Mermaid Tales: Liebster Award 2014

Thanks to Chloe at Wanderlust in the Midwest, I was nominated for a Liebster Award! It's an award given to relatively new bloggers with a following of under 200 to spread the word about their blog! Each person who receives this award must nominate 11 other people (I only have 10, sorry!), list 11 facts about themselves, answer 11 questions that the nominator made for them, and then write 11 questions for the 11 people they choose!

Here are 11 facts about me:

1) I'm from New York, but I love South Carolina as if I were raised there

2) I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember (in my fifth grade yearbook I wrote that I wanted to be an author when I grew up). I really love writing fiction, and I've written a few unpublished novels.

3) I read Harry Potter in under a month when I was six and from that point on I was officially in love with reading

4) In 6th grade I spent every single moment reading. Seriously, I read 52 books in just the second quarter of the school year when we were only required to read 2 (I guess I was a little weird).

5) I went to the University of South Carolina for a semester, but I then transferred to a school in upstate New York. Sometimes I regret the switch and sometimes I don't.

6) I really love singing, but I can't sing in front of anyone.

7) When I was at USC, I joined Alpha Gamma Delta as a founding sister of the USC chapter.

8) I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia when I was 16.

9) I really love to paint.

10) I hope to always have the freedom to travel.

11) I've particpated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 4 times and won 3 of those times. It's a challenge for writers to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

Chloe's questions:

1) What's one thing that you really want to learn?

I started taking flying lessons from my dad when I was younger, but I never kept up with it. How awesome would it be to have a pilot's license?!

2) What are your go-to beauty products?

I'm pretty simple. I stick with Clinique moisturizer, bronzer, black eyeliner, and mascara.

3) What do you love about yourself, and why?

I had to really think about this question, but I love that I love writing. I love that nothing makes me happier than finishing a short story, a blog post, or even a novel. When I was in high school I took advanced English classes with a particularly difficult teacher and always received B’s on my papers. I was so discouraged, I thought I would never be a good writer, but now I realize that I was still learning. Now I hardly ever receive less than an A on a paper.

4) If you could spend two weeks exploring any country, which one would it be, and why?

France! I know that's so stereotypical, but I would love to sit and write in the same cafes that so many great writers have produced their best work in! (I really love Hemingway) Also, I'd love to visit the beaches of southern France.

5) Where do you envision yourself in five years?

Hopefully with my boyfriend, running my own business, healthy, and living comfortably.

6) What led you to your path of study and/or career?

I'm majoring in economics, which I chose because microeconomics was the first class I've ever taken that gave me a challenge but didn't bore me to tears. I'd love to pick up business skills from my classes, but I don't think you'll find me working in economics in the future. Confession: I wish I was an English major.

7) What's one little luxury in which you like to indulge?

I love chocolate (read: addict). I know everyone loves chocolate, but I can't get through the day without a little bit between classes.

8) How do you hope to impact the world?

I'd like to write words that mean something to someone. I want the stories I write to be relatable. Hopefully, one day I’ll write a young adult book that will help make high school a little more bearable for someone.

9) What are your five favorite books, and why?

1.The Picture of Dorian Gray~ Oscar Wilde

2.Anna Karenina~ Leo Tolstoy

3.Inkheart (childhood favorite)

4.The Bell Jar~ Sylvia Plath

5.Harry Potter (of course)

10) How did you spend last summer?

At home writing and hanging out with my dogs outside.

11) Where would you want to take your honeymoon, and why?

Ideally somewhere beautiful and warm, but the location doesn't matter as much as the happiness I feel with the person I marry.

And the people I nominated are....

1) Emma at The Collegiate Ginger