My First Ever Blogger Awards.

GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT! I RECEIVED A BLOGGER AWARD! And apparently it was worth the wait because not only was one award given to me but...THREE!

*fans face to keep from fainting*

And Melanie Stanford is the lovely lady who gave me all three!

Here are the first two:

                                 AND

Here are the Rules for these two:
~ Thank and Link to the person who nominates you
~ Share Seven Random facts about yourself
~ Pass the award to five more blogger friends
~ Contact and congratulate the blogs nominated

7 Random Facts About Me

1) My favorite color is purple

2) I have this huge fasination with mermaids. I collect figurines, art, anything mermaid. And the darker the better. I have this whole world of theirs in my mind and I'm pretty particular about it. :)

 

3) I am a Twihard. There. I said it. And...

4) Seeing as I'm a Twihard, and I love all things mermaid, my sister and I play with each others pictures on Face in the Hole and according to the pictures, I've swam with a tail in the ocean and stood between Edward and Jacob's argument, with a smile.

5) I am horrible at cracking raw eggs. I seem to always get shell in the bowl and I end up having to ask my ten year old daughter to crack them for me.

6) I adore dogs! And my phone is full of pictures I've taken of my dogs. When I can, I love getting my grubby clothes on and rolling around in the dirt with them.

7) And the last one is, that I have been certified in three different professions. 1- Optician. 2- Childbirth Educator. 3- Birthing Doula. Hopefully I can use my experience in these very different professions when writing future books.

The last and in no way least award I received today is the:

The Rules on this one are:

1. Show your appreciation to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the camaraderie of the most supportive people on the internet—other writers.
5. And best of all—have bloggity fun and spread the love.

Here are the five friends I'm passing the Versatile Blogger and the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award to:

Heidi Willis

Alison Miller

Shannon Lawrence

Ellen Brickley

Pk Hrezo

Here are the five friend I'm passing the Liebster Blog Award to:

April Gardner 

Sarah Sundin 

Casey Harringshaw 

Elizabeth Mueller 

Rhonda Gibson 

YA Road Trip: Writers Block

This Week's Topic:
How do you beat writer's block?
Do you go for a jog? Read a book? Go to a movie? Come on, share your secret - we're dying to know! 

The view from a walk with my family

A published author told me once that sometimes you have to pull yourself away from your work to gain a fresh, new perspective. So, when I hit writers block and no matter how hard I try I can't seem to get my way around it, I pull myself away. I live life, go hiking, work out, play with my family, do daily chores, read great books. Usually, when I least expect it POP the idea I had been searching for to push the story ahead comes to me.

And if that doesn't work, or I don't want to wait...

I have a brainstorming session with my best friend who also writes. :) If I'm really lucky, our brainstorming is amidst tall fir trees and waterfalls on an awesome hike. 

Hiking with my Rayna

RIPPLE by Mandy Hubbard

A few months ago, I was searching the internet for new and soon-to-be-released YA books when I stumbled upon Ripple by Mandy Hubbard. It was one of the soon-to-be-released and once I read the story description, I started counting down the days till I could hold it in my hot little hands. 

Then that glorious day came and as I studied the front cover, I noticed that there were scales on the back of the main character's calves! No Tail? Immediately I knew this mermaid book would not be like the others. So, imagine my delight when I opened the book and on the very first page she explains her first love and then that he was also her first victim! 

HOOKED!

Here's the description from Amazon:

Lexi is cursed with a dark secret. Each day she goes to school like a normal teenager, and each night she must swim, or the pain will be unbearable. She is a siren - a deadly mermaid destined to lure men to their watery deaths. After a terrible tragedy, Lexi shut herself off from the world, vowing to protect the ones she loves. But she soon finds herself caught between a new boy at school who may have the power to melt her icy exterior, and a handsome water spirit who says he can break Lexi's curse if she gives up everything else. Lexi is faced with the hardest decision she's ever had to make: the life she's always longed for - or the love she can't live without? 

I naturally gravitate toward mermaid novels, and this one hooked me from page one because it's a different take on the whole mermaid tale. One in which mermaids are not sweet, innocent maidens. I liked how Mandy Hubbard broke some of the normal assumptions of mermaids such as giving her mermaid legs, and other twists you'll have to read the book to learn about. 

If you like paranormal, urban fantasy or just mermaid stories, you should check this book out. Lets just say I never found myself wanting to put the book down. And the end seems to wrap everything up beautifully, but from the author's website, it looks like she's doing another, making this a two part series. So I'm interested to see where she takes the second book.

Plus, the author, Mandy Hubbard is from the Pacific Northwest which is my neck of the woods (literally, lots of fir trees). And the fact that she sets the story in Oregon just puts the cherry on top for me. :)

Have you heard of this book or read it? What did you think?

Novel/Film Blogfest!

Over at Scribble and Edit, Madeleine has asked us a fun question for today's blogfest.

How many works of fiction have you seen BOTH the film/TV drama and read the original book, play or comic story?

Here's my list. I'm wincing because it's pretty short in my opinion. 

Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

Breaking Dawn (soon) :)

Vampire Diaries

True Blood

Anne of Green Gables

The Notebook

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

So, what's your list look like?