Hello gentle reader,

Last week my blog was nominated twice (!) for the Liebster Award! Thanks to Craig Schmidt & Mara Valderran for passing the award on to me. This award is about spotlighting new blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) and answering 11 questions. Since I was nominated twice, I had to choose from a set of 22 questions.

So this award arrived just on time since my blog has almost reached 200 followers (more on this coming soon!). Here are the questions I have decided to answer:

What is your motto?

Don’t give up your dream.

Tell us three things about a favourite character you’ve created.

In my WIP The Last Queen, the main character Elian is shy, dutiful and self-conscious. Yet, somehow, he becomes a hero. Don’t ask him how, he wouldn’t know.

Which author influences you most as a writer, and in what way?

Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, because he tells fantasy stories that are accessible to any reader, at almost any age.

When you get writer’s block, doing this helps.

When I get the feeling that what I’m writing doesn’t work, I stop writing and I read instead. Sometimes it takes just one book, sometimes it takes six, but eventually it makes me want to write again.

What is something you regret?

I have been writing for 15 years, and it took me a very long time to listen to people who told me “why don’t you try to get published?” I wish I had listened to them earlier.

What was the first thing you remember writing?

The first novel I wrote AND finished was a story called The Chronicles of a Girl on a Swing in Paris. Well, the title pretty much says it all 😉

What goal are you most focused on right now?

Finishing edits to The Last Queen and querying it.

Who was your favourite actor or actress when you were growing up?

Kevin Costner. I still really like him. If one of his movies comes on TV, I’ll always each it.

What is your favourite television show that was cancelled before its time/too soon?

I’m assuming everyone already said Firefly… So I’ll say Blood Ties (2007): vampires and an awesome heroine. No idea why it got cancelled, it was excellent. I also was a bit disappointed that The Gates (2010) didn’t really get a chance to find its audience.

What is on your bucket list (things you want to do before you die)?

Read ALL THE BOOKS (almost). Visit the US West Coast, New Zealand, Italy and Greece.

If you were to write a “Thank you” note to someone you’ve never actually met, who would that be and why?

I would write it to Fantasy author Gregory Maguire (The Wicked Years series). His books were a huge inspiration because they were like nothing I had read before and it showed me that I could write weird stories too, as long as they were good.

Now I have to tag other new bloggers so they’ll answer those witty questions…  Here is my list:

Yesenia Vargas

Em Loves to read, Wants to write

Lauren Garafalo

SJ Maylee