Liebster Award, Contest Fail and Blog Tour

Aldrea Alien at Thardrandian Thoughts  presented me with the Liebster award. Thank you Aldrea. ^_^

The rules of this award are:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
   
2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
   
3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
   
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs with 200 followers or less.
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog. 

In return I'm passing this onto the following awesome blogs, who all have less than 200 followers, but should have many more, because they're great. 


Catherine Noble 
Residentgamer 
Jaybird 
Laura @ Stranger than writing
VikLit 

On Monday I mentioned I was going to take part in the Fantasy-Faction anthology Writing Contest. Well I tried, and failed. 

We've had a really busy week, with lots of stuff going on with my Hubby's business, and I really do suck at writing short stories. Also, Skyrim DLC Dawnguard. 

I attempted writing an entry for the contest three times, and nothing was really sticking. I did get somewhere, with a fairly decent idea, but I wasn't one-hundred percent happy with it, and didn't think I'd have time to finish it off (in less than 8,000 words. Did I mention I struggle with short stories?) and get it edited by the deadline.  I think perhaps I was overly ambitious, and bit off more than I can chew thinking I could get a contest ready short story done in five days. I will keep my eyes open for other contests in the future, and give it another crack. 

In case you haven't heard, one of my closest friends Kyra Lennon is launching her debut novel, a contemporary romance titled Game On, on August 6th.  To celebrate the launch, Kyra is holding a blog tour, with many fantastic prizes on offer. I'm honoured to be the first stop on her tour, and I will be hosting a giveaway offering a paperback copy of Game On, as well as sharing something a little fun related to the book.  I hope you all keep an eye on Kyra's blog as the launch date and tour approaches, and check back here for the start of the tour. It's going to be epic!!

 
 

Sibylline Nights Edit Progress and Stylish Blogger Award

Editing Draft One of 'Sibylline Nights' :

50619 / 105831 (47.83%)

I was going to leave updating until Monday, but then I was updating my person blog with information about how I'm progressing with the editing of Sibylline Nights, and realised I hadn't mentioned my progress here for a while. 

Editing is going really well, yesterday we (Hubby and I) finished editing chapter thirty. That's 50, 619 words and 95 pages done out of an original 105, 831 words and 209 pages. So just about halfway there. Though I did realise, at this point in the story in the unedited version, it was only 40, 060 words and 77 pages, meaning I've added almost 11k words and 18 pages since I began editing! That's kind of scary, and I think once the whole thing is complete I'm going to have to go back and cut a bunch of stuff to make the novel into a publishable length. Hubby and I already started discussing some scenes near the start that could go because they don't add much to the progress of the story.

As well as editing, we also made some groundwork with some of the more fantasy elements, including defining where magic comes from in my universe and giving voices to minor characters. Exciting stuff. I love editing because I'm taking something that was just okay before, adding meat to it, and making something (that I think is) awesome. I have such a good feeling about this story, and can't wait until it's ready to start querying.

Christine Rains awarded me with the Stylish Blogger Award a few days ago. Thank you Christine!

Before I talk about my own personal style, I wanted to give credit for the layout of my blog. The original template for this blog was designed, and a modified version is used, by my Hubby on his gaming site Video Games Interactive.  Thank you, honey! ♥♥♥

My style is quite eclectic, and I can easily jump from casual to dressed up, depending on what I'm what I'm doing and my mood. I tend to favour a mixture of dark colours, with bold accents/ make up though. My favourite combinations being black and pink, or black and purple. I would say my style is bohemian, bordering on Gothic.

I think I was most stylist on my wedding day. As I mentioned in the nine facts and one fake post a few weeks ago I wore a fuschia pink wedding dress.

Hubby and I on our Wedding day.

Now I get to tag five people I think have stylish blogs. If you've received this award before don't feel obliged to do it again. I tag:

Jaybird
Kyra Lennon
Jolene Perry
Jaycee Delorenz
Laura

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, and those in the U.K enjoy the double bank holiday for the Queen's Jubilee.

Kreativ Blogger Award

 

Last week, in between the final entry in the Dust It Off Bloghop and the launch of M. Pax's The Backworlds, Sherry of  Mama Diaries presented me with the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thank you Sherry!

Following the lead of Sherry, in response to the award, I'm going to write ten facts about myself. Only, as an added twist, one of them will be fake. Can you spot which isn't real?

1. In 2009 I met WWE superstar Christ Jericho at a book signing. He told me my t-shirt of Animal from the Muppets was cool. 

2. The first story I every wrote was a "fan fiction" based on my science teacher, when I was fifteen. The story was about a girl with magical powers (she often levitated to class in stead of walking) who used said powers to make her teacher fall in love with her! I kept it hidden under my mattress, and worked on it in secret every night in bed. 

3. I've been abroad four times in my life. To Yugoslavia when I was three years-old, to Germany with the school when I was fourteen, to Majorca with my mum, sister and (at the time) step-dad when I was sixteen, and to Crete with my dad and sister when I was seventeen. 

4. My (maternal) grandfather is of Turkish decent, though he moved to England with a scholarship at the age of sixteen. He still has a holiday home in a little village called Tuzkoy, where a lot of his relatives live.

5. For Christmas last year, my mum took me and my sister to see the Nutcracker ballet. I've been obsessed with the story of the Nutcracker since I was a child, and it was one of the most magical experiences of my life. 

6. When I got married in 2010, my wedding dress was fuschia pink. I had a handmade bouquet of pink tulips, roses, gerberas, and a lot of the wedding decorations (balloons etc.) were also pink. Hubby refused to wear a pink tie though. His outfit was black and white, and looked amazing on him.

7. I've seen the WWE wrestle live twice. Both times have been in Sheffield. The first time was with my (now) husband, brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and the second time was with my now (husband) and friend. The second time, we stopped in a Bed and Breakfast, and the shower was in the middle of the shared bedroom, so Hubby and I had to go down to the bar while my friend showered.

8. My dad is a Jehovah's Witness, and I was raised in the religion until the age of twelve, when he said I was old enough to make the decision if I wanted to go to meetings or not. Of course, my twelve year-old self thought stopping in bed on a Sunday morning was much more appealing. Though I don't follow their religion today, I am still friendly with Jehovah's Witnesses, and enjoy chatting with them whenever they stop buy.

9. As a teenager, I was a massive supporter of Midlands football team Aston Villa, and with my dad I've seen them play at least seven times, including three times against Tottenham Hotspur, and twice against Manchester United - one of which times was at the Man U grounds Old Trafford, in an executive box, the tickets for which my dad got as a gift from a work client.

10.  My oldest son was due to be born on my twentieth birthday. He was born a week early, meaning I still got to go out for a few drinks to celebrate. I tell him now (nine years later) that he was considerate enough to come early so that I could still go out. 

And in the spirit of the award, I'm 'tagging' ten people to give the award to. I'm going to choose new followers, as a way of getting to know people better.

I tag:

1. Clarissa Draper
2. Mary Pax 
3. Christine Rains 
4. Pamela Skjolsvik 
5. DazeDiva 
6. Jaybird 
7. FrostLord 
8. Peaches Ledwidge 
9. Rachel Searles
10. Andrea Teagan

Feel free to take part if you wish, and write some facts about yourself. If you haven't got time, that's fine. I still want you to have the award, and know I read and enjoy all of your blogs, even if I don't always have time to comment.

Later on in the week, I will post which of the ten facts about me was fake.