Liebster Award!

Hey people, welcome to the middle of the week!

We’re halfway there to a pjs all-day kinda day (it constantly impresses me that I don’t just wear pyjamas all day when I don’t need to leave the house. I am an adult.) But, in other news, on Monday I was nominated for the Leibster Award on Monday by the beautiful, hilarious and talented Nicole Evans over at Thoughts Stained With Ink (I’m really hoping that this will, in part, make up for the fact that I’m a non-video-game-playing loser, but it’s also all completely true). Because she’s a superlative human, she nominated me for something called the Liebster Award after she was awarded it, and despite her responses simultaneously intriguing me, inspiring me and intimidating me (alliteration people!), I am very humbled by her nomination… It means you get to hear new things about me that I promise I won’t invent just to sound more interesting.

This is an epic way to network, people! It’s so great to discover who your blogging friends both are reading and interacting with online, because it leads you to more awesome people to connect with. It’s like cake and chocolate and puppies and books, all in one.

SO – 11 Facts. Brace yourself people [Disclaimer: unless you’re in a tectonically unstable location, you probably don’t really need to brace yourself. But you can get a little bit excited if you want]

1. I don’t do favourites. Of anything. It sounds crazy, but it’s true: I seriously like pretty much everything. Except olives. I really don’t like those. But not having favourites actually makes it really hard when someone wants to make you dinner, watch a movie or ask for a book recommendation. On the other hand, I’m also fairly easy to please.
2. The above taken into account, just know: I’m good at book recommendations because (surprise surprise) like most writers, I FREAKING LOVE BOOKS. And because I know everyone is now waiting with bated breath to hear which books I like, I’ll provide you with my essential list for when I eventually have children:
   1. A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett
   2. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
   3. Little Men – Louisa May Alcott
   4. Heidi – Johanna Spyri
   5. The Starthorn Tree – Kate Forsyth
   6. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte (no, they’re never too young)
   7. And I have to stop now or we will never get to fact 3. I have a book problem (and not ashamed about it).
3. I’m one of five children and the only girl, plus with my younger brother finally fitting his strides in the growing department, I’m also the shortest… For context, I’m about 5’9”. So.. My family is huge. But also skinny: I’m the solid one out of the five of us!
4. I play piano (not as well as my eldest brother, who took it up ‘just to play keyboard in his band’ when I was in high school and turned out to be some kind of piano freak and now rules the family piano roost) and am a decent singer [I have no readily available testimonies to support this assertion]
5. I am mildly obsessed with animals, particularly dogs. And cats. Just most animals really. But we’re definitely buying a cat when we get back to Australia and I already know which three breeders I’ll be getting in touch with to place my kitten pre-order.
6. I have incredibly vivid dreams. Sometimes we’ll wake up of a morning and I’ll recount it all to James (after writing it down, of course) in so much detail that he’ll be left giving me the side-eye because my brain sometimes freaks him out.
7. At one stage, while in Afghanistan in 2013, James and I learned Turkish together. I can still count to ten, ask a (very) few basic questions and would love to get back into it. That being said, I can also speak some (very) rudimentary French and really need to finish learning that too.
8. I have eclectic tastes in a lot of things (which probably ties in somehow to not having favourites), including books, music and movies – I love Dire Straits, Elton John, The Eagles, Mondo Rock and Alvin Lee, but I also love Sarah Brightman, The Waifs, Missy Higgins as well as some Metallica, Slipknot and Lana Del Rey (told you it was eclectic).
9. I love physical activity – I’m a good swimmer, I’ve been both a cross fitter and an Olympic Weightlifter, I’ve done boxing, rowing, touch footy, soccer, tennis… and I love rock climbing, abseiling, surfing and horse riding. I’ve also recently taken up barre… But I’ve also been in one school play and a musical. Variety is the spice of life, as they say.
10. I fell down a massive flight of hardwood stairs when I was a toddler because I didn’t like the barrier mum and dad had put at the top – I knocked out my baby teeth and damaged the ones underneath. I still need protective coatings applied whenever I see the dentist. Oops.
11. I am completely, utterly and ridiculously crazy about my boyfriend, James. Lame, but true. No one else in the world can make me laugh the way he can, no one else can play as silly with me as he can, no one else makes me feel so strong, so safe, so loved or so capable. Every day he makes me believe in myself because of his belief in me and he makes me want to be a better person: I am so grateful that despite the challenging road we took to where we are now, that it all worked out and I found him. He is the sun of my life.

TA DA. Ok. Man, that was hard work. On to Nicole’s questions (may god have mercy on our souls).

