Sunday, April 28, 2013

...Spillin' the Goods for the Liebster Award ;)




...dear friend and fellow writer, Nicki Elson, recently tagged me with the honorable Liebster Blog Award, (German for sweetheart, beloved person.  Nicki, the world needs more like you ;)

The rules are simple, offer 11 fun facts about yourself, answer 11 questions provided by Nicki, pass the award on to 11 blogger pals, answering 11 new questions from yours truly.  

Alrighty then!

11 Facts...

1) I'm a father of three, married for 19 years...but after surviving the first ten, who's counting ;)

2) My wife and I are licensed foster parents, currently with a little boy who was delivered to us when he was four days old.  (He's now 8 months, and doing quite well.)

3) Once, while eating dinner at Outback Steakhouse with my wife, I recognized an award-winning author sitting at the table next to us, sharing a meal with a loved one, (whom I'm quite sure was not his wife.)  Nope, never said a word to him.

4) Having suffered through the discomfort of either breaking or jamming nearly every finger on both hands from my playing days in high school, writing for long periods of time can get interesting when arthritis sets in.

5) A friend of mine once paid me a handsome sum to write a letter of admittance for him, that he attached to a college application...and was accepted.

6) That friend is now the manager of a successful sports bar in Cincinnati.  He owes me a drink.

7) While my family resides in the Buckeye state, I'm formerly from Sarasota, Florida.

8) I'm an avid bookworm, having devoured such monsters as The Stand, It, and Terry Brook's entire Shannara series by the time I'd hit my teenage years.

9) My twelve year old son won a bet by sinking a half-court jump shot, and causing his sixteen year old brother and three of his friends to walk through town in nothing but their skivvies.  Great shot, kid!

10) I positively love movies by Quentin Tarantino, and novels that are too heavy to carry with one hand.

11) I once saw a ghost, a pair of them actually, just as clearly as watching one's next door neighbor pushing a lawn mower through tall grass, and have sworn to write a story about it...some day.

Questions from Nicki...

1) Les Mis, or Sweeney Todd?
     -Les Mis

2)  If you were a comic book super-hero, what would your name be?
     -The Typist

3) What are the toppings on your dream hamburger?
     -mushrooms, onions, pepper jack cheese, and mayo

4) What city (that you've never visited), do you most want to visit?
     -Melbourne, Australia

5) Favorite city that you have visited?
     -Savannah, Georgia

6) Which Disney character is most like you?
     -Rafiki 

7) Why? (from Q6)
     -He's a wise old coot with all the right answers ;)

8) Would you rather write a book that's a best seller, or one that's highly acclaimed?
     -Highly acclaimed

9) What's your biggest pet peeve when it comes to grammatical mistakes in a published book?
     -Making the same mistake more than once. (Once is forgivable, twice...nope)

10) If you could live permanently in any decade, which would it be?
     -Eighties

11) Who's your favorite fictional romantic couple?
     -Mulder & Scully 


...and now, my 11 Blogger pals, tag, you're it!

and your questions are...
1) What is your favorite genre to read?
2) Pizza or pasta?
3) If you were to be stranded on an island and could choose one book to take with you, which would you choose?
4) If you could choose to have dinner with one writer, in order to pick his/her brain, who would you choose?
5) Who is your choice of musician for inspiration while writing?
6) The Walking Dead, or Breaking Bad?
7) If you could choose an actor to play the part of lead role in your book, who would it be?
8) Do you prefer writing in the a.m or p.m?
9) What is your best antidote for writer's block?
10) When going on vacation...drive or fly?
11) Name the city that tops your bucket list to visit.

Enjoy!

El ;) 


11 comments:

dolorah said...

You ask some tough questions El, lol. Thanks for tagging me :)

I've read all those Shannara books and several other series written by Terry Brooks. And of course Stephen King is one of my favorite authors :)

Love that your son won such a fabulous bet. Kids can be creative sometimes.

Have a good week. Try to get some sleep around that baby. Has it really been 8 months? Wow, time flies. I bet he's beautiful and full of life.

......dhole

Nicki Elson said...

Yay! It was so much fun reading through your answers and learning more about...The Typist. My goodness, going back to raising a baby, I can't imagine. I'd say the world needs more people like you and your wife.

Good for you playing it cool and not saying anything to the philandering writer. Yes, yes, write the ghost story! I've only been to Savannah once and loooved it. Must get back there. I thought (hoped) ya'd pick 80s. :)

Thanks so much for playing, El!

Elliot Grace said...

Hey Donna, gotta love me some Terry Brooks ;) Those were great stories to grow up with. Thanks for stopping by!

Hey Nicki, will definitely write the ghost story one of these days. Glad you enjoyed my answers ;)

...time to flag down a few pals who I've tagged!

El

Tonja Drecker said...

Thanks for the tag! Lol! I just got tagged by someone else last week, so if you don't mind, I'll mix you two together. (But I'll answer all questions!)

Yay to your son for that shot. That's a lessong that every kid should learn ;)

Stuck in the 80's, huh? As long as we don't have to go back to highschool, I'm game.

Jemi Fraser said...

Fun! Thanks for the tag!

Love the Shannara series too although I didn't discover them until high school then I zipped through the series as well! :)

Morgan said...

The typist! Lol! And holy... I want to know more about this ghost sighting! That sounds interesting!

Thanks, El, for the kind tag. You are a fascinating person & I loved reading more about you!

Judy Croome | @judy_croome said...

Rafiki! I loved him in The Lion King. He was the perfect sangoma (shaman) and the boabab was a perfect home for him. Interesting choice, Elliot! :)

Now,my answers. Hmmm.

1) What is your favorite genre to read?

Yikes. Impossible to choose, as I read by my mood. I don't like crime and science fiction. And since I started writing I find I lean more towards non-fiction.

2) Pizza or pasta?

Pizza, of course!! :) With extra mozarella.

3) If you were to be stranded on an island and could choose one book to take with you, which would you choose?

The Collected Works of Shakespeare - all plays & poems in one gigantic tome (which should be a heavy enough book, even for you, Elliot! :))

4) If you could choose to have dinner with one writer, in order to pick his/her brain, who would you choose?

Louise Erdrich

5) Who is your choice of musician for inspiration while writing?

Without fail, Satyi Sai Baba's recitation of the OM mantra

6) The Walking Dead, or Breaking Bad?

Uh ...who? What?

7) If you could choose an actor to play the part of lead role in your book, who would it be?

A brilliant unknown (like Leonardo di Caprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? or Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza or Tom Cruise in Risky Business - at that stage no one knew who they were but they brought that star quality to the movies without overshadowing the story)

8) Do you prefer writing in the a.m or p.m?

Definitely a.m., but in reality I write when I get the chance.

9) What is your best antidote for writer's block?

I'll tell you when I discover it and get out of the current writer's block I'm in!

10) When going on vacation...drive or fly?

If I have a choice - DRIVE! I hate flying, but sometime's it's the only way to travel.

11) Name the city that tops your bucket list to visit.

Can I cheat and name a place instead of a city? The Antarctic is top of my bucket list - but I want to see it before it becomes too civilised and well trodden.

Now you know some more about me and I know some more about you!

Golden Eagle said...

Congratulations on the award!

Rafiki. I can see that. :)

Elliot Grace said...

Hey T, yep, stuck in the 80's, spinning in circles ;)

Hey Jemi, I think most of us bookworms grew up in Shannara. Gotta love Terry Brooks ;)

Hey Morgan, I've been playing around with a storyline...in time it'll happen ;)

Hey Judy, very cool, thanks!

Hey Eagle, still a major fan of Rafiki ;)

El

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