I've Received the Liebster Award!

 

THANKS SO MUCH TO T. A. MILES

FOR AWARDING THIS BLOG THE
LIEBSTER AWARD!

 

Visit T. A. Miles' blog The Immarcesible Word

 

Here are the rules

1. List eleven random facts about me.
2. Nominate eleven bloggers for the Liebster Blog Award.
3. Notify the bloggers.
4. Ask eleven questions the bloggers must answer upon receiving the nomination.
5. Answer the eleven questions you were asked when you were nominated.
6. Link back to the person who nominated you.

 

Eleven random facts about the TermiteWriter

 

1.  I’ve never had mumps, but I have had chicken pox and measles.

2.  I escaped getting polio during the epidemics of the '40s.

3.  My mother loved playing the piano, but I never learned because we moved around too much. 

4.  I did play the violin briefly from the ages of 9 through 13, but I’m not very musical.

5.  The only professional sport I follow is ice hockey.

6.  In junior high I wanted to be a movie director.

7.  In high school I adjusted my ambition downward and decided to be a history teacher.

8.  In college, I disliked my history teachers and loved my English professors, so I switched my major to English and decided I wanted to teach college.

9.  Graduate school was a somewhat disillusioning experience, so I switched to librarianship.

10.  I used to catalog books the old fashioned way, without computers.

11.  What I was best suited for all along was a career writing fiction, but it took me a long time to learn that (of course, I’d have starved to death if that was what I’d done for a living!)
 

My answers to the eleven questions proposed by T. A. Myles
 

1. What’s the funniest movie you’ve ever seen?

I’m not a big movie buff, especially in the second half of my life.  I can’t recall any that really cracked me up.  I did get a kick out of a the “Ice Age” movies and I love “The Princess Bride.”

2. What’s your earliest memory?

A pleasant one from when I was maybe two or three is sitting on the bed with my grandmother, peeling and eating oranges and learning how to use scissors (not to peel oranges!) 

3. What was your favorite subject in school?

English, Spanish, history, and drama club.  I liked chemistry because I had a good teacher.  Math – yuck, unfortunately.

4. Have you EVER had a need for algebra away from the school environment?

As a matter of fact, yes!  When I was writing The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars (my eternal WIP), I had to calculate astronomical distances as well as orbits (the book is about the first interstellar voyage, to Epsilon Eridani).  It would have been much less tortuous if I had remembered anything about my high school math!

5. Do you understand modern art (or even know if it’s hanging the right way up)?

Well, I may not understand all of it, and I might not always know if a painting is the right way up, but I like some of it.  However, I really prefer art with at least a nod toward representation.  Symbolic art is great!  Love surrealism!

6. Most enjoyable book?

I have to say Lord of the Rings, since it’s the book with the greatest influence on my life.  However, my favorite book of all time is Island of the Mighty, by Evangeline Walton.  For pure enjoyment, I probably ought to say The Secret Garden, which I read 14 times when I was eight years old – memorized the whole first chapter!

7. Have you ever spent money on something you’ve really wanted although you could hardly afford it at the time?

Not really; I’m frugal by nature and upbringing.  Maybe my cap and gown, which I purchased when I graduated from UCLA with my library degree.

8. Apart from when you were a child, have you ever danced in the rain?

I don’t remember doing it even as a child.  Kind makes you equivalent to a turkey, right?

9. What country would you like to visit that you haven’t?

There are many countries that I would like to see (the British Isles, France, Italy, Greece, etc.), but since I hate to travel, I’ll stick to documentaries and books! 

10. What makes you grumpy?

Getting all settled down in the recliner, immersed in something I really want to see on TV, and then having the phone or the doorbell ring.

11. What’s your GO TO switch to make you feel better on a gray day?

I don’t mind gray days, as long as the electricity stays on!
 

 I'm going to cheat and keep the same questions for my nominees to answer.  Here they are listed to make them easier to copy:

1. What’s the funniest movie you’ve ever seen?
2. What’s your earliest memory?
3. What was your favorite subject in school?
4. Have you EVER had a need for algebra away from the school environment?
5. Do you understand modern art (or even know if it’s hanging the right way up)?
6. Most enjoyable book?
7. Have you ever spent money on something you’ve really wanted although you could hardly afford it at the time?
8. Apart from when you were a child, have you ever danced in the rain?
9. What country would you like to visit that you haven’t?
10. What makes you grumpy?
11. What’s your GO TO switch to make you feel better on a gray day?
 

And the nominees are ... (envelope, please!)

 

Marva Dasef

Vanessa Chapman

Chris the Story Reading Ape

Tara Adams

Anthony J. Waller
Fel Wetzig
Jenna Christopherson
Max Cairnduff
Sandra Tyler

I know this is only nine, but it's all I can come up with right now.  And I know some of these blogs have been nominated before, but they all continue to be worthy of notice!