I want to know the color of your soul, amongst other things. TAGAWARDS!

Translation: Try to be silly, dammit

The superbly funny & aspirational Lyn Midnight (of Lyn Midnight against the Odds) thought it would be an interesting test of faith er... brain power... to tag me on her blog today.  Since she just had a sooper cool interview over at Elizabeth Sogard's blog (HER FIRST EVER!), she's inspired me to follow through. 

Why?

Because I need to write something-- Lyn said so. 

I read it in that interview. 

Ordinarily, this is a bit of advice that I adhere to anyway. But my wee brain has been fried since the concussion-o-rama back on June 5th. (Though... my mind... or lack thereof... is returning and I don't think this excuse is going to pass gas-- uh, hold weight much longer. Or so I've been told.)

Anyhoo... Since Lyn is awesome, I've decided to comply. Why the hell not? Her questions alone are freakin' hilarious. 

I'm supposed to tag 8 cool peeps that I would like to know the answers to the off the wall questions that I've answered below... 

So here goes:

1. Kendall

2. Kara

3. Colin

4. T.S. Welti

5. Gina

6. Steven

7. Cherie

8. Anita

Tag! You guys are now it!

***

Crazy Questions

If you were a vampire, which celebrity would you first sink your teeth into?

If I were a vampire... would I care if I was sinking my teeth into a celebrity or the first dude that walked by? Somehow, I doubt it would matter.

Besides, celebrities live far, far away from the Soggy Marshlands of MN. It would take way too long, with way too much effort to locate a celebrity. Much less... uh, eat one. ;)

What’s your middle name? No, not your real middle name, your MIDDLE name.

The middle name bestowed upon me from my kick-ass CRITS group is Hummingbird. 

Carissa Hummingbird Elg.

Has a nice ring. Makes my short ass last name seem not so freakin' short. Nah, it really doesn't.

How about this: Seems docile and whatnot, doesn't it?  

Never underestimate the pervy power of women when they get together to bullshit. Yep, it's totally how we roll. Besides, you can't be a pompous ass about your own work when your middle name is Hummingbird and the lady next to you is Peacock. Know what I'm sayin'? Just not possible. 

You’re stranded on an island. There’s a monkey with you there, but he’s not too chatty. You also have a ball at your disposal. A ship passes by, but it’s daylight. How will you attract their attention?

Wait, wait... WAIT! Just one damn minute! There are crucial bits of information missing from this hypothetical!

A.) Did I CHOOSE to be on said island? 

The fact that we are trying to "attract the attention" of the ship implies not. But then again, "attract attention" doesn't imply -- "HEY! I want the fuck off this island!", either. I could just be, "Quick monkey, let's wave to the nice people on the ship!"

If I chose to be there, then I obviously don't care about the ship beyond the proverbial high-fiver. 

Now... If this was a LOST type deal... then, I think I have more reason for concern. There could be crazy beasties or weird people in hatches and shit like that. THAT implies "get me the fuck off this island!" In which case, I'd be searching for a way off long before said ship sailed by. Probably would have slaughtered said monkey and used his fat to light a fire on his bones. (No, not really. Yeesh, I can't even kill a freakin' spider-- I usher them outside, like the big pansy I am.)

Some balls aren't meant to be talked to.
Wait... what?

B.) What kind of monkey is it? Some monkeys are totally cool. The fact that he's not too chatty doesn't bug me. It would still be better than talking to a volleyball with a bloody freakin' face painted on it. Know what I'm sayin'? ;)

C.) What kind of ball is it? This seems important. Is it a beach ball? The dreaded volleyball? Or is it a damn golf ball? WHAT KIND OF BALL?!

D.) A ship passes by... You guessed it... What kind of ship? The RMS Titanic (in which case, I'm screwed) or is it some sort of creepy paddle type thing. The word ship implies big, so I'm going to throw out the paddle crap. 

God, I've totally forgotten what the hell we were talking about. 

Oh, right. 

Attracting the attention of the ship. Screw it, forget the monkey and the ball. 

I'd just go topless. That gets attention. Right?

What are you secretly afraid of? And what are you REALLY afraid of?

Secretly afraid of: Failure. 

REALLY afraid of: Sucking so bad that the entire universe implodes upon itself due to the awesomeness of my suckage. Ginormous Carissa Hummingbird Black Hole of DOOM!

Describe your best friend in five words.

Genius. Organized. Brave. Encouraging. Neurotic (like me!).

What’s your current favorite song? What about the annoying one stuck in your head?

Awake and Alive, by Skillet is hands down, my favorite song ATM. Not only does it resonate with my characters in Pendomus, but with me as a person. Plus, who doesn't love orchestra and metal? I mean, really!?

