Success: My first ever blog award nomination!!!!

How cool is this?  The kindly man at The Oddity Writer has nominated me for the Liebster Award. A wonderful acknowledgement of my minute size (but heavier sighs) and my somewhat consistent presence.  Thank you Daniel, I am honoured and pleased by your nomination.  Now no award is not without some effort.  In order to get it, I have to plaigiarise from Daniel.  I hope he doesn’t mind.

STAGE ONE! Acknowledge and thank the blog who nominated you.

Done.  See above.

STAGE TWO! Look for an award image that you like, and post it on your blog (or grab the one I have).

This award image was photographed by a lovely lady from Wentworth Falls.  It is me accepting an accolade as an ideas man.  No, I lie.  It’s me posing as Neddie Seagoon having a brainstorm of ideas.  No, I still lie.  It’s me posing as Neddie Seagoon trying to have a an idea with the aid of a hat with a light bulb on it. I confess it was a hard thing to do.  Not the posing with the hat, but the having of an idea.  Generally I have no idea.

STAGE THREE! Answer the 11 questions asked by the person/blog who nominated you.

1. Name your favorite book?

Starting with the simple question, eh?  Tricky.  My favourite book is umm, umm, I like sci-fantasy, I love “The Stone and the Flute” by Hans Bemmann.  It is not all sword and sorcery, it is a gentle tale that moves at a gentle pace, but covers a broad range of social arrangements and a different approach to magic and wonder. I read it when I was twelve and I haven’t stopped since.  My current favourite read is the DCI Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovich. A very funny and very sassy read, think Harry Potter meets police procedural.  The second and third books were crackers, and there’s a comic in the works too.  The illustrations look lovely.

2. Have you ever needed to stand up for what you believed in? and if so, how?

As a Jew, I am not a particularly Jewish poet, though my stories focus on belief systems and the interaction between humans, faith and gods.  I have several very strong Jewish poems that speak against Isreal’s policies, particularly in the way we treat Palestinian citizens.  I am however careful to differentiate between citizens and terrorists.

I used to believe that poets were a more tolerant form of human, but one day (in the 1990’s) during a reading, a poet used a Jewish metaphor that was, in my view, very clearly derogatory.  I was shocked.  I expected that poets in general were above using such old anti-Semitic ideas in modern poetry. I stood up and stated my case about how that made me feel, how slanderous it was.  People applauded.  Sometimes I look back on that moment I wonder if I felt right to do it.  It did at the time, but would I do it these days?  Probably.  I acknowledge people have a right to free expression, but that doesn’t rob me of my right to defend people who are slandered by such awful derogatory beliefs.

3. List one moment in your life where you felt like you were on top of the world.

I married my gorgeous goddess. I held my newborn son for the first twenty minutes of his life.  I won a playwright award. Oh, that’s three.  Sorry, I’m lost in glory.

4. What is your pet peeve?

One pet peeve is that I don’t have a pet.  Also I am ranting about my council’s latest white elephant, the Springwood Cultural and Community Hub, for oh so many reasons.  My wife feels the same.  My biggest peeve about it is the lack of a dignified name.  Why can’t the council call it the Macquarie Centre?  My preference is for the Springwood Folly.  That’s a good name.

5. Name one of your greatest accomplishments.

Getting married and having kids.  Really, I had given up hope of this ever happening,  But I met my gorgeous goddess and she proved me wrong.  (time and time again).

6. What do you fear?

Getting published and people realising that I am a fraud. When I was teaching at university, I felt the same about teaching.  I didn’t put the effort in but I had my students fooled. Probably not my colleagues.

7. What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

Play games on the computer.  More often than I should.  Currently into Wartune.  Used to love the Kingdom of Loathing. Also play Hidden Object Games.  Dissapointed – i should be reading more.

8. How has your blog been a positive influence on your life?

It has given me some discipline to write something everyday.  Almost.

9. What song would best describe your life?

Oh crikey – “Always look on the bright side of life.”  I once said of a friend that “Some people see a glass half-full, some people see a glass half-empty, my friend sees a glass and says “there’s a crack in that.” I think that we should just be happy that we have a glass with water in it.  Some people don’t, some people aren’t, and some people don’t even acknowledge that a glass of water is a gift.

10. Do you have any favorite characters from books, movies or other media?

I absolutely love DEATH from Terry Pratchett’s discworld, the early Moist Von Lipwig stories, and Mustrum Ridcully.  I also love PCI Grant from the Rivers of London, Robin Hobb’s Fool, And every single Goon invented by Spike Milligan.  Needle Nardle Noo.  For my 50th birthday party I had a sci-fiction themed party and I went dressed as Arthur Dent, but my favourites were a family of friends who came as the Whale, the Petunias,Trillian and Zaphod Beeblebrox. My first offical cosplay I went dressed as the Duckman (what duck?).  My next cosplay I want to be Mustrum Ridcully and I am trying to convince my son to be Ponder Stibbons.  Awesome.

11. Who is your role model in life?

I so much want to write a series of novels set in one world like Terry Pratchett and Robin Hobbs.  The one thing I admire about Terry Pratchett is that he never got stale.  His books were fresh, even the later ones. My view is that long running series has a tendency to vanish up the author’s butt.  The writing becomes self-involved and complicated.  It happens with the Wheel of Time, it happens with Thomas Covenant, it happens even with some of the older writers. Dune was a great book as was the second, but it was all down hill from there.  Terry also engendered loyal readers and he encouraged them to explore his world through conventions and clubs.  I don’t see George RR Martin doing that.

STAGE FOUR! Nominating Eleven Blogs (And Informing Them Too)

This was hard.  I had to find eleven blogs which are either less than a year old, or have less than 1000 followers.  Here are my picks.

1,Presh Olive’s Blog

2. Life Love and Other Catastrophes

3. I am not a sick boy

4.  Amy Hogue

5. The Dementia Dimension

6. This heart of flowers.

7.Writing in Devizes

8. Penny’s Space (The Motivational Giraffe creator)

9. Terry Pratchett and Me

10. Celona’s Blog

11. Simon Petrie

FINAL STAGE: Create 11 questions for you guys to answer for the award.

1. What is your funniest joke?

2. What do you enjoy about blogging?

3. Who is the most influential person on your life?

4. What is your favourite tongue twister?

5. Which site do you visit the most and why?

6. What social injustice do you wish to change?

7. Do you play a musical instrument, which one? and if you don’t, which one would you play if you had the opportunity?

8. If you have traveled overseas, what was your favourite place to visit?  If you haven’t where would you like to go first?

9. What is the most treasured item from your childhood that you still have?  Or if you don’t, which item would you like to recover?

10. What book are you currently reading?

11. What’s your favourite comfort food?

Well there you go.  I spent more time finding my eleven sites than I did anything else. I’m off to tell them about it.  I hope my nominees enjoy the questions and am looking forward to their responses.  Stay happy, friends.