Another Blog Award!

Over the last few days, I've been lucky enough to be given the award below four times! Thank you so much, Suzie, Clara, Zoe and Bryan!

(Bryan, I can't seem to comment on your blog - something about a proxy - so sorry for not thanking you there!) 

Rules:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who think you are fantastic for whatever reason! (In no particular order...)
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

So, the

7 Things

1. I'm engaged. (Yep, sorry, had to say it! Still so excited!)

2. My little brother was quite badly bitten by a dog when he was a toddler. Ever since, I have the odd bad dream of him in some kind of life-threatening situation. Yuck.

3. I often stumble across gorgeous pink shoes, but can never wear them because my skin colour's all wrong for the colour pink.

4. To follow on from the above: yes, I love shoes. Absurdly. No, I wouldn't spend five hundred dollars on them like the women in Sex and the City do. (Mostly because I don't have five hundred dollars, but also because I'd rather buy food. Sorry.)

5. I'm about to graduate from university, and am half-sad half-happy to be rid of the student life forever.

6. I've been chased by an elephant three times. While I've been in a car, of course. I don't think I could outrun them on foot. They're very, very fast.

7. I love tigers.

I assume you can't pass the award back to the people who gave it to you? I'd have liked to, but as I suspect that's against the rules, here are the other bloggers and blogs I'm going to pass this award on to (this time) -

Mary McDonald

Talli Roland

Tessa Conte

Elizabeth Mueller

Jane

Saumya

Amy

Bridge Marie

Vix

Roland Yeomans

Pretty things!

I like pretty things. I'm not ashamed to admit that. I like things that look lovely, or interesting, or gorgeous, or just plain pretty - largely because of the way things like that, beautiful and interesting things, inspire me to write, inspire stories, and just offer me some neat eye candy.

For instance, I love this dress. And I love beautiful cities:

  

And I love the countryside. Steve lives in East Anglia, and I'm here visiting for a while. Let me just say, the countryside's gorgeous. I mean, I love the Lancashire countryside too, with its craggy hills and low stone hedges, but this is different: flat land, soft fields, sunsets.

Do beautiful things inspire you?


On the subject of blog awards, Bridge Marie gave me this one. Yay, thank you! 

So, of course, I'm passing it on to a couple of people - to Steve, to Alesa, and to India - all of whom have been brilliant at supporting the blog and critiquing my writing. There are loads of others who have been brilliant too, and I hope you all know how much I appreciate your comments on the blog and how wonderful I think you all are!

Tales of the Week

I'm going to open this post with a question: has anyone ever tried to write a book, find a house and plan a wedding in the same week? 

Yes, it's been a crazy week.

So it all began on Saturday, when Steve proposed. Many of you will know who Steve is, or will have at least seen him in the comments or in a few guest posts, but for those of you who don't, it's probably fairly clear by now that he was my boyfriend/now my fiance. There's a word I never thought I'd use. And lest my somewhat frazzled post suggest otherwise, I am actually terribly excited and happy about it! Yay! I'm engaged!

Of course, this has meant that I've spent the week neck-deep in messages, phone calls and the like from my friends and members of my (very large) family. I've also been neck-deep in planning a wedding (so exciting and so much fun, but, can I just say, so stressful). At least, I've been trying to, what with conflicting schedules, timing problems, legal things, etc etc. 

Yeah. Apparently it's not all gorgeous fashion, presents and pretty tablecloths.



Steve and I have also been looking for house for July, because I pretty much finish at Lancaster in June. And house-hunting, while also fun and exciting (because it's my first one ever), carries its own share of mayhem. Wowee, you wouldn't believe it unless you've done it yourself. But we've found a couple places we really like, and we're going to see them two weekends from now, so that's something near to look forward to!


As mentioned above, I've been trying to write this week too, which has proven more difficult than usual. I've outlined most of TEA WITH DEATH, DESIRE AND RAGE and have done some more work on planning the sequels to ECHOES.


Yesterday, the lovely Tessa Conte gave me this award, so, thank you, Tessa!

Yay!

So, in passing it on, I'm just going to pick five of my many favourite pretty blogs, regardless of how prolific their writers are (no offense to the others, I've had a really hard time just picking five for now!)

1. Jane at Novel Pretender, for her gorgeous background and amazing word cloud

2. Marian at Just a Trifle, because it looks so pretty and it's about Sherlock Holmes

3. Terresa at The Chocolate Chip Waffle, for that beautiful photo at the top

4. Nina at WICKFIELD, 'cause I'm a sucker for Disney

5. The Slushpile Slut, because I'd love a few of those stilettos.

I've decided that next week is going to be a themed week! Themes! Hooray! 


As I feel rather mushy these days (reasons why above), I thought I'd focus on love stories. I'm going to pick five literary or fictional couples, iconic or not so iconic, and write about them. One for each day of the week, Monday to Friday. I'll talk about why I love them as a couple and as individual characters, why the love story works on paper, how it's conveyed, and I'd love any contributions about why you might agree or disagree with me.

Now to pick those couples...


Finally, please don't forget to sign up for the Character Interview Blogfest if you're interested! The signup sheet is in the sidebar, so swing your eyes right!


Happy weekend, everyone!

My very first blog award!

And yes, I am ridiculously excited about this! Jane just gave me this award. Thank you, Jane!

PS. My entry for the Internal Conflict Blogfest is the post below.

About this Award:

A prolific blogger is one who is intellectually productive, keeping up an active blog with enjoyable content. After accepting this award, recipients are asked to pass it forward to 7 other deserving blogs.

 

So I'm passing it on to (in no particular order):

1. India at India Drummond

2. Alesa Warcan at Questing for Food

3. Natalie Whipple at Between Fact and Fiction

4. Vix at Vintage Vixen

5. Jessica at The Alliterative Allomorph 

6. Roland at Writing in the Crosshairs

7. Steve at Blame the Manager