The Versatile Blogger & Liebster (#2) Awards

Hey, hey, hey! You have my apologies for the minor post drought the last few weeks -- it's been busy around here! I'm working, albeit slowly, on getting the counterpart piece to "Beyond the Ordered Bend" out (about halfway done), but it'll still be a while yet. I've also been updating some design parts of Edge of Night, such as redoing my category pages and reorganizing posts appropriately. I'm going at a snail's pace here, but feel free at any time to let me know what you think of these changes, and if you have any suggestions!

In the meantime, I have a few tags to do that I've had stashed away for eons: back in 2016, I was kindly tagged by Julia @ The Tree of Books and PoiSonPaiNter @ RandomPoison for the Versatile Blogger and Liebster awards, respectively. This will be the second Liebster Award I've participated in, the first of which can be found here.

Thank you to both of these wonderful bloggers, equally for the thought as well as their patience. I highly encourage anyone who is unfamiliar with them to go and introduce yourselves; Julia and Poison are great additions to make to your reading list, and they're fantastic people to converse with!

----------------------------

The Versatile Blogger Award
Tagged by Julia

Julia nominated me for this in.. oh, what was it, September 2016, I think? Took me long enough. Thank you so much, though, Julia! Truly do appreciate it. ☺

Rules

• Thank and link back to the blogger that nominated you

• Share the award on your blog

• Nominate around 10 other bloggers

• Share 7 facts about yourself

Seven Facts

#1 Last year, I discovered the joys of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and, believe it or not, Shakespeare's Hamlet. (Still need to work on expanding my list of modern classics.)

#2 Following Fact 1, on the poetry side, I've also added Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" to my list of favorites.

#3 As someone who loves creativity and the arts, I've always thought it'd be fun to get into acting. Theater, film, any and all of it. That's a rough life to live, though, and in the end.. not for me.

#4 Lately I've felt the sudden urge to try out some H.P. Lovecraft.

#5 I've also been having fun playing with photography, and practicing the violin.

#6 My brain thinks that if an edible item is blue, it automatically tastes better than a non-blue item (ah, excluding poisonous wild things, of course).

#7 While it depends on mood and piece, my current writing playlists include E.S. Posthumus (Nara being my favorite on this list), various soundtracks, Fall Out Boy, and, as always, Adrian von Ziegler & BrunuhVille.

Nominees (VB & Liebster)

(Note: I've not yet gone around and notified each blog listed.
Please let me know if you see this post before I get to you!)

Faith P. @ Stories by Firefly

Christian & Phoebe @ Absolute Absurdity

Book Lover @ A Crave For Books

Kanra Khan @ the lunar descent

Kathryn @ In the Depth of Dreams

Kathie @ Upon the Seas Calls

Lisa @ Inkwell

Envy Fisher @ Lost in Translation

Sinead @ Less Reality, More Books

Rebekah Eddy @ Rebekah's Remarks

Martin @ Martin's Virtual Blog

Amy @ A Magical World Of Words

Quayla Cheers @ Cheerful Sword

------------------------------------------------------------------

The Liebster Award
Tagged by PoiSonPaiNter

Normally I don't do more than one post for a particular tag or award that I've received; however, my last Liebster was a couple of years ago, so I thought it'd be a good time to post a more up-to-date version. Once again, thank you very much to Poison for the nomination!

(If you'd like to check out my first Liebster, see this post from July 2015.)

Rules

• Thank the blogger who nominated you

• Link to the blogger who nominated you

• Add one of the "Liebster-Blog-Award" buttons to your post

• Answer the questions

• Create 11 new questions for the bloggers you nominate

• Nominate 5-11 new bloggers with less than 300 followers

• Inform the bloggers in a comment about their nomination

PoiSonPaiNter's Questions

1. What is the best experience you ever had on a concert/at a festival/convention/ or any other social gathering?

That.. is a tough question. That's a really tough question. I'm terrible at recalling memories in order to answer questions.

Hm.. In all honesty, though, all of those sorts of things are great memories, great experiences with friends and family, and I've just never been able to pull them out and rank them like that. Plus the recollection thing presents an annoying problem - feeling like I'm leaving something better out. So, also in an attempt to avoid getting too personal here, I'm going to pass on this one.

2. What is the strangest decoration you have at home?

Although I may be missing something, probably these three, small dragon figurines that sit in the corners of my dining room. Because why not.

