First, I'd like to announce the 100 Followers Party winners. I used a random number generator on the Psychic Science website to pick two of the twenty-six commenters.
The lucky bloggers are...
Nicole Pyles and Hope Roberson!
If you both would e-mail what kind of gift card you would like, and how you want me to get it to you, at laschiff@yahoo.com, I would really appreciate it! Congratulations!
Now for the awards part! Earlier this week Randy Lindsay from the Campaign tagged me, and then today, Hope Roberson bestowed on me two beautiful new awards.
and
I just love these awards! They are so cool.
There are some questions involved with both the tagging and the awards, so I'll get right to it. For the tagging, I took out some of the questions I've already answered, either here in earlier blog-games, or over at Leigh's.
Tag, I'm it!
First story you remember writing: My sister and I wrote an eighty-ish page story that centered around our Duran Duran obsession when I was in high school. We also wrote a screenplay for an episode of the X-Files. I wonder where those are?
First Car: 1981 Dodge Colt (in 1990. It was free because my Dad repaired it back to life for me. I have the best parents.) The first car I bought was a 1994 Ford Aspire.
Guilty-Pleasure: I don't have much self-discipline, so every day I give in on something, usually food related.
Do you use foreshadowing to strengthen your plot-line: Like with everything else writerly, I do try. I find that I'll do things intuitively and hope they work, rather than have a lot of thought about it. Since I'm into the editing stages now, that may change. When I did the first read through, things like opportunities to foreshadow or deepen characterization were obvious, but while writing the first draft I didn't even think about it.
How often do you check stats: I'm too embarrassed to tell the truth.
What influences what you write: Injustices I see at work, or in the world. I'm a big good versus evil kind of person. I want the good guy to win, and for evil to get it's comeuppance.
Most important thing that happened to me this year: I attended the Writing the Rockies Conference at Western University this summer. I signed up for a critique of my first twenty pages, and was assigned Russell Davis to critique it. As a past president of the SFWA, I was really nervous to hear what he said, expecting him to tear it apart. He told me four things that have influenced my self-esteem as a writer, which is why it's the most important writerly thing to happen to me this year. 1) He said if you don't feel confident, act like you do, because you need a certain amount of arrogance to survive in this field 2) He told me I could write 3) He told me my story "kind of intrigued him" 4) He told me that he would have quit reading at any time if the story didn't intrigue him, and he read the whole thing. It made me feel like I might have a chance.
Author you most resemble in writing style: I can honestly say I don't know. Anyone have any suggestions?
And for the awards:
Favorite color: Varies, but right now I'm partial to purple.
Favorite animal: My Viszla, Raymi
Favorite number: I have never had a favorite number!
Favorite non-alcoholic drink: Diet soda or any kind. I need to quit.
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter. I do have a Facebook account, though.
My Passion: Writing? That's about all I have time for. Otherwise, science and magical "stuff"
Getting or giving presents: Since I'm older now, I'm more about giving, especially with my little boys. I don't spoil them, but I do like making them happy. :)
Favorite pattern: A-B-A-B-A-B?
Favorite day of the week: Friday. We kind of have a little celebration each night with pizza, pop, and video games.
Favorite flower: Lately, Sunflowers and Zinnias. They grow beautifully even in our semi-arid conditions.
Okay! I'm not going to tag anyone else, because I did that before and couldn't find hardly anyone, but thanks so much to Randy for letting me play again! For passing on the awards, I am going to choose people who haven't gotten an award from me before. (I am having anxiety now because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings!)
And the awards go to:
So, I'm stopping there! Thank you again to Randy and Hope! This week I may have Eric from Eric Blues over for a techie-geeky guest post, since he is the techie-geeky-go-to-guy for me. This Friday is a Life List Club Friday and I have the great pleasure of having Gary Gauthier from Literary Snippets come and visit. I will be over at Jess Witkins' Happiness Project, talking about something happy. I haven't planned that far in advance yet! Have a great week!
