you're going to change your views pretty soon, so might as well do it now.

11. If you were not in your current line of work, what would you be doing instead?

I suppose I'd still be ferreting around in databases and creating SQL scripts and stored procedures that no one else can understand :).

My nominees

I wasn't sure what to use as the baseline for number of followers because some people don't show their followers on their blog and others have several different options listed. I used things like the Google members widget and in some cases listed followers, in others Network blogs. I did not use Facebook likes or G+ circles because they are not just about the blog.

1. Sophie Duncan at Sophie's Thoughts and Fumbles - yes she's my twin sister, but she deserves all the followers. Her posts are great and well researched and thought provoking and sometimes just plain fun.
2. Chris Votey at Madness of a Modern Writer - he's a lovely chap and his blog is full of interesting things about writing and blogging and con going.
3. Lynne at Lynne Lives - a writer with a wonderful varied blog.
4. Jolie du Pre at Precious Monsters - great blog for zombies and monsters with a very lovely person running it :)
5. Stacy Claflin at stacyclaflin.com - a lovely author with some great books and an interesting blog.
6. Julia Matthews at juliamatthewsauthor.blogspot.co.uk - another lovely author who writes adult paranormal romance and has great blog posts.
7. Zalka Csenge Virág at The Mutlicolored Diary - I'm going by Google connect widget on this one and boy can this lady tell a story. Definitely one to follow.
8. Patricia Lynne at www.patricialynne.com - lovely writer with a great blog about all sorts of things.
9. Ava Quinn at Tongue in Cheek - a hilarious blog, well worth a read.
10. Sara C. Snider from saracsnider.com - Great author, great blog, that simple :)
11. Djinnia at Djinnia and the English Language - a writer with a fabulous imagination and a blog that is well worth checking out.

The 11 Questions for the nominees:

1. How old were you when you realised you love stories in a way that not everyone else does?
2. Do you have a pet? If yes, what kind? If no, would you like one and if so what kind?
3. What is your favourite recreational activity?
4. Do you prefer to read a story on your own, hear it read by someone else or see it dramatised with actors?
5. What is your favourite fiction genre?
6. Country or city living - which is for you?
7. If you could do one thing from your bucket list right now, what would it be?
8. Who is your favourite celebrity and why?
9. What is your least favourite chore?
10. Vampire or werewolf - who is going to win that showdown?
11. How many bloggers does it take to change a lightbulb?