1. If you could choose one author to be your best friend (we’re talking giggling at sleepovers and having brunch on Sundays to talk about the latest tabloids kind of best friend), who would you choose and why? Ah, a tough one, right out of the gate. Crap. Now that I’ve read this question, I can’t even think of any authors I like: typical. Probably Margaret Atwood because I love the way she writes about women and how she has the capacity to create these incredible stories that not only completely consume you, but also pose interesting questions about society, the world and life. And maybe James Fenimore Cooper: The Last of the Mohicans enchanted me.
2. Favorite kind of cheese? Please see fact one above. Favourites are really not my forte. I love brie though.
3. This is a choose-your-own-adventure kind of question. Path A: What book series should be adapted into a video game and why (I’m thinking a la Witcher here)? Path B: If you don’t play video games and thus can’t travel down Path A, please tell me how you function without such soul-sucking enjoyment in your life? Ok. Time for a confession. I am a pathetic Path-B-traveller. I played PC games in highschool (Icewind Dale, Diablo II, Sims) but since joining the Army, I’ve never really gotten back into it. I find myself completely consumed by university, writing, reading, adventuring with my human and training in the gym (since we spend a lot of time in the gym!). Such is my grim and shameful confession… Although, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy could surely be made into a crazy-ass game, right?
4. If it were my birthday and you were buying me a puppy, what kind of puppy would you get me (pictures preferred)? Puppies. Now THIS is important business. I’m going to say a Golden Retriever: no, no, not a great apartment dog, I know. BUT, they’re smart, cuddly as all hell when they’re puppies (LOOK AT THEM) and what more can I possibly say except:::: FLOOFY.  
5. What are you most excited about writing wise right now? My novel! My MC has been thrown into an alternate world where she’s being challenged in beautiful, ugly and gut-wrenching ways and I’m pumped about following her through her adventures.
6. What is the plot of the ultimate dream story you want to write (or have written or are too afraid to write)? Oh, I’ve actually got something for this one! A fantasy novel set in WWII that centres on a fraternal brother-sister set of twins who fall into Dr Mengele’s hands and when they’re separated, Ester enters an alternate reality (ala Alice in Wonderland) to try and find her brother. I started writing it last year but got distracted by other things, so it’s currently just waiting for my return.
7. How do you plan to better the world? Sheesh, this is getting rough. I hope through my writing, by either giving voice to things that other people struggle to talk to about/understand, or by fighting to create literature that forces people to re-evaluate crucial things in life.
8. What “rule” do you break in writing (purposefully or otherwise)? It’s not really a rule, and lots of people do it, but at the moment I’m dong a lot of writing without planning. My whole novel has been written with only three or four key required events in mind. The rest has just… Happened.
9. Which fictional characters make you question whether you’re actually fictosexual, i.e., who can I swoon over? Oh yeah, hot fictional characters. Get all up in my grill. Ok:
   1. Sabriel from Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy: she is a complete badass and there is no other possible description. She’s brave and cunning and beautiful and who wouldn’t love her?
   2. Uncas from The Last of the Mohicans
10. What fictional language do you wish was actually commonplace? Pfffffft J.R.R. Tolkien’s elvish. OF COURSE. Who doesn’t love Lord of the Rings?
11. Lurtz is about to kill you. What do you do? I assume that if Lurtz appears in front of me, then I possess some incredibly awesome skills with a variety of weapons, so I’d cause some kind of distraction, then HIIII-YAH and quickly dispatch him to the afterlife.

Still with me people? Anyone need a refreshment break??? Everyone grab a puddin’ cup and then let’s crack on. Okay, I’m not as well-travelled in the blogosphere as some other people, but I have run into some really great humans since starting this whole business and I’d love to nominate them!

1. Tracie at The Literary Gangster. For a start, talk about a completely badass name for a blog (that, in and of itself, should be enough to make you want to go over and fawn at her feet!), plus she’s an absolute wizard at micro-lit, having written scores of 100 word short stories that are pretty damn awesome. She’s been my uni buddy during our trying Publishing and Editing subject and I give her full credit for making me laugh and keeping me sane.
2. Nik over at NikEveleigh.wordpress.com. Nic has a bit of everything! He writes some awesome flash fiction and some great blog pieces about parenting his two kids which are both funny and poignant.
3. Jac at Crone. Similarly to Nic, there is a wealth of different kinds of writing on her blog. She has some beautiful poetry and really interesting short stories and you won’t regret reading her work.

If you want to build your blogging network, please check these guys out AND then travel through the rabbit hole back to Nicole’s post to read about who she nominated and check them out too… Seriously, there are some killer people living in this digital world and I get ridiculously excited every time I get the chance to connect with complex, interesting and likeminded individuals.

On that note, here are my 11 questions for these bloggers!

1. What is the best thing you think you’ve ever written, and why?
2. If you could spend an hour with anyone in the world, either alive or dead, to speak about life, the universe and everything, who would it be?
3. What’s one genre/type of book/story you’ve always wanted to write, but been too scared to try?
4. Alternatively, what would you hate to have to write?
5. Name one book, story or poem that inspires you to keep writing or, alternatively, contains some language that, for whatever reason, steals your breath.
6. When did you start writing, and why?
7. Is there a personality trait, quirk or other notable characteristic that you particularly gifting (or cursing!) your characters with?
8. What’s your favourite kind of cake? (This is a big deal, think carefully)
9. If there were no financial barriers, would you take up writing/blogging full time? And if you’re doing so currently, how’d you achieve that?
10. If you had to recommend one book to me, what would it be?

11. And finally, are you guys way too busy to do this?? I totally understand if you are (it took me forever), so your alternative is to write a kick ass story for me (which, obviously, is no challenge at all).

I hope someone, at least, enjoyed this: I’m legitimately exhausted and probably need another puddin’ cup. See you Friday!

— Ana.

[Floofy puppy credit to http://www.grcwa.com]