Liebster Award

A big thank you to TheLeatherLibrary for nominating me for the Liebster Award, an award given to those with fewer than 200 followers; its the blogging world’s version of the comforting pat on the back, and I gladly accept this comfort food on behalf of my little blog (but let’s make this a short lived award and get all your friends to follow me too :D). TheLeatherLibrary has been a great joy following and I certainly suggest you go and follow him.

Awards aren’t free so here’s the rules I must follow to complete the nomination:

• Each nominee must link back the person who nominated them.
• Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.
• Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers.
• Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
• Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them

Here are my answers to the questions posed to me:

1. Favourite film based on literature- The Middle-Earth epic saga. There’s just no contest here. The love and respect put into the films comes out with singing, and for all the die hard purists out there, be glad we didn’t have a director of lesser conviction get behind the camera!

2. Favourite Literature (any kind)- Suspense. I get super picky about the fantasy I read because some of it is too weird and too “fantasy-ish” for my liking, so for anyone who knows me and think that I answered wrongly, the suspense genre is more likely to have more successes in this umbrella than fantasty.

3. Favourite author- J.R.R. Tolkien. His brilliance at fiction is unparalleled. However, that being said, my two favourite suspense authors are Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti and I often refer back to them while writing my own novel.  Tom Holland and Adrian Goldsworthy are my favourite non-fiction authors.

4. Favourite subject to study on your spare time– Roman history, the 2^nd century BC through the 1^st century AD, specifically its politics and politicians and how that affected their wars, their internal struggles and interactions with other cultures.

5. Your favourite philosophy and philosopher– I really don’t have a favourite philosophy or philosopher. I took one class on Sophocles/Plato and walked back out through that door of interest once I passed in my final paper. There’s some interesting stuff to be said in philosophy but I’ll just get the Wikipedia version of it should the need ever move me.

6. Favourite ancient civilization, and why– Obviously Ancient Rome. If you ask a man why he loves his woman you will get everything from the simple to the long winded, but all the answer you really need is that secret smile of love and the statement that I just couldn’t live without her.

7. Favourite book Saga (if not than favourite film saga)– Lord of the Rings for the win again. I do, however, have to give a nod to Game of Thrones for its very detailed world of people and its ability to use most of those people to weave a web of story that has so many legs to propel itself forward that you wonder if ever again you will believe the theory that you are ever powerless in this world.

8. Favourite tv series, why– I am Sher-locked. I hold Sherlock up at a different level of television, the kind that the world was barely ready for. It has employed story telling techniques and editing rarely, if ever seen before, wit, intelligence, crafty suspense, above par acting and script writing and cleverness that inspires people to use their brain. When the Chinese write asking British PM David Cameron to ask the BBC to hurry up production, and when the same man asks the producers to put more episodes into each season, I think there is something to be said for the show.

9. Favourite historical movie (doesnt have to be historically accurate)– Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven (Extended Edition for the later otherwise it can be hard to fully follow the first time around).

10. why do you blog? What/Who inspired you to begin you blog– I began this blog to allow my friends and family to keep up with the adventures I had while studying in Rome. I kept this blog because I wanted to challenge myself to focus on my writing and sharing it with the world. The world doesn’t need *another* writer, but maybe someone somewhere could find a different perspective refreshing and adventurous.

Ten other bloggers in nomination for the Liebster Award: (please excuse me if you do actually have more than 200 followers, I mean no insult, you don’t have to accept. I may have just missed your follower count 🙂 )

1. BuildingTheClockroom Before you freak out saying “AH! This is a tumblr account, not a *blog* site and not even a WordPress, this is a progress blog of a good friend of mine for an epic story he has begun.
2. BooknVolumne
3. ATolkienist’sPerspective
4. FaithandFantasyAlliance
5. MusingsFromAWardrobe
6. Kuppajodotcom
7. TimeMaps
8. InteractiveAncients
9. SleepingWithTheCat
10. ALocalWanderer’sMusings

 

My ten questions for the nominees to answer:

1.  The most unforgettable fictional character and what makes them so unforgettable
2.  The most unforgettable historical figure and why
3.  If you could create your perfect country made up of pieces of other lands (fictional or real) what would it look like?
4.  The one country you have no real desire to visit
5.  Are you a baker or a cooker?
6.  How DO they get the caramilk into the Caramilk bar????
7.  What does the fox say?
8.  The one sport you will stay up (or get up for) to watch at the Sochi Olympics
9.  What is your guilty pleasure go-to music?
10.  The one question you were kinda hoping I’d ask you….then the answer to it!

