Sunshine Blogger Take Two!!!

I and the delightful Journey have been nominated by the lovely Jane at her blog, Sensible Jane, for the Sunshine Blogger Award!! Huzzah!! Three cheers for Jane!!

THE RULES:

• Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
• Thank the person who nominated you.
• Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
• Answer your nominator’s questions.
• Nominate up to eleven bloggers.
• Ask your nominees eleven questions.
• Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.

What book inspires you the most?

This question doesn’t ask me what my favorite book is, rather the one that inspires me most. This is a superb question.

I suppose Honey Butter, by Millie Florence. She wrote and published it when she was merely thirteen. It inspires me to not measure my accomplishments by my age. If I can put my mind to it, I can achieve it. With a little hard work, of course 😉

(and Isabelle, I answered this question before reading your post on Honey Butter. I did not steal it from you. Trust.)

What is your least favorite book?

Oh. You asked for it. I am very generous with my ratings on Goodreads. While they think that the scale goes: loved it, really liked it, liked it, it’s ok, didn’t like it, I treat it as: loved it, liked it, it was mid, didn’t really like it, HATE THIS BOOK. It usually doesn’t get to the point of hate. However, I rated two books with one star this year.

Friends. Neighbors. Countrymen. Lend me your ear.

I despise, with a passion, The Applewhites Coast to Coast. The first book was fine. The second was kind of mid. But the last book was HORRIFIC. It was so stupid and petty and random. Do not read this book if you value your brain cells. Do read this book if you wish to numb your senses until you can’t tell good literature from bad and envision your future career as something along the lines of writing poor fanfiction of the Inheritance Games in your parents’ basement when in your thirties.

Ah, speaking of the Inheritance Games…

I hated that book so much that I didn’t even finish it. I’m almost not even sorry. I’m going to stop being negative now though. Next question!!!

When you are writing, do you have specific song or playlist you listen to? If so, what is it?

Why yes, of course, good chap *peers through monocle* I made a playlist titled “Writing Playlist” (so imaginative, I know *preens*). It contains such tracks as both of Forrest Frank’s lofi albums, the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack in its entirety, and various Piano Guys songs (a wide variety, included but not limited to Test Drive, the Theme from the Pirates of the Caribbean which I have never watched but that’s not stopping me, Golden, Rewrite the Stars, Lord of the Rings, and Arwen’s Vigil). Oh and also a random remix of Hello Seattle that has almost no words, so it qualified.

However, I am now breaking that writing playlist trend by listening to one of my mood playlists that has songs that definitely have words.

Are you a cat person or dog person?

Cats all the way. There are some who say that the terms are “dog lover” and “cat person” for a reason, but we ignore them magnanimously. I seem to recall hearing/reading somewhere that both Andy Serkis and Orlando Bloom based their performances in the Lord of the Rings on cats, but I can’t find any evidence so should probably delete this sentence before hitting publish.

*secretly has no plans to delete the sentence*

Which do you like more, spring or autumn?

Aahhhh….all the seasons have something to love about them.

Summer means my birthday, a bunch of my friends’ birthdays, no school, cute summer outfits (why are all my good outfits comprised of t-shirts??), and jello cake.

Winter means CHRISTMAS (though my younger brother pointed out that since it technically isn’t actually winter until December 21, Christmas is almost a fall holiday which is absolutely wild to think about), pretty snow, being cozy, and sleeping.

Autumn is such a beautiful season. It has gorgeous leaves, crisp air, anticipation, the start of schedules again, borderline summer but kind of winter outfits, and it’s the time of year I’ve gone to concerts. All three of them were fall occasions *nod nod*

And then spring is a time of finishing things (school, mostly), rebirth, it’s almost summer, we appreciate the slightest hints of green, Easter, and it gets warm again (hallelujah!!).

I suppose, in the end, I’ll have to go with spring. Ask me the same question when we’re heading into summer and I’ll likely say autumn. Just you wait.

What is your favorite word?

Favorite word, you say. The words I end up saying the most often?? Or words that I adore for their aesthetics??

Why not both.

I use the words “wild,” “delightful,” “adore,” and “tragic” far too much.

Hmm…aesthetics…Beth Brower used the word “elysian” to describe Hawkes and I haven’t gotten over that yet. More words for Hawkes are “laconic” and “eremition.”

More aesthetics…”whimsical” is a good one. *racks brain* Words don’t come on command like that, I’m afraid. *half of the writers in the room nod in sympathy*

Have a list of aesthetic words to inspire your next poem. Grouped together like that, they make a formidable showing. *nod nod*

What is your favorite type of tree?

Random story time!!

My homeschool co-op speech class had mock job interviews one day. The interviewers (some of the scariest moms in the whole co-op *shudders*) asked each student an unexpected question during the interview: if you were a tree, which tree would you choose??

Well. I said the first thing that came to mind. A maple tree. It was fall and you couldn’t help but notice the gorgeous, flaming maples wherever you went. The logic: they’re pretty, great for climbing, and (as an afterthought) there’s maple syrup to consider. They laughed and asked if my brother and I had collaborated on our answers. Cue the maple-flavoured confusion.

When I got back to the main room with the rest of the class, my brother and friend who had gone before me asked what tree I said. When I said maple, my brother rolled his eyes. He apparently had also chosen a maple (maple syrup was his main reasoning). My friend chose a weeping willow. The girl who went after me?? She said weeping willow. The girl who went after her?? Maple. Nearly half the class said maple *facepalm*

All that to say that I like maples and weeping willows. Oh and I think ginkgoes are really pretty.

What is your favorite genre of music?

Hmm…I like Owl City, TobyMac, Josiah Queen, Forrest Frank, Jordan Feliz, for King and Country, Seph Schlueter, Alison Eide, a smidge of NF or Claire Leslie…

What does that mean??

Upon reflection, I believe I like a more pop-y, contemporary, idk how to explain it sound to my music (Josiah Queen, forgive me. I know not what I do).

What is the most daring thing you’ve ever done?

I…am decidedly not daring. If you wish for daring or adventurous, ask the version of me that appears in my subconscious when I dream (she literally walked up to the Antichrist himself and called him by the lowest title she possibly could have. The NeRvE of some people!!).

What does “daring” even mean in the light of all that has occurred. Why try to define daring when we could make strides towards a better future. Why waste time deciding what is and is not daring when we could obfuscate and answer the next question.

Which is your preferred holiday: Easter or Christmas?

Oh give me Christmas!! There’s a lot more hype about it, and I love the general feeling of festivity surrounding Christmas. Easter just doesn’t have such a big following and I’m quite sad for it, but I love Christmas.

I love decorating our house, figuring out the best gifts to give my friends and family, listening to Christmas music on the radio, and the reminder that love came down for us. I love that we are more likely to help each other out, the general feeling of comradery. I even love the glitter.

If you had the choice, which would you rather have in your house: A spiral staircase, or stained glass windows?

I must say a spiral staircase. Both, however, imply that my house is Victorian and that makes me immensely pleased.

There’s this house in my town, an old Victorian home. It’s three stories tall, with a tower and a wee bit of stained glass too. It was painted pink for the longest time. I adored The Pink House. I said that I was going to live there when I grew up. It looked like an absolute doll house. It is now green and while I prefer green over pink at this point in my life, a part of me is very sad about the loss of a part of my childhood. The house is still there, and I still call it The Pink House (always will), but it’s not the same. I tend to abhor change, can you tell??

Anyway, a spiral staircase sounds positively delightful. I could slide down the banister like Anna in Frozen. Remind me to keep it polished.

Tags

I shall endeavor not to tag the individuals Journey will tag. She has told me she will tag writerly individuals though, so perhaps there is hope (though most bloggers are also authors, I have noticed). Or perhaps since we’ll have different questions to ask of you, it doesn’t matter anyhow.

Isabelle and/or Victoria at Bookworm Hollow!! They’re very fun, even though their posts are sporadic of late *sobs*

Adalynn at The Humorous Bookworm. She is delightful, my friends.

BUT I WANNA TAG JOURNEY. LOL ME TAGGING HER ANYWAY. JOURNEYYYYY YOU’RE TAGGED AGAIN!!!! You don’t have to tag anyone, but I desperately want to see your answers. And ofc you need more tags to complete 🙃

And Isabelle, because we love her.

le Questions

1. What is your favorite poem?? Why??
2. What fandoms are you a part of?? Which is your favorite, and why??
3. If you have Pinterest, what does your feed currently look like?? (if you don’t, what do you think your home feed would look like based on your interests and current obsessions??)
4. You have to go to a boring work party. What three fictional characters are you taking with you to keep from going insane from boredom while all your (much older) coworkers engage in small talk??
5. If your life was a movie, what song would play over the credits??
6. If you could name yourself, what name would you choose? First, middle, and last names please 🙃
7. Why do you like your favorite book??
8. What random objects have you used as bookmarkers that weren’t actually bookmarks??
9. What do you want for Christmas?? (it’s nearly here, y’all)
10. What is the last song you listened to?? Tell us about it…
11. Why do you think eleven was chosen as the magic number for this tag?? (this is me running out of inspo lol)

Coda

This has been the Sunshine Blogger Award with Ava. Tune in next time to hear Ava say, “Oh, look how many more tags I need to finish.”

Always,

Ava 🌻