3. Are you collecting something? If so: What and why?

Nothing major, but I'd like to start collecting masquerade masks.. Those things are fantastic. I recently started to casually collect charms used for charm bracelets, just because I've always loved little things like that and having a stash means I can randomly craft jewelry for people. Also fancy holiday/greeting/event cards that catch my eye (which are great, 'cause they hardly take up any space).

4. What was your favorite plushy when you were a kid and what happened to it?

Ohh, I always had lots of favorites! But there was this big, creepy, red and black monkey I loved as toddler. Then, when I was around 7, my friends and I began collecting these cute plushies called Neopets; one of my main ones was a little yellow Shoyru. Still have both somewhere, I believe!

Shoyru
Via Neopets.com

5. If you had the choice: Would you start blogging again and about the same topics you cover/ed?

Absolutely! There's still plenty of time for me to get worn out here, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I've learned so much and have been able to improve myself and my writing in ways that either wouldn't have happened otherwise, or at least that would have taken a lot, lot longer.

6. What do you prefer: A handwritten letter, a long e-mail or a short message on the phone/a social network?

Handwritten letter all the way! I appreciate any of them, but I'll likely save your handwritten letter and get it back out in the future. There's something special about them that emails and (especially) social media messages just don't have.

7. Which of your posts/categories you write in is dearest to you?

Well, I went from zero poetic knowledge and experience at the start of this blog to actually knowing a decent amount about the art of crafting poetry. Writing here has given me a newfound and completely unexpected love and appreciation for the form, and therefore my poetry category is certainly more dear to me than I ever thought it'd be.

As for posts, I wouldn't call these my most "dear," because they're not very personal; however, "Inked Magic" holds a special place because of the way it describes a writer's work and because it was transformed into a lovely song by one of my readers. "The Autumn Muse," too, is a more recent one that I'm fond of due to its imagery and it being one of my first guest posts on another website.

8. Which movie/book/series/etc. would you like to read/watch/etc. again for the first time?

Uh, all of them??

But if I have to choose just one, then currently it would be Doctor Who. Specifically, seasons 1-4 of the 2005 show. #TenIsMyDoctor

Also Person of Interest.

And Sherlock.

And The Dresden Files (book series).

I should stop now.

9. What is the place you've always wanted to travel to, but so far hadn't had the chance to do so?

I think that would probably be Alaska.. I've wanted to travel there for a long time. Although I love the snow, I could actually do without the popsicle temperatures; but it's said to be one of the best places to see the Northern Lights! Also trees.

(I'd be happy traveling most anywhere, though.)

10. How much time could you spend without using any digital formats/mediums? (Internet, mp3s, e-books, etc.)

A good while, I hope. I'm sure there'd be moments where I would crave it, but honestly. All the tech gets a bit overwhelming, sometimes. And the dependence it creates.. eek. In the same way, there are moments where I'd just like to go back to basics.

That said, I love our digital era.

11. What is more frustrating? Discovering an incredible story/show only to find out that it was discontinued/cancelled or following a story/show (for years) that concludes in a very unsatisfying ending/finale?

I'd have to say the second! It's always a bummer to discover a great story/show you just found was discontinued or canceled, but to have built up all that anticipation, to have put in all that time, only for the story/show to end in a bad way? How disappointing!

My Questions For You

(Poison provided a nice, rounded set of questions, so I've borrowed a few.)

1. What is one memory that always makes you smile?

2. What is the strangest decoration you have at home?

3. Are you collecting something? If so: What and why?

4. What was your favorite plushy when you were a kid and what happened to it?

5. What is one thing you feel you've done well during your time blogging?

6. What do you prefer: A handwritten letter, a long e-mail or a short message on the phone/a social network?

7. Which of your posts/categories you write in is dearest to you?

8. Is there a word or phrase that you can't help but giggle at whenever you hear it? (Can be any language.)

9. What is a place you've always wanted to travel to, but so far haven't had the chance to do so?

10. How much time could you spend without using any digital formats/mediums? (Internet, mp3s, e-books, etc.)

11. If you could go back in time and leave yourself a single piece of blogging or niche advice (e.g., writing, reading, whatever you blog about), what would you tell yourself?

Nominees

I'm going to be lazy and tag the same people for this as I did for the Versatile Blogger Award. Don't feel pressured to do both, or any, of these - but feel free to! It's a double tag and up to you what you'd like to participate in.

----------------------------

Whew, 'bout time I got these done. Thanks again to Poison and Julia, and to the rest of you for bearing with my post slumps. Will try my best to have new stuff out soon.

(And, as always, if you ever have a story, poem, other idea of your own... you know where to find me!)