Double Awards

So, I got two awards.  I shall show you them in a minute, but first I need to apologize to the ladies who gave them to me for not getting this post up sooner. Sorry, Katie and Sarah F!
Now, on to the awards.

First up, the Kreativ Blogger award:

Lovely, isn't it? Thanks very much to Katie over at The Fiction Dairies. 
Okay, the rules:
I have to answer 10 questions about myself, share 10 random facts about myself, then award this to 7 kreativ bloggers.
This I can do.

Questions: 

What is your favorite song? I have to pick just one? Drat.  Well, the one I've been listening to the most lately is Stand by Rascal Flatts.  Just a Kiss by Lady Antebellum and Back to December by Taylor Swift are close seconds.

What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate.  'Nough said.

What ticks you off? Bad grammar/spelling.  And songs that have a great melody, and then turn out to be inappropriate. Also the fact that Blake Shelton's song Drink on It hit number one before Jason Aldean's Flyover States.

When you're upset, what do you do? Mope.

What is your favorite pet? Cats.  I've wanted a black cat for ages.

Which do you prefer: black or white? Depends.  If we're talking clothing, black.  Wall color, white.

What is your attitude? I'm normally pretty happy and easygoing.

What is perfection? Brie with bacon and arugula.

What is your guilty pleasure? Chocolate.

Facts:

1. I only have one chemistry test left.
2. I have broken my happy ending policy.  For writing, anyway.
3. My family has two bee hives.
4. My room is green.
5. I call my computer Tish, my MP3 player Silvie, and my USB drive Lizzie.
6. Because I'm homeschooled, I can go to prom four times.
7. Peacock feathers are cool. 
8. Sometimes I wish I was a tree nymph. 
9. I had bratwurst for dinner last night
10. I changed my main character's age in my work in progress.

I pass this award to:
Sarah F. from Inklined Writers
Sarah from Comfy Sweaters, Writing, and Fish
Pheris from The Word Asylum
Liam from This Page Intentionally Left Blank
Erin from Laughing at Live Dragons. 

Next up is The Booker Award, awarded to me by Sarah F. from Inklined Writers:

Thanks, Sarah!

Rules:

1. This award is for book bloggers only. To receive this award the blog must be at least 50% about books (reading or writing is okay)
2. Along with receiving this award, you must also share your top five favorite books you have ever read. (More than five is okay)
3. You must give this award to 5-10 other lucky book blogs you adore.

Okay, here goes.
Top books (in no particular order):

1. The Harry Potter books by J. K Rowling
2. The Trixie Belden books by Julie Campbell and Kathryn Kenny
3. Goneaway Lake and Return to Goneaway by Elizabeth Enright
4. Laddie by Jean Stratton Porter
5. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini.

Okay, now to pass this award to:
Katie from The Fiction Dairies
Liam from This Page Intentionally Left Blank
Sarah from Comfy Sweaters, Writing, and Fish
Pheris from The Word Asylum
Erin from Laughing at Live Dragons. 

Thanks again to Katie and Sarah F! 

Teens Can Write, Too! May Blog Chain

Today is my turn to post for the Teens Can Write, Too! May blog chain.  In case you couldn't figure that out from the title of this post.

This month's prompt is "Why do you write?"

Hmm.  This one's a toughie.

I write because I love it.  And because my head would probably explode from idea overload if I didn't write my ideas down.  Mostly because I love it.

When I was little, being a published author was one of the first things I wanted to be, if memory serves me correctly.  I think it was the first Harry Potter book that inspired me to be an author.  Did I write anything back then? No. I dreamed up story ideas, told them to my sister as bedtime stories, but nothing ever really made it onto paper or a Word doc.  The first story I started writing I actually created as an attempt to get out of writing a book report when I was twelve(ish). Mom didn't go for it.  (For those of you who don't know and didn't read my bio, I'm homeschooled.  This means my homework is somewhat negotiable.  Be jealous.)  Even though that didn't work, I kept writing the story.  I'm not sure what motivated me.  Then my mom turned finishing it into homework, and thus the very first version of Lizzie Evans and the Black Cat Diamond was born.  I wrote the sequel between January of 2010 and July of last year, and rewrote the Black Cat Diamond for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.  Known to the rest of humanity as November) last year.  NaNoWriMo is what turned writing into a necessary bodily function for me.  I negotiated for less homework during the month of November, and wrote from lunch to dinner all month. It. Was. Heaven.  I wish every month was November. I've been thinking about writing a parody on Taylor Swift's song "Back to December", and changing it to "Back to November."