 

Nominated for the Sunshine Award

I must thank first and foremost http://theleatherlibraryblog.com/ for nominating me for the Sunshine Award which is an award given to those bloggers who have inspired others. This is my first award so please join me in celebrating!

My understanding is that the acceptance of this award is simple by the rules.

The rules Are:

1. Nominate 10 other blogs
2. Write 11 facts about yourself

So below is a list of ten blogs which have inspired me in one way or another, whether it be in the traditional sense, or in a less traditional way, but in all cases are well worth your visit.

http://ashbeaudin.blogspot.ca/

http://theleatherlibraryblog.com/

http://urbanwallart.wordpress.com/

http://themattwalshblog.com/

http://leomckay.com/ Forever known to me as Mr. McKay, he was my high school creative writing teacher and a well published author too!

http://interactiveancients.wordpress.com/

http://interestingliterature.com/

http://lifesoundcorner.wordpress.com/

http://projectlighttolife.wordpress.com/

http://beautyarise.wordpress.com/

And now, 11 things about me!

1. When I was still young in school I was an awful speller. My mother kept some of my assignments and I try to read them now and it’s just impossible. I don’t even think some of the words had vowels in them!

2. Watching BBC shows makes me talk in a British accent for at least half an hour afterwards.

3. I will never love again the same way I have loved J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. No other author has launched my imagination, spurred me into my own writing pursuits, or earned as much respect from me as this man. If I could be a tenth as imaginative, creative, well spoken and well written as him I would consider myself a master.

4. In high school one of our assignments after reading Romeo & Juliet was to write and act out our own version of it in front of our class. I convinced my group to do a Lord of the Rings theme and we ended up with Fromeo & Juluk, the star-crossed tale of Hobbit and Orc lovers. All I can say is I am glad phone cameras weren’t in use yet but it WAS super fun!

5. Through the crazy connections only found through the internet, I wound up with the e-mail address of the casting director’s e-mail for The Chronicle’s of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I proceeded to have a short conversation with her about auditioning but was told 16 was an age too old for their parameters. Perhaps that was for the better. Even though I believed in myself, I really had no acting experience. It was, however, a landmark for me since because I was a shy child, boldly making the first approach for something as full of gravitas as approaching a casting director even by e-mail was huge for me.

6. Grade 2 saw me write my first major work. It involved a unicorn, my wooded backyard and my dog. I believe it rang in at about 6 pages and I was so proud of it, I read it out loud to my class at nearly every share time which was probably at about every new additional page. No one said anything to me but I think my classmates knew it as well as I did.

7. I have never felt better than giving a bag of groceries to the person living under a bridge near an apartment I used to live in. You should try it sometime.

8. I’ve been to the Vatican museums in Rome three times all at different times in the year over a span of about ten years. Every time I go the hall hosting the Prima Porta Augustus is locked and all I can ever see through the gate is his arm rising up out of his little alcove in the distance. I almost went into nerd rage the last time it happened. My friend went three days later and the hall was opened. Just don’t get me started.

9.  Though I may lose some friends and followers over this confession, I didn’t “get” Despicable Me.  Sorry Minions, you just weren’t that funny.  Despicable Me 2, however, is a different story.

10.  I can’t watch scary movies. After watching Jurassic Park as a child and being terrified of raptors jumping out at me from the linen closets, I decided it just wasn’t worth it. I think Alien is about as scary as it has ever gotten.

11.  Learning how to ride a horse is one of the most terrifying and yet exhilarating experiences one can have. It kind of sets you free and I will love those horse riding years for many more to come.