The Liebster Award

The first I heard about the Liebster Award was when I read a post on my blog from Teagan Kearney saying that she had nominated me. I have been following her on her excellent blog, Writing My Novel - No Working Title Yet for almost as long as I have been writing my own blog. In Teagan's words, I've been 'Liebstered!'

The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have a following of between 200 and 3000 – depending on which resource you read. You can just accept the award as an honorary one if you don’t wish to pass it on, but I’d like to accept it in the spirit it was given and hand the baton over to other bloggers. 

Here are the Liebster Award rules:

Thank and link back to the person who nominated you.

A big thank you to Teagan for nominating me. If you are writing a novel and haven't found her blog yet, just click on http://writingmynovelnoworkingtitleyet.blogspot.co.uk/ You will find lots of useful information about all aspects of novel writing.

You can also follow her on Twitter @modhaiku. I particularly love the fact that each of her blog posts contains a haiku that she has written.

Answer the questions posed.

