Three Blogging Awards

The incomparable Heather Hufford from Sometimes I'm A Story nominated me for three blogging awards, so first of all, a HUGE thank you to Heather! Go check out her blog, where her updates are frequent, insightful, and incredibly helpful.

The Rules:
♥ Thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their blog.
♥ List the rules and display the award.
♥ Add 7 facts about yourself.
♥ Nominate 15 other bloggers.
♥ Follow on blogger the person who nominated you

Facts about me:

1. I sleep at 9:30. Failing that, 10 pm. Failing that, I'm obviously on Twitter or Tumblr.
2. I've burnt my fringe in a Bunsen burner before.
3. I'm taking English Literature, Chinese Language & Literature, Maths (sigh), Economics, Chemistry, and Biology in my preparatory year for IB. (Hey, they didn't have to be interesting facts.)
4. I'm from Hong Kong and detest that in Hollywood, we're either a centre for mafia or triad operations, or just smashed up (re: Transformers).
5. I hate maths.
6. I listen to very, very few songs; I generally prefer instrumentals. But I'm on 8tracks and trying to change that.
7. I'm an aspiring novelist, writing on Figment and currently working on a project you can glimpse here :D 

Best Blogging Buddies Award

The Rules:

☼You must make a post to show your award on your main blog.

☼You must tag the person who nominated you in your post.

☼You must nominate all of your best buddies, and those whom you want to become best buddies with, who, to your knowledge, have not been nominated for this award.

☼You must ask your buddies at least 15 questions in your post.

☼You must answer all of the questions your buddies ask you on your post.

Who is your favorite author?

Oh my goodness. This is hard. Right now, probably George R. R. Martin, because A Song of Ice and Fire is pure divine awesomeness. Politics and conspiracy and DRAGONS and ice zombies and prophesies, what more can you ask?

If you could meet three people (dead, alive, fictional, etc.) who would you meet?

Future me, which I'll assume is categorised under "etc." I'm really curious how I'll turn out, and I'm willing to kill the cat. Because I'm not a cat. Then Christina from fairy skeletons, who was probably the first internet friend to encourage my writing and blogging, and I'd really love to meet her in real life. And I'd really, really love to meet all the interviewees from World War Z, but if I had to pick one, I'd go with Sensei Tomonaga Ijiro, the blind Japanese ... uh, awesome sensei. Really, I can't define him better than that because he is sheer perfection. "We might be facing 50 million monsters, but those monsters would be facing the gods."

Have you ever written a book?

Yes! I haven't published it, granted, but I've finished Shadowplay, a novel about a politician's rise to dictatorship against a backdrop of civil war and betrayal and intrigue and assassins. Okay, one assassin. But still. And I'm now working on Winner Takes All, a novel about how a peasant girl makes the climb to queen regnant in a world segregated by social convention more than blood. A sneak peek is available here, and I'm still looking for beta readers, so do let me know if you're interested!

What are your top five favorite blogs?

Um, Heather, you know you're on that list, right? Anyways: Heather @ SIAS, Christina @ fairy skeletons, Sam @ Her Inklings, Topaz Winters, and Rona @ It's Rona. Actually, there are like so many more, but these five come to mind straightaway.

Would you rather read an eBook or a paper book?

Paper! Nothing beats the feel of the edges or the smell of ink and paper. That said, I have a Kindle and am not conservative with my purchases.

Do you spend more time reading or writing?

I spend more time doing homework, but within this week probably more reading. But since for Sept-Oct I was chugging away at my WIP one hour per day, every day, for that period it would be more writing. Really depends on what I'm working on. 

Has a book ever made you cry?

... No. I can haz all teh FEELS, but tears don't come to me easily.

Have you ever read a book in another language (other than your mother tongue)?

Haha, I'm bilingual (English and Chinese), so I can immediately say yes since I feel English is my mother tongue and Chinese teachers adore pillow-thick novels.

What is your least favorite fairy tale?

... That's so hard. Um. Ummmmm. Probably Red Riding Hood. The entire story felt really weird to me for some reason. But it's still fun to play with.

Have you ever broken a bone?

My own? No. Other people's? ... I reserve the right to remain silent.

Do you see yourself blogging in the future?

How do you define future? I've got blog posts lined up till the New Year. (On a more serious note, definitely. Blogging's become so much more fun in this year, since I'm learning how to actually connect with readers and other bloggers.)

Who used to read you books when you were little?

... No one? My mum isn't very good at English, and I only liked English books, and my dad worked late at the hostpital, so I read myself books? Or listened to cassette tapes?

Do you belong to any fandoms?

YES! Sherlock, Star Wars, A Song of Ice and Fire, Marvel, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings.

How many books are you reading right now? What are they?

I normally actually read books one at a time. I'm reading the Silmarillion right now, and I really really really want a Christopher Lee voiceover. It's amazing read out but I don't really have the voice for grand, majestic prose.

To whom do you recommend your favorite books?

... I don't recommend favourite books normally? Although I do review books occasionally at Literoses.

Questions for nominees:

1. Imagine a door. Any door. Describe it?
2. Pick up the book nearest to you and read the fifth sentence on page seventy-six.
3. What's your favourite colour? What's the nearest object to you that is this colour?
4. Which is your favourite literary character?
5. Subject you're taking that you hate most?
6. When did you sleep last night?
7. The most amazing thing that's happened to you in the last week?
8. Who's in your profile photo? If it's yourself, what's special about this photo?
9. Favourite OTP ever?
10. Which fandom are you not in but you admire a lot?
11. Favourite fairytale from a country your parents/grandparents/known ancestors were from?
12. What do you find lacking in your life?
13. What are you going to do in the next five minutes, other than answering these questions?
14. What's the one thing you want to change in the world?
15. Freeform — tell us anything you want to say.

The Rules:

♥ Thank the person who nominated you.

♥ Leave a link to their page.

♥ Give a brief story about how you started blogging, and share some tips.

♥ Nominate 15 other bloggers

♥ Notify your nominees by email or comment

How I started blogging:

It's ... sort of embarrassing, but also very brief. Essentially, I started to write, and thought, "Well, a blog's good for that, right?" After a while, I realised that wasn't working and started to share tidbits of my life. Since I'm a generally snarky person, this means a lot of my blog series are snark-based. And then I met a lot of awesome people — whom I'm not naming here but instead nominating in a moment — and this thing started to work. Yeah. That's it. My life is not very scintillating.

Tips

• Remove the Captcha function from comments! It's really annoying to do that, and I've received only a couple of spam comments ever since I disabled it.
• Don't just ramble, have some sort of point you're driving towards. Lists are great for this.
• Reach out into social media with your blog! Twitter, Tumblr, or even other blog memes are great for this. Participation is central!
• Don't just be a blogger — be a reader. 

Okay, and now drumroll please for these amazing people I nominate for all three of these awards:

• AnQi @ Page Eight Hundred Ninety
• Christina @ fairy skeletons
• E. R. Warren @ Rabbits in the Roses
• John Hansen @ Teens Can Write, Too!
• Lydia @ Ink-Stained Hands
• Nivedha @ Infrared Pedestrian
• Rona @ It's Rona
• Sam @ Her Inklings
• Topaz Winters
• Taylor Lynn

Not quite fifteen, I know, but these people are all incomparably lovely and you should check them out. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on my answers; I reply to all comments and would love to start chatting!