Liebster Award Nominations

Kerry at Aspernauts and Nicole Sloan both nominated me for the Liebster at Sourcerer Tuesday. Since Sourcerer passed 200 followers a few days before, Kerry agreed to allow me to pass on the nomination to the Writing Catalog. I am posting my acceptance here. I will only nominate 10 blogs, but I will answer Nicole’s 10 questions at Sourcerer later today.

Here are the rules:

• Each nominee must link back the person who nominated them.
• Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.
• Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers.
• Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
• Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them

Here are my answers to Kerry’s questions:

1. What brought you to blogging? I blogged years ago and I love writing things and posting them online. I gave up because it was so difficult to find an audience. A few months ago my sister, several friends, and I started discussing a group blogging project, and once I saw that everyone else was serious about posting occasionally and reading one anothers’  stuff, I jumped back in.

2. What is your all time favourite kids’ TV programme? This is a tough one, because there are so many good ones. My favorite show when I was in the 8-10 range was Thundarr the Barbarian:

3. Which book have you reread more than any other? Probably Machiavelli’s The Prince. I read it and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War every year.

4. What is your favourite song lyric or quote from either film or literature? Gandalf: “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” From The Fellowship of the Ring, ch.2.

5. How would you spend a perfect Sunday? Sleep in, then spend the afternoon at a baseball game and the evening with my wife.

6. Fantasy dinner party: you are the host and can invite any number of famous/inspirational individuals, living or deceased. Who’s on your list? This would be a huge party, so I am just going to name 10, five men and five women. Elmore Leonard, Levon Helm, President James Madison, Walton Goggins, Neil Gaiman, Mary Shelley, Coco Chanel, Helen Mirren, Flannery O’Connor, and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

7. What are you serving at your fantasy dinner party? Crawfish with corn and potatoes boiled in with them and a selection of domestic, imported, and locally-brewed beers, and lemonade for those who don’t drink. Three or four choices of pie for dessert. My wife would have to co-host the party, of course.

8. If you had a time machine, where and when in history (including into the future) would you go? I would have to go and see what the world looks like in 3015.

9. What question do you wish I had asked you? Who is your favorite Shakespearean villain?

10. And how would you answer that question? Iago from Othello. He is the most frightening because he works almost entirely by subterfuge, and he refuses to explain his motive.

Now my 10 nominations, with the standard disclaimer that acceptance is always optional, and if you don’t do awards, know that I enjoy reading your blog and you have my warmest regards:

1. Things Matter
2. Wordgasm
3. The Scribbler’s Quill
4. Lazy Lady
5. Outright Geekery
6. All Things Tolkien
7. A Tolkienist’s Perspective
8. The Leather Library
9. NOLA Feminizer
10. Part Time Monster

I used the WordPress follower count from my reader for these, not the count you see on the follow widgets, because publicize includes social media, and if your experience is anything like mine and that of the 10 other bloggers I know personally, only a tiny fraction of your social media network is really following your blog.

Now my 10 questions for my nominees. I’ll make this as simple as possible. What work of art/artist/character in each of the following categories do you recommend as worthy of attention today? (Doesn’t have to be your absolute favorite.) I’ll even answer them myself.

1. Novel or Long Poem, your choice – Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote.
2. Non-Fiction Book – Jaron Lanier’s Who Owns the Future?
3. Author or Actor, your choice. Terry Pratchett, especially his “Guards” series.
4. Live-Action Film or Play, your choice – Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors. Never pass up a chance to see it on a stage.
5. Animated Film or T.V. series, your choice – Reign: The Conqueror, a Japanese Anime about the career of Alexander the Great written by Hiroshi Aramata and directed by Yoshinori Kanemori. It ran on the Cartoon Network in 1999.
6. Visual Art – I am fond of Minoan Sphixes. I wasn’t able to find one that’s free to post on a blog, but here are a couple of examples. I have seen one of those in real life. It literally took my breath away and made time stand still for a few minutes.
7. Musical Genre – I like music that’s heavy with acoustic strings, so I recommend some outlaw country or folk.
8. Band or Singer – Oddly enough, given my previous answer, I recommend really delving into the Metallica. Both YouTube and their albums are full of gems.
9. Superhero – Daredevil, because he is one I really enjoyed back in the day, and people tell me the DD stories are awesome at the moment.
10. Currently-running television series – The Showtime version of The Borgias.

And since I have you here, I am thinking of changing the name of this site to “Write Anything!” or “Rational Writer.” Does either of those strike you as an improvement, and which do you prefer?