The Mystery Blogger Award

The heck!?  My heart is still beating unnaturally fast because I’m kind of freaking out right now.  The lovely Aly from “Book Huntress’ World” nominated me for the Mystery Blogger Award andI’m not quite sure how to handle it.  Do I cry with happiness, do I scream with joy?  I don’t know, I’ll probably end up somewhere between because I’m so damn happy!  To be a newbie blogger (or at least that’s how I classify myself) and receive this… wowza.

I have to start off by thanking Aly for nominating me for this award.  It truly made my day (or my week) to open my inbox and see that she’d nominated me.  Did I mention that my heart is beating really fast because I’m just that excited?  Go check out her blog, which is just as fabulous as she is 🙂

Here’s a brief description of the award:

“Mystery Blogger Award” is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion.

Rules:

1. Put the award logo/image on your blog.
2. List the rules.
3. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
4. Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well.
5. Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
6. You nominate people.
7. Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog.
8. Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question (specify).
9. Share a link to your best post(s).

This award was created by Okoto Enigma at Okoto Enigma’s Blog.  Go check her out!

Okay, let’s do this.

3 Facts About Me:

1. I sell hand-lettered greeting cards on Instagram.  I’ve always been fairly artistic, but I had to choose between taking art or taking creative writing my junior year of high school.  Spoiler alert: creative writing won out.  I don’t regret it because taking that class set me up to do my independent study (which I plan on posting about soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that), but I wish that I could have fit both in my schedule.  A few months ago, I started seeing a lot of Instagram accounts and Pinterest boards dedicated to “faker calligraphy” and I thought why not give it a try?  It’s the perfect compromise: a creative outlet and a way to help offset college costs.  My page is called Alliteration Lettering and you can check out my stuff on Instagram.  (Shameless self promo: I’m having a sale on graduation cards right now, so snatch ’em up!  Sale ends 6/30)
2. If I could teach the world one thing, I would teach everyone the rules of pronoun antecedents.  Ugh, this is one of my biggest pet peeves.  In formal, scholarly writing, “they” is not singular and can only be used when describing multiple individuals or objects.  How you use “they” in colloquial discussion is up to your discretion, but help a sister out and remind your friends to revert to the masculine when you don’t know the gender of a singular object.
3. I love the opening line of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.  I think it’s just haunting and beautiful.  If the first line of my novel is a sixteenth as brilliant as this line, I think I can be happy forever.  Here it is: “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I had no idea what I was doing in New York.”  Freakin’ amazing, right!?

My Responses to Aly’s Questions:

1. Can you say that you are addicted to books?

Yes.  My condition is chronic.  I’m currently being treated with approximately fifty pages taken visually and a thousand words written every day, but symptoms are worsening.  Chances of remission are slim.

2. What do you do to the books you didn’t like? Do you keep them? Throw them? Give them away?

I keep all the books I read because I have this dream of having a library in my future house.  That kind of collection takes commitment, so I’ve started to build it up now.

3. If you’ll be a writer, what genre will your books be categorized?

I have too many book ideas bouncing around my head to be tied to one genre, but I’m pretty sure I’ll stick to variations of young-adult fiction.  My current project is a thriller, but I want to do a young-adult contemporary short story collection and maybe dabble in dystopia?  I don’t know; I like too many types of books too much to tie myself down.

4. Have you ever tried talking to some stranger because of books?

If you mean the checkout guy at Barnes and Noble I flirted with that one time, then yes.

5. (Funny/Crazy question) Have you ever tried looking funny outside (mostly on public places) whenever you read a book and a particular scene makes you angry that it made you rant loudly? If yes, can you tell a short story about it?

Not necessarily.  I like to read and write at night (like, 2:00 AM) and there aren’t many people around at that hour to hear me rant about plot twists.

Here are my nominees for this award:

• Danielle from The Chronicles of Danielle: her blog is so aesthetically pleasing and her content is just grand.
• May from Forever and Everly: her posts are so relatable and she’s just so damn funny.
• Kellyn Roth from Reveries: she is so knowledgeable about her craft and writes with a refreshing honesty that’s hard to produce and easy to enjoy.

And now, a few interrogative questions for my distinguished nominees:

1. What do you do every day and why do you do it?
2. Who can you count on to give you a swift kick in the pants if you need the encouragement to keep writing?
3. What is one thing you wish everyone would stop or start doing?
4. If you could date a character from your favorite book, which one and why?
5. How do you pronounce “crayon?”

I’ll conclude with some links to my posts on an old book store in Annapolis as well as why taking chemistry improved my writing.  Feel free to take a gander on over and check ’em out 🙂

XO, Annie