I won a Liebster Award!

I was surprised recently when Mark Beyer gifted me this Liebster Award for blogging. Is another blog game with a few simple rules:

1. You post 11 random facts about yourself.

2. Answer the 11 questions your presenter gave you.

3. You pass the award on to 11 other bloggers.

4. Compose 11 new questions for your recipients.

I’d like to thank Mark for a most unexpected gift. Now, given that I just did a random facts game this month, I’m going to skip that feature and go straight to the interview. If you’re dying for more information about me you can read that, or follow me on Twitter. Many random facts appear on there.

On to Mark’s questions!

1. Do you have a favorite blog-post title you came up with?
   It may be for a story post that I’m holding off until 2013: “The Only Thing Worse Is The Cure.” Positively smitten with that title.

2. Which is your preference, Books or Movies?

Different media for different moods. Sometimes I want to re-read Jurassic Park, sometimes I want to re-watch it. Sometimes I crave to go sit in a theatre, or fire up Netflix, and sometimes I want nothing more than to hike down to the lake and read, you know?

3. What’s the worst book you’ve ever read?

Sudoku, the ending was so obvious that it was insulting. Really, what would this mean? I know immediately after a bad experience with a book I may think “This is the worst ever,” but I don’t believe in quantitative assessment to this degree. Books can fail in too many ways, and then have the audacity to succeed for anyone else. If you want your mind to boil over at disparity, just follow a Twilight hashtag for an hour.

4. What 3 books would you want with you on a desert island?

A 4G MacBook to e-mail for help, and then whatever two books are on the top of my reading pile to tide me over until the Navy arrives. Right now that would be Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You Mr. Rosewater and George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons.

5. How would your life change significantly if there were no computers?

Computers store all the information on my health and medication, and with my health, there’s a decent chance I’d be dead after a bit. Also with all the failing computers ending internet and cell phone communication, the riots would get pretty bad. No stop lights. No flights. Most cars have chips in them, so lots of accidents. Plus I’d lose this computer with all my writing on it, which might send me out for a deliberate car accident. To have loved and lost computers would be worse than to have never known them at all.

6. How much sleep do you need overnight?

8-10 hours depending on how badly the syndrome is hitting me. My body goes into heavy repairs at random.

7. What’s the last thing you made?
A mistake. I’m great at making those, especially when I like someone.

8. Hold your breath for as long as possible and time yourself. What’s the result?

I used to play this as a kid, and I’m be punching at the air and squeezing my nose to make it to sixty seconds. I made it to sixty-four while typing answers to the rest of this. Asthma can suck it.

9. What’s the average (guesstimating) length of your blog posts?

Under 1,000 words. It varies wildly – I did a weekly Monster Haiku feature for a while, and my #fridayflash bounce for length weekly. If I routinely went over 1,000, I don’t think I’d be nearly as far along on my novels.

10. What are you going to have for lunch tomorrow?

With family arriving for the holidays all throughout the day, I’m hoping we get lazy and do tacos. Something on the stove for everyone who walks in. This reminds me to check if we have any shells.

11. What art do you have on your walls?

None. I used to decorate my walls as a kid, and was very into comic book posters in my teens. As an old man, it’s not really my style. I have a bookshelf and a mirror. My grandparents once tried to get me to adopt a giant photo of Bobby and John Kennedy, but it looked too morbid. I bring the morbidity whenever my room needs it.

There we go! But before we depart, I’d like to pass this quiz on to a few people:

-Danielle La Paglia

-Cindy Vaskova

-Tim Van Sant

-Tony Noland

-Sayer

-Helen Howell

-Icy Sedgwick

-Randall Nichols

-Peter Newman

-Cathy Webster-Oliffe

-Sylvia Van Bruggen

I think they’ll have some fun with my questions. And those questions? Why, they’re right here:

1. If you were given sheltered time tonight to watch any one movie, during which no one would walk in, call, or text to bother you, what would you pick?

2. What’s the last book that left you envying the writer?

3. What did you envy about that book?

4. What’s your favorite phone call that you’ve ever received?

5. What is the most recent food you couldn’t resist?

6. What is the sickest burn anyone has ever laid on you?

7. What is the sickest burn you’ve ever laid on someone else?

8. Has there ever been an instance where it felt like any media had made you more violent? Can you recall an instance?

9. Has there ever been an instance where it felt like any media had made you kinder? Can you recall an instance?

10. You’ve got a friend named ‘John’ who tends to listen to musicians one song at a time, and dislikes albums. You’ve got a band you want him to try. What song do you recommend first?

11. The ghost of a loved one is going to try to communicate with you through a car stereo. It’s all that was available at the time, don’t judge. You don’t have to tell us who it is or what they wanted to say, but you do have to tell us what the song would be.

And there we go! Please link me back here once you answer, folks - I'm pretty sure this will be entertaining.