My First Post Revisited

Thank you for the tag on this, Jessica! It seems appropriate, since you were one of my first followers and definitely one of the most active.

The Rules for the #MyFirstPostRevisited Blog Hop

1. No cheating. You must highlight your first post. Not your second post, not one you love… the first post only.
2. Link back to the person who tagged you (thank them if you feel like it or, if not, curse them with a plague of ladybugs).
3. Cut and paste your old post into a new post or reblog your own bad self. (Either way is fine, but NO editing.)
4. Put the hashtag #MyFirstPostRevisited in your title.
5. Tag five (5) other bloggers to take up this challenge.firstpost.jpg
6. Notify your tags in the comment section of their blog (don’t just hope they notice a pingback somewhere in their spam).
7. Feel free to cut and paste the badge to use in your post.

I tag…

• musingtopieces
• James
• Morgan
• Meditating Millennial
• Tyler Charles Austen

So, What Was My First Blog Post?

My first post was in November of 2015, and was followed by radio silence until January 2016 because I wore myself out by winning NaNoWriMo for the first time ever. It was kind of a placeholder. An “I want to hold myself accountable to this project and also maybe start a blog?” Actually, looking back on it, I took to WordPress because my partner, musingtopieces, did.

Lately I’ve gotten out of the habit of writing so much, both in posts and fiction, but my first post was a beautiful blooming beginning. So much optimism. (Fun fact about my day today: I gave two weeks notice at work today. I feel lighter than I have in months. I feel… optimistic again.)

Here’s my first post.

Title Pending: National Novel Writing Month

Liebster Award!

Thank you to JA Goodsell at The Course of Events for a Liebster Award nomination! I’m really honored. I’ve been blogging for over a year and kind of getting behind on posting lately due to life, but this is really good encouragement to stay on top of things.

With this nomination comes 11 questions to answer, 11 blogs to nominate, and 11 questions to write.

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1. Who is your favorite author and why?

Robin McKinley, especially after reading her novel Sunshine. I will let one of my other favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, explain why.

“It’s an astonishing piece of work. A gripping, funny, page-turning pretty much perfect work of magical literature that exists more or less at the unlikely crossroads of Chocolat, Interview With a Vampire, Misery and the tale of Beauty and the Beast. It’s not quite SF, and it’s not really horror, and only kind of a love story, and it’s all three while still being solidly Fantastique. It also does that nice thing where the author assumes the readers are smart, and she treats us like we’re smart, and we purr and get smarter and work harder for all that. ” (x)

The Blue Sword and The Hero & the Crown are also excellent.

The Ultimate Book Tag

I was tagged by Brigid Gorry-Hines to do the Ultimate Book Tag. 😀

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1. Do you get sick while reading in the car?

I didn’t when I was a kid, or randomly one spring while I was still in college, but I started getting carsick at some point in high school and the fun continues.

2. Which author’s writing style is completely unique to you?

Douglas Adams. The Hitchhiker’s Guide radio series, books, and tv series all have such a strong voice — not so much the movie, which I don’t like all that much.

3. Harry Potter series or Twilight saga? Give 3 points to explain your answer.

Harry Potter series.

First point: I haven’t read Twilight, largely because of the problematic relationship dynamic between Bella and Edward but also because, uh, sparkly vampires. I prefer my vampires more like the ones in Buffy The Vampire Slayer (soul-less demons with little to no moral compass, just their own self-interests) and Sunshine by Robin McKinley (unsettlingly inhuman, both in appearance, psychologically, and in the way the perceive different places in terms of uniformity of surroundings rather than physical distance — even the “good guy” vampire is decidedly not human, despite having a moral code).

Second point: I read these as a kid, and that sort of thing sticks with you. I remember my fifth grade teacher reading a UK copy of The Chamber of Secrets because it hadn’t come out in the US yet, but one of my classmates had just moved from England. I’ve reread them since, and while the earlier books are lighter and more geared for a younger audience (like, geared toward someone Harry’s age with each book) there’s a good amount of foreshadowing for the darker elements of later books, so the appeal is still there.

Third point: Although most of the characters in Harry Potter meet their future spouse at Hogwarts and seem basically fated to end up with said future spouse from early on even if they don’t get together for a long time, I think a vampire who’s over a hundred years old but still content to hang out in high school and date a seventeen-year-old is sillier.

Quotes Challenge #3 – More Time

Angular Momentum from XKCD, a webcomic by Randall Munroe

Quotes Challenge #2 – Books & the Future

Picture of Sherlock Holmes park bench in London, September ‘14.

Quotes Challenge #1 – What Doesn’t Kill You

I was nominated to take the 3 Days 3 Quotes challenge by amusing2write, who you should go visit. And here’s my quote for Day 1.

Picture of South Lake Tahoe in January 2014.

Liebster Award!

I’d like to thank Jessica M of ellDimensional for nominating me for a Liebster Award!

The Liebster Award is a way of recognizing and discovering other bloggers, and speaking as someone with a background in social media marketing I really appreciate it. It’s networking and being nice at the same time! I’ve seen nomination posts before and usually made a point of browsing the lists of links for new blogs to follow.

And now follows the questionnaire. I’ll present 11 facts about myself, then answer my nominator’s personal 11 questions, and write 11 new questions for whoever I choose to nominate. Nominees aren’t obligated to respond, just know that I think your blog is cool.