The Liebster Blog Award Nomination

So, yesterday I was suffering through an inconvenient bout of hangovers. I went online just to lazy around a bit, but then I saw a message from Kaykay Obi from The Creative Forum (blog) that he has nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award. That truly made my day!

Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers that have less than 200 followers and the purpose is to get to know them since we think that they disserve it. The word “Liebster” is German and means favorite. So here I am nominated for the “favorite blog award” meaning the Liebster Blog Award. I am so excited that Kaykay chose me as one of his nominees!

In order to accept and participate there are some steps:

1. Tell 11 things about yourself.
2. Answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated you.
3. Post 11 questions for those who will be nominated by you.
4. Nominate 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers.
5. Get in contact with those 11 bloggers in order to inform them that you nominated them.

So this is what I am going to do with this post.

11 Things About Me

1. My favourite animal is a wildebeest, but I am fond of all animals with horns
2. I want a fellbeast warhammer-figure (feel free to give me one) 
3. I also want a church in Finland, where I could house a wildebeest
4. I like to call myself a nihilist
5. I don't believe in the future
6. I am not particularly fond of anything relating to modern humans (except some of their inventions, which are pretty neat.)
7. I am addicted to coffee (need at least three cups a day to function)
8. Also addicted to buying books (more than I will ever have time to read) 
9. I love owls because they are basically just cats with wings 
10. I have named all of my most valuable possessions
11. I think the best excuse in the world to avoid doing something is that you have to brush the teeth of your frog (seriously, you should try to use it sometime. I asure you that once you've sprung that one no one will remember what you were talking about in the first place - then you can hurry off and avoid doing whatever you didn't want to.)

11 Questions from Kaykay Obi

1. How would you describe your blog? It is a writer's blog with a narrow focus on my favourite sub-genre: high fantasy. It is dedicated to readers and writers both, though so far it mostly contains reviews.
2. Has blogging made you a better writer? I have only had this blog since December, but in a way I would say it has. I have been doing a lot of reviews and gotten in contact with a lot of other writers and I think that has helped me evolve in that department.
3. What inspired you to start writing? Oh, that is a hard one. I have always loved to make up my own stories and universes. But I guess it would have to be my discovery of Tolkien that truly opened my eyes to what you can achieve as a writer.
4. Have you published any book, if not do you plan to publish soon? I have not published anything as of yet no, but I am working hard to get my first novel finished. I would like to think that it will be published within a year from now. But there is no knowing with these kinds of things.
5. Define what success means to you as a writer? Well, for me I guess that success would mean I could sell enough books to live off of it. Success would be to never have to get a real job.
6. What do you do in your free time? Well, writing, reading and blogging is pretty given. I also listen to a lot of music, play a bit of guitar, do swordfighting in a Historical European Martial Arts club and get lost in fantasy rpg games if that sort of time can be found.
7. Favorite movies? The Lord of the Rings, all three of them (in extended version of course) No doubt about it :)
8. Which is your favorite book and why? That one is hard. It would probably have to be either The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss or Tolkien's The Children of Húrin. Because these are the two books that has touched me the most over the years. I rarely cry over sad things in books, but these two really broke my heart. Actually a lot of Tolkien's other works brought tears to my eyes too, but if I should pick one I think it would be this.
9. Favorite authors? In the spirit of this blog I will only mention the ones within the high fantasy genre: Tolkien, Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie, partially George Martin.
10. What are your hopes for this year? That I will gain more recognition for my blog and that I will see an end to my labours of creating my novel in progress. I hope to get several short stories published as well.
11. Which five words describes you best? Indecisive, book-addict, Hyperborean (the Nietzschean kind), misanthropist and black-metaller. Guess that was techinacally more than 5 words? Oh well.

11 Questions for My Nominees

1. What kind of books do you prefer to read?
2. Which is the best book character you can think of and why?
3. Do you write yourself? In that case have you gotten anything published?
4. If you had to pick three favourite authors, who would it be?
5. Where do you stand in the ebooks vs. printed books discussion? 
6. Do you watch television? If yes, which series do you prefer?
7. What is your favourite hot beverage and when do you like to drink it? 
8. What kind of music do you like to listen to?
9. What do you do for a living?
10. Which is the most interesting place you have ever travelled to?
11. Which is your favourite Disney character?

My 11 Nominees

1. Heather James - Elements of Power
2. Adventures of Life and Literature
3. Book Lust
4. Bella Harte Books
5. In Love With Words
6. Coffee2words
7. The Library Haunt
8. Night Readings
9. Writing Space
10. Afternoon Bookery
11. Endless Days of Literary Ectasy

To my nominees: if you decide to participate, please link me to your posts so I can see your answers and nominees :)