Time for a Little Fun

Last week I received The Versatile Blogger Award from new blogging friend, Fiona J. Phillips over at Fi's Magical Writing Haven. Thanks, Fi. I'd also like to thank C. Lee McKenzie from The Write Game, for bestowing this honor on me several months back.

The rules insist that I tell you seven things you don't know about me, and pass the award on to five other bloggers, so here goes:

1.  I'm keeping all of the chocolates I received for Christmas (coconut wreaths, cordial cherries, thin mints, assorted cremes, etc.) on my desk. I've been spending an inordinate amount of time in my office this month. Any connection? I'll let you decide ;)

2.  I also received a gift card to our local independent book shop. Stacked in a very satisfying pile on the corner of my desk (next to the cache of chocolates) are North of Beautiful, by Justina Chen Headley, I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak, Second Sight by Cheryl B. KIein, and May B. by Caroline Starr Rose. I am in readers bliss.

3. I love to bake, but hate to cook. Give me Toll House cookie bars over pork chops any day!

4. I never learned to dress like an adult. I wear jeans, t-shirts and sneakers every day. (Although I recently went on a shopping spree in preparation for attending a writers conference later in the year.) I almost don't recognize myself all dressed up.

5.  Figuring out what to make for dinner is my least favorite part of each day. Sometimes I just want to scream, "Really, I have to cook every day?"

6. Although I swore this would never happen to me, I sometimes forget how old I am.

7. I was once asked if my (older) sister was my daughter. This happened only once and I tell myself that the room was dimly lit, the woman who asked was elderly and surely she had some sort of vision impairment. It wasn't. And to my knowledge, she didn't. But I tell myself this anyway.

And now I'd like to pass this award on to five of my blogging friends. I hope you'll click on over and check them out.

1.  Mirka Breen shares wonderfully honest posts on her own blog and is a faithful commenter on so many others. Thanks, Mirka!

2.  Susanna Leonard Hill runs a truly versatile blog. She's always got something going on: challenges, contests, polls, prompts. There's never a dull moment.

3.  Janet Sumner Johnson because she is awesome! See this post.

4.  Sarah Pearson has an addicting blog feature called Musical Stories. If you haven't already, you're going to want to check them out. 

5.  Rosalind Adam because she's one of the nicest people I've met since I started blogging.

Now, to celebrate the fact that I'm going to be diving into the query process with my YA novel in verse this week, I'm joining a reading challenge. My daughter, Amanda, is hosting a Novels In Verse Reading Challenge over at Born Bookish.

I've signed on at the Sonnet Level to read 9-12 novels in verse before the end of the year. I hope you'll consider joining as well. And if you've never read a novel in verse, you may be surprised to find how many of them there are. She's got lists of both MG and YA titles here.