The "Tag, You're Small" blog award

YA Writer Ruth Lauren Steven has given me the Liebster Award.  I'm not sure who started it (maybe someone German, based on the name??), but basically it's a way to acknowledge blogs you like that have a following of less than 200 or so.  According to the word-of-mouth rules, you're supposed to pass it on to five small blogs you like, then list five things about yourself.

• Acceptable Schizophrenic, a fellow writer whom I anticipate bouncing steampunk ideas off of whenever I focus on my steampunk novel.
• Suzanne Colorado, a YA writer and kitchen enthusiast who combined the two in her first novel.  She also provided great feedback on my Lone Wolf novel
• Lisa the Word Nerd, a YA writer and teacher who's working on a novel I'd definitely recommend to my students.

The rest of the small blogs I follow are of friends' kids, so I'll just leave this at three because my friends probably wouldn't appreciate the writing world being all up in their children's business.

But on the plus side, per Ruth's example, I only have to tell three things about myself:

• I love to travel, especially on pointless roadtrips.  I just spent a week driving around the country, singing along poorly and loudly to the stereo, looking for my muse (who remains an unresponsive jerkface).  I hit twelve states, caught up with some friends, spent a day lying on the beach, and got some great pictures. Which brings me to #2-
• I love to take pictures.  I'm mostly interested in landscapes and nature, not people.  I took some beautiful shots of Gulf Coast beaches.  And a dead sea turtle.

He'd eat your toes, if he weren't dead.

• I have a lot of strong, irrational aversions: mailing something at the post office; going in water where I can't see the bottom, due to sea monsters (dead turtle is proof); broccoli; the word ginormous; wearing pajama pants or sweats in public; neck tattoos....

A big thanks to Ruth for the award!  And if you're grossed out by the turtle picture, you can blame it on her.