Hi everyone,

I was nominated for the Liebster Award by Becka from the blog Sweet Stuff by Becka. Here’s the link. Additionally, I’ve added her to the links on my sidebar. She’s a brave soul doing Nanowrimo right now (and very well, I might add). Unlike most of us, she started the month with a vacation, but she pushed through so far. Here’s hoping she gets to celebrate a victory.

The award is a little like a chain letter, but it’s from the heart and I’ve never gotten an award for my blog. So, I’m honored.

“The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. So, what is a Liebster?  The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. Isn’t that sweet? Blogging is about building a community and it’s a great way to connect with other bloggers and help spread the word about newer bloggers/blogs.”

Rules:

• Link to the person who nominated you
• Answer their questions
• Nominate new blogs for the award
• Ask them 10 new questions
• Let the nominees know they have been nominated

There it is: The Liebster Award. So, I have the link, and here are Becka’s questions for me:

1)What was the best thing that happened today?

My daughter hugged me.

2)Where do you find your blogging inspiration?

Hmmm…. my inspiration to have a blog or my inspiration for stuff to write about on the blog? Everything on this blog basically flows from my writing. I blog about everything that inspires me from Doctor Who to miniatures to events in my life that impact me. I don’t blog nearly as often as I’d like, and I usually have 5 or 6 drafts of posts floating around at any one time. The reason that I have the blog is to keep in touch with the amazing people that I’ve met in this life and to find others.

3)Do you consider yourself a glass half full or half empty kind of person?  Why?

I always consider myself a glass half full sort of person. Basically, if the glass is half full, there’s no sense in being upset because it’s all going to work out in the end. If the glass is half empty and things don’t work, there will be plenty of time to be disappointed later. Why let yourself be miserable beforehand? Furthermore, I never cease to be amazed at the power of positive thinking. We all have a great ability to create self-fulfilling prophecies. I think if you keep your mind open and realistic but allow yourself to believe, magical things happen.

4)What’s your favorite childhood memory?

This is a really hard question to answer. I have a lot of happy childhood memories. I’d probably put going to see Star Wars alone with my father at age 6 right at the top of the list. I felt grownup and important and that night I learned that I wanted to be a Jedi Knight. 🙂

5)Where do you want yourself and/or your blog to be a year from now?

I want another book published by a major publisher, and I’d like to have three more indie published books out. I want to have my first audio book down. As long as I keep writing and the numbers of people visiting my blog continue to increase, I’ll be happy.

6)What’s your favorite home cooked meal?

My wife makes a beef and cheese casserole which she created during our university days. As she invented it during some massive Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying campaigns, it’s known in our house as “Diablerie in a Pan.” As it won the recipe won a cooking competition at our church, I’m not sure how much I’m going to spread that name. Basically, it’s meat with some chili powder, a few onions I think, some Emeril’s seasoning, and cheese and some kind of sauce and more cheese and more meat. I’m really not exactly sure, but I know that it’s good. I’m also sure that my arteries got a little more clogged thinking about it.

If I’m going to cook, I really like making Thanksgiving turkey and usually get rave reviews.

7)What is a goal that you have that may be hard to achieve?

I want to lose weight. I’ve struggled with my weight for years, and I’m tired of it. I’m going to try to apply the same standards to my waistline that I do to my word count during nano sometime in the new year and see how that does. In the meantime, I struggle every day to try and eat healthier.

8)Who do you look up to?

I’ve always wanted to inspire people the way that J.R.R. Tolkien inspires me. I also have a deep admiration for Stan Lee, for all the great comic book characters that he created. I look up to Daniel Greenberg, my mentor, who gave me a chance to be published. I have a friend, Cathy, who is pursuing her dreams overseas. My grandfather simply amazes me, both for his spirit of adventure and his intellect. I could write a long list, but generally, it’s filled with people who inspire me to dream of new worlds and have fun.

9)Why do you keep writing/baking/sewing/(insert hobby here)?

I’m going to cheat. I wrote a blog post about why I keep writing not too long ago. Here’s the link.

10)What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

This is another tough question, but I’m currently leaning toward Graham Central Station at Bruster’s. However, since I mentioned issues with my weight, I’ll note that there are very few flavors of ice cream that I can’t appreciate. 🙂

I’ll be nominating a few new blogs and asking them questions soon, but since I’m in the throes of Nanowrimo, I’m going to wait a couple of days. Freedom Squad needs me.

All the best,

Harry