I think that's all I've got to say for this post, other than "be sure to check out the rest of the blog chain!", and "did anyone else catch the Doctor Who references in Inheritance by Christopher Paolini?" I think there was one in Brisingr too.  That has nothing to do with this post, but I was curious. 

(Sorry about the white background again.  I don't know what the deal is.)

Want to follow our blog tour? Here are the participating parties, day by day

May 5–http://towerofplot.blogspot.com–The Leaning Tower of Plot

May 6–http://correctingpenswelcome.wordpress.com–Comfy Sweaters, Writing and Fish

May 7–http://cassidymarierizzo.wordpress.com–Cassidy Marie Rizzo

May 8–http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com–This Page Intentionally Left Blank

May 9–http://weirdalocity.wordpress.com–You Didn’t Really Need To Know This…

May 10–http://inklinedwriters.blogspot.com–Inklined

May 11–http://thewordasylum.wordpress.com–The Word Asylum

May 12–http://lilyjenness.blogspot.com–Lily’s Notes In The Margins

May 13–http://laughablog.wordpress.com–The Zebra Clan

May 14–http://planetaryelastic.blogspot.com–Tangential Bemusings

May 15–http://realityisimaginary.blogspot.com–Reality Is Imaginary

May 16–http://otherrandomthings.wordpress.com–Dragons, Unicorns And Other Random Things

May 17–http://lonelyrecluse.wordpress.com–The Lonely Recluse

May 18–http://delorfinde.wordpress.com–A Farewell To Sanity

May 19–http://incessantdroningofaboredwriter.wordpress.com–The Incessant Droning Of A Bored Writer

May 20–http://allegradavis.wordpress.com–All I Need Is A Keyboard

May 21–http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com–Teens Can Write Too! (We will be announcing the topic for next month’s chain)

An Important Announcement (Updated!)

 *Edited to add:   DLYCW has officially started!  You have until the 14th to post.  My post is below.  Here's Sarah's Host Post, and Pheris's Host Post.  

 G'day chaps! Sorry I dropped off the face of the blogosphere for the last few days.  You can blame redox reactions and electrochemistry (which is so a word.  Stupid SpellCheck.)
To get on to the purpose of this post, Sarah (author of Comfy Sweaters, Writing, and Fish), Pheris (author of The Word Asylum), and I have teamed up and created Dress Like Your Character Week (DLYCW for short).   What is this, you ask? To put it succinctly, DLYCW is a week in which participants dress up like one (or more) of their characters and post pictures of themselves.  Pretty cool, huh?  Sarah's blog will be hosting, and she will have a host post where participants can comment to leave a link to their DLYCW post.  Not only will this event be full of fun and creativity, but the sharing of links has the potential to increase participants' blogs' readership.  DLYCW starts on May 7th and ends on May 14th.  Participants can post anytime during that week.

If you would like to participate, here are the rules:

• Please refrain from nudity, inappropriate captions and poses in your photos
• In your post, please link to the host's post (and don't forget to leave a link to your post/blog on it)
• You do not have to show your face if you don't want to (Sarah's host post has a link to a website where you can pixelate or blur out your face)
• Feel free to invite other participants privately to ensure they are comfortable with participation
• In your post, tell us how your writing changed when you dressed up, or did something else daring (did you use an accent? We'd love to know!)
• Spread the word! Tell other people about DLYCW.

Here I am dressed up as my character Tori Ingles, from my current work in progress, The Black Cat Diamond: A Lizzie Evans Mystery.  Tori is a guitarist in Lizzie's brother, Tyler's band.  Originally she was a plain Goth, but then she evolved, and now she dresses herself in Goth versions of what the typical country star would wear.

This outfit consists of: the plaid shirt (which is actually the wrong color.  It's a bit too pink for Tori), the jeans, the boots (Remember when I said I had a pair of boots I could channel 3ish characters from?  Those would be they), a chain necklace, and ear-threads with danglies at the end.


Seeing myself in Goth makeup freaks me out.  I don't wear any makeup, except on special occasions.   Though I do admit I rather like the purple highlights. Very Sadie Kane.

The one thing I wish I had was this dragon earring, but alas, it was more than outside my budget. The person that made it has a bunch of dragons, and this cool spiderweb (my second choice for Tori). Oh well, maybe someday.


My writing didn't really change or anything when I dressed up.  I did walk a bit differently, but I always do when I wear those boots. When the pictures were being taken, I didn't allow myself to smile, 'cause Tori wouldn't, which was surprisingly weird.  Lily, the queen of smiling, not smile?  Very odd.


This was lots of fun! Be sure to check out the other DLYCW posts!