The Liebster Award

By: Meradeth Houston on 7:00 AM

A very big thank you to Lorrie Struiff for nominating me! Very much appreciated :) Also, she has an awesome blog, so I highly recommend checking it out!


What is The Liebster Award you ask? 
Well, it's an award given to up-and-coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Think of it as a virtual pat on the back. A bit of recognition for doing a good job and encouragement to keep going.
And let's not forget the bloggers that have been blogging for a while and have great blogs.
(Yeah, that last line is needed here--definitely don't exactly fit the 200 followers thing, but that's cool!)

So Lorrie has some great questions for me to answer:

Perfect!

1.      If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would purchase?
>A plane ticket somewhere warm. Preferably with a large house on the beach somewhere waiting for me. (Can you tell is hasn't been above freezing here for a while. Brrr!)

2.      Is there something unique about you that you’d like to share with the readers?
>Unique or weird? I could do either... I'm going to go with weird. It's more entertaining. Okay, so I can move my eyelids back and forth horizontally (not just blinking). I should take a video to make this clear, but I'm really soooo not going there.

3.      Where is your dream place to live and why?
>Hmm, somewhere warm! Actually, if I had my druthers, San Diego if I were staying state-side, and probably somewhere in Spain if not.

4.      What do you find is the most difficult part of the writing process?
>Revisions! Arg. I love drafting. Fixing my giant mess into something resembling a book afterward? Not so fun :)

5.      Tell us something about yourself that we don’t know.
>Hmm, what secrets hadn't I divulged on here? Probably that I hate veggies. Honestly, don't eat em. It's not something I'm proud of, and I'll regret it at some point I'm sure, but that's okay.

6.      Do you have any pet peeves?
>Aside from students who expect to be spoon-fed their studies without having to put in any effort? Not really :)

7.      Do you have any special habits you do when you write?
>I adore writing in cafe's, or any place with other people. People watching is particularly inspiring for me!

8.      Did you ever write your friends or family members in your books?
>Nope. And hope I never do! I may borrow little quirks and such, but never a whole person (Mom, you can stop worrying about this now!)

9.      What is your favorite drink?
>Hot chocolate. I make it from scratch just about every day.

10.    Who gives you the best encouragement to keep writing?
>The utter release I get from writing--escaping into my own private world is seriously the best reward.

11.    Do you have a critique group or a special author circle?
>Oh, thank heavens, yes. I love my writing buddies. They keep me sane!

Okay, the last part of this award is to list 11 random things about myself. This may get strange!

1) I love studying dead people--no really. Like long dead. 2) I can name all of our hominin ancestors and write them out in the currently understood order. 3) I'm a scientist of the white-coat variety, can ya tell? 4) I think PCR is quite possibly the most elegant thing one can do with heating and cooling and heating again (I hate that this really good joke will be lost on most, but watch this to see what I mean--it's too funny!). 5) I still hate statistics, even though I have to teach it. 6) I've been writing in my journal daily since I was too little to write--I used to make my mom do it for me. Wow am I a nerd. 7) If I could figure out genetic engineering, I'd totally figure out how to give the ability to fly. 8) Are you still reading this? Seriously? 9) If I could meet anyone from the past I'd love to have a long chat with Gregor Mendel. I have a historical crush on the guy. 10) I make jewelry in my spare time. What spare time? The same spare time I use to write books. 11) Someday I'll be a best-selling author, come hook or crook!

Okay, so for the tagging, I am beyond pleased to pass along this award to Katie Carroll (have you read Elixir Bound? You really need to!) and her fabulous blog. Go check it out!

Also, another fellow MuseItUp author Michelle Pickett! You should also seriously go check out her Concilium series--it's awesome!! Check out her blog here!

Both of these awesome ladies are asked to answer the questions I was given above, and pass along the award :)