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Monday, April 29, 2013

Getting to Know You...The Liebster Award

I've been nominated for the Liebster Blog Award Challenge by ANITA DAVISON (also writing as Anita Seymour), author of the Royalist Rebel and also by ANNIE SEATON, author of A Holiday Affair and other great books...and also a fabulous freelance editor. Rather than do two different blogs, I have joined them together!

The purpose of the challenge is to help bloggers increase their followers. I have to tell you eleven little known things about me and then answer eleven set questions and nominate eleven other bloggers to take the challenge after me.

For the nominees below:
Post on your own blog, linking back here, with eleven random facts, answer my eleven questions and nominate eleven new bloggers with eleven questions to ask them!  Don't forget to link back to me so I can read your answers :-)


OK here goes: 

Alison on the Camino Santiago de Compostela
Eleven little known facts about Alison Stuart:
  •  As a child I almost died of meningitis
  •  I am an Anglican Church lay reader
  •  I have walked the Camino Santiago de Compostela (or at least the last 115kms)
  •  I have visited a refugee camp on the Thai Burma Border to teach a group of amazing young women at the Karen Young Women’s Leadership School about the United Nations conventions on the rights of women.
  • I love needlework - cross stitch and patchwork/quilting
  • I am owned by 2 cats - the Kat brothers, Oliver and Toby
  • I am a Capricorn
  • I own very few "How to Write" books - hubris or fear?
  •  In my younger days I did a bit of amateur musical theatre...mostly Gilbert & Sullivan which probably accounts for the Ruddigore references in GATHER THE BONES.
  • My favourite thing to do on holidays is go on ghost tours. 
  • I only like dark chocolate...good dark chocolate. 
Alison (far left) at the Karen Young Womens' Leadership School in 2006

Annie's Questions:
  1. What sort of books do you like to read? Crime and mystery.
  2.  Do you believe in love at first sight? Yes
  3. When the coffee runs out, what do you like to drink? Gin and tonic
  4. Do you prefer sad or happy endings? Has to be a happy ending. Too many sad endings in real life.
  5. If you could meet anyone and spend an hour with them alive or dead, who and why? I would like to meet my great+ grandmother Helene deMestre and find out the real story behind her 3 husbands...
  6. What did you do all day before the internet was invented? I did a lot more sewing and needlework and I actually wrote books.
  7. What is your favourite movie?  Depends on my mood...but  LOVE ACTUALLY is a repeat viewing in my house.
  8. What is your ideal holiday destination?  My husband and I love getting out into the Australian outback...even if it takes 3 days driving!
  9. What's your favourite thing to do when you're not writing?  Needlework
  10. Do you have a book in your house that's just destroyed because you've read it so much?  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (the original edition I bought in Haworth when I was 11)
  11. Do you set yourself some strict rules while writing?  Rules are made for breaking...

Anita's Questions

  1. Belgian chocolate or Pino Grigio?  Belgian chocolate - purchased from the Corne Royale shop in Brussels just off the Grande Place...
  2. Ryan Reynolds or Matt Damon?  Those are my only choices...?
  3. Ben and Jerry’s [any flavour] or crème brulee?  Creme brulee...never tasted Ben & Jerrys (American icecream isn't it?)
  4. Orlando Bloom or Johnny Deppe?  Tough call...Loved Orlando in LOTR and Johnny in Chocolat,
  5. Roasted duck breast or grilled goat’s cheese?  Can't I have both?
  6. Gourmet dinner out or nachos and salsa in front of the TV?  See answer to 5 above...
  7. Jamie Oliver or Raymond Blanc? Jamie!
  8. Christmas turkey with cranberry sauce or goose with spiced orange sauce? See answer to 5 above...
  9. Jason Statham or Daniel Craig? Daniel.
  10. Who would you cast as the hero in a film made of your latest novel?  Only one actor could have played Paul Morrow in GATHER THE BONES - the young Nigel Havers
  11. Who would you cast as the heroine in a film made of your latest novel?  For Helen Morrow, the Australian heroine of GATHER THE BONES - Jessica Marais
Nigel Havers contemplating the role of Paul Morrow!
And now for my nominees:
And here's my questions for them:
  1. Gold or silver?
  2. Best book read in the last 12 months?
  3. Happiest memory of childhood?
  4. Favourite season?
  5. If you could travel anywhere in the world and money was no object...where would you go and why?
  6. Favourite TV show?
  7. What is the one skill you wished you possessed?
  8. What is your most favourite post from your own blog?
  9. What is a favourite post from someone else's blog?
  10. Any phobias?
  11. Two sentences to describe your latest (or just about to be released book)?
Hope you enjoy getting to know some "new to you" authors :-)