7 Random Facts and 7 Wondrous Bloggers

My new blogging buddy Sophia the Writer has kindly dubbed me a Versatile Blogger. What does this mean? It means, among other things, I get a purty award to display!

It also means I have a mission to fulfill.

The rules for this award are:

• Thank and link to the person who nominated me.
• Share seven random facts about myself.
• Pass the award along to 15 new-found blogging buddies.
• Contact those buddies to congratulate them.

Seven Random Facts About Me:


1. My mom's side of the family is British, and my mom was born and raised in Lusaka, Zambia. When I was 16, I spent part of my summer there. My aunt still lives in Africa.

2. As kids, my older sister and I didn't play "Barbie and Ken"; we played "Diane and Charles." (I don't know why she was Diane instead of Diana. Maybe we thought the name Diane was more American?) BUT YES, WE ARE EXCITED ABOUT THE ROYAL WEDDING TOMORROW. WHY DO YOU ASK?

3.  I'm a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do.

4. My husband thinks I have an iron stomach and fears for me. I can eat expired or otherwise "bad" food and drink and somehow emerge unscathed.

5. When I was in junior high and high school, I kept detailed notecards about every Cheers episode I saw, including my favorite quotes.

6. In 2008, I was in a car accident that shook me up so much I rode the bus everywhere for 3 months. In L.A. this is considered eccentric. It sometimes took hours to get places that were normally 25 minutes away.

7. I once modeled in a catalog for chef wear. This is not kinky or a code for anything. It's exactly how it sounds: caps, polo shirts, chef hats and aprons. I think the market was restaurant owners. (I nearly posted pics here but I don't want it to be what pops up on Google images until the end of time. If you'd like to see the evidence, email me, but remember, the photos can't be un-seen.)

Anyone still here after that chilling and sobering glimpse into my past?

To those who remain, here's another confession: I love receiving awards but I'm also kind of a lazy ass who's supposed to be packing for a trip right now, so I'm cutting my mission (more than) in half and linking to 7 lovely bloggers instead of 15. Did I break the chain? I hope there's no curse associated with this kind of loose cannon behavior, because I'd really love to give a sincere shout-out to the extremely cool writers I've met recently, both online and in person.

New Blogging Buddies:

1. Sarvenaz Tash and I share eerily, giddily similar obscure pop culture references. She's a generous, super-fun middle-grade novelist and terrific screenwriter. I know because we've swapped scripts! She held a hilarious Geek-Off recently on her blog that made me realize I need to work harder to claim any title of geek. I believe I'm up to the challenge, however.

2. Leigh Bardugo has a suh-weeet sounding YA fantasy novel (The Grisha) coming out next year, and she met up with me in my old 'hood for drinks and laughs a while back. I'm devouring her analysis (of the analysis...) of HBO's Game of Thrones. She also rocks amazing boots.

3. Sarah Maas is another fabulous YA fantasy novelist I had the pleasure of chatting with recently. Her description of her book, Queen of Glass, in which Cinderella is an assassin, blew my mind and made me delirious to get my hands on it.

4. Alyssa Linn Palmer writes luscious Parisian noir and I'm hoping beyond hope to get her take on my WIP some day!

5. Samuel Park used to run a blog called "Daily Pep for Writers" that I really respected and enjoyed. He's shifted his focus, and rightfully so, to publicizing his novel This Burns My Heart, but he'll be reposting some of his best "Pep" discussions soon and I can't recommend his site enough.

6. Kara Lucas delivers thought-provoking and insightful blog posts on the writing process and motherhood, and I think we're a lot alike when it comes to our gut reactions to Twitter and "new media" in general. I'm looking forward to getting to know Kara better and hearing about her books.

7. Kat Brauer is a new agency mate and spiffy YA author who's raising funds for clean, healthy water in exchange for writing critiques from pros. She lives in Japan, which I think is beyond cool!

I feel lucky and blessed to have met so many lovely writers this year. This is an incomplete list, and I hope to acknowledge more people as time allows. Those I've tagged, feel free to claim your award, list your 7 fun facts and award 15 others if you are so inclined. No pressure, of course. And feel equally free to pull a Sarah and pervert the chain by assigning arbitrary numbers to the task.

(Sophia, are you sure you still want to meet me? :)