Annoying song: Born this Way, by Ms. Gaga. Damn thing gets stuck in my head at the most inopportune times. Probably because it sounds like every other song I grew up with all meshed together. 

                                                                                           

What’s the last movie you watched? Was it good? (Fishing for recommendations.)

Titanic. 

Of course, it was good. It's freakin' TITANIC. 

When it came out, I watched this sucker an obnoxious 10 times. In the theater. James Cameron, somehow managed to not only suck out my soul, but every last dollar from my wallet. 

Side note: I'm a total fibber. I actually worked for the local movie theater at the time and got in free. But even if I didn't I would've seen it an obnoxious 10 times. I've always been enthralled with Titanic. Always. 

I even gave birth to my daughter at the time the last of the lifeboats were being launched (April 15th at 12:45am) -- just 98 years later! 

Oh, my god. I'm such a geek.

***

About the 8

How did you meet #1?

Twitter, of course. I can't remember who "followed" who first. However, the first time Kendall's tourette syndromesque cock rants started flying, I knew we'd be fast friends. She's not ashamed to be herself and embrace her cockiness. ;)

What did you and #2 last talk about?

Critiquing stuff. Kara's a book blogger genius extraordinaire and I trust her wisdom. You should, too!

Would you want to be stuck on an island with #3?

OH! Colin's the monkey from the island question! That makes more sense! Wait, what? 

LOL!

All joking aside, Colin seems like a sooper nice guy. As long as he brought cake, we'll be juuuust fine. ;)

Does #4 remind you of someone?

Yep. T.S. reminds me a lot of me, actually!  I absolutely adore her. 

What was your first impression of #5?

"This woman is hilarious!" Seriously, Gina has a fun, fresh way of speaking! If you're not following her on twitter, you should!

From 1-10, how cool is #6?

Steven's pretty awesome. I'm gonna have to lay it down at a solid 9. He needs to chat with me more to bump it up to 10, though.

Why did you tag #7?

I tagged Cherie because this woman never ceases to amaze me. She's constantly on the go... Pin her down, quick! 

Do you want to thank #8 about anything?

I want to thank Anita for her utter kindness. She's probably the nicest person you will meet. And she likes cake as much as I do. Right, Colin? ;) 


BTW- this post has nothing to do with the color of my soul. But if I had to choose... it would be black. Why? Because in order to get black, you have to use every color in the rainbow. 

Well, bowl me over

Guess what, guys!?

I'm almost done with my first draft!  

Holy freakin' flying monkeys! As it stands, I have one more chapter to finish editing for this round and I'm super stoked! I'm actually gonna make this goddamn deadline! Who knew?

Well, okay... you guys did. You kept reminding me and pushing me forward, so THANK YOU! Without people like you (and uber cheerleader, beta reader extraordinaire Sherry, my goddess of a mother and saint of a husband) I wouldn't be closing in on this deal as excited as I am.

Of course, there will still be more cleaning to do... wordings, sentence structure correction, tenses, etc. The good news is, I have a critique group who I'm thrilled to be working with in the upcoming days--> (Uber Kick Ass Fiends, unite! Or is it untie? I forget.) With their amazing eye, I've no doubt, my book will be ready for querying soon. (Thus begins a whole new kind of terror.)

~~~

On a fantastic side note, I've had some wonderful bloggers tip their hats to me lately and I wanted to give a quick HALLA out to them for being so amazing. I haven't had a whole lot of time to think up new things to spew about myself (been working to meet that goddamn deadline) but I still want to thank you.

Each of you deserve this award.

Sooper sweet bloggers------>

First, to Anita for being so amazing all the time.

Second, to Sophie Li who started the blogger award trend with Anita & I thank them a million times over for taking notice.

Third, to Cherie, who is always a rock star. I love her to pieces.

Third, to Orlando for being as great as he is and bestowing a sweetie blogger award.

Fourth, to L. Carroll for her amazingly sweet words about my blog today.

Sixth, to Jack Flacco for his amazing attitude and writing.

There are so many other amazing people who I've met who could easily deserve this award as well. You guys astound me every day and I hope you know how much your support (and sometimes chiding) means to me.

I'm convinced that the writing community is the absolute best.

Now... off to cure cancer. Meh. Maybe I'll just finish my first draft. ;)

A little more about me...

Book Blogger extraordinaire and fellow Twitter Fiend Kara nominated me for a new award and evidently wants to know 7 more things about me. I'm not really certain I have 14 interesting things, but I've had just enough caffeine that I think I'll give it a go.

{Don't worry, my ordinarily ranty posts will resume in the next day or so, as I am beginning to feel somewhat human. :D }

Yay for colds! (No, not really... but I feel like if I wish them happily on their way, maybe they will listen?)

This is how this crazy bloggy award thingy is supposed to work:

1. Thank and link the person who nominated you (which I already did).

2. Share seven random facts about yourself.

3. Pass the award on to five new-found blogging buddies.

4. Contact the winners to congratulate them.

Like I said the last time, I know time is limited... Take this as the compliment it is and do with it what you will, my awesome nominated folks! (Keep reading to find out who they are!)

Anyhoo... 

7 more things, eh? Okay... here goes!

1. I don't like chocolate. It's weird, I know. A woman who really could give or take chocolate... But that's how I roll. For whatever reason, it's just sort of meh. I can take it or leave it and most of the time, I leave it. Especially if it's just straight up chocolate. Bleck. Now, add some caramel or sparkly something or others... I may give it a try. ;)

2. My favorite flower is the gladiola. Yeah... no funeral arrangement is complete without this flower. (What's up with that??) But I love them. They are simply amazing and don't stink up my whole house with some overbearing, nasty stench. (i.e. Easter Lillies) Besides, they're pretty.

3. My first concert ever was to go see Barenaked Ladies at the Excel Energy Center in Minneapolis a decade or so ago... 

You will notice these fine gentleman are not ladies. But they sure are naked. 

Not to mention, frickin' hilarious live.

4. When I was in preschool, my absolute favorite "station" was the hammer and nail station. I would hit those 10 very real nails with the heavy hammer over and over until I felt I had done each of them perfectly. (At least, according to my perfectionist 5 year old brain.) To this day, I love to build things. I love the accomplishment of turning nothing into something. Coincidentally, my husband gets out of a lot of household projects for this very fact. 

5. I freakishly love to mow. I think it goes back to the accomplishment thing. I like taking a tangled, overgrown yard and making it pretty. 

6. In the spirit of sorting things out... I will share a secret about my book: I did not do an outline. Now, I mapped and planned the world for a month before starting... I knew certain things that needed to happen (but not necessarily when) but I knew why. The rest of the story wrote itself. In fact, even some of my main characters, quite literally, popped into my head as I was typing. It was sort of a -- "Oh, who are you?" -- kind of feeling. But I found I liked it. By the time I got to the climax of the story, synchronicity that I couldn't possibly outline started to click into place. 

7. I'm a morning person. Always have been. I'm up between 5 and 5:30am to either sit down and write or workout. It depends on the day. However, I do not have the same bounce in my step to get up and workout that I have when I'm getting up to write. Huh... wonder why that is?

Anyway... here's the nifty award Kara bestowed upon me. (And some other amazing people who you simply must check out!)

Now, these are the 5 additional bloggers that I feel should acquire the same standing:

1. S.M. Reine (because her new book just came out and she's awesome.)

2. Kate Cox (because she's a dear friend and an awesome artist.)

3. Maggie Desmond O'Brien (because this 16 year old book blogger is smarter than most people I know.)

4. TL Jeffcoat (because he's awesome.)

5. Shay Millar (because he's a good friend and is working on his series right now - the Miasma Angels)

There you have it! You guys rock! 

Blog awards that make me smile...

...And scratch my head.

I'm still new to this blogosphere stuff... But in one week, I've been graciously offered two different blog awards by fun and fabulous fellow bloggers. While I have no idea what they mean or why I was given them, I find them highly entertaining. Plus, they've managed to lift this cold-medicine-induced zombie's spirits. 

Since I don't have the brain power at the moment to do anything other than thank them both, that's what I intend on doing! 

To the amazing Anita, thank you so much for the Artsy-Fartsy Blogger Award yesterday.

It was quite a surprise, but very much appreciated. Like I said before, I've been sick and it was lovely to feel like what I do made someone else smile. So, thank you!

Then this morning, I come to find out that Sophie-The-Sweet also gave me an award. 

Though I don't think either of us know what it means, it was cute and I also wanted to tell her thanks! 

Both of these fine women are worthy of checking out their blogs and getting to know. They have a wealth of knowledge and I enjoy their takes on things. 

With this Versatile Blogger thingy, you're supposed to list 7 random things... Since I sorta did that already, I'm just going to point you to my other post. (Partially out of laziness and partially out of DayQuiliness.) 

But then there are other rules... something about needing to pass the torch and all that. While I agree that it's awesome to show respect and love to our fellow bloggers, I want you to know this: I get that time's limited. Don't follow the rules just because they're the rules. Rules are meant to be broken. 

That said... 

I'm still gonna nominate 5 amazing bloggers and people I've had the privilege of meeting these past few months... They are working on amazing things (or have amazing things ready for you to discover)... 

Go check these fine people out!

• Jack Flacco

• Kendall Grey

• Cheri 

• Nicholas Denmon

• GP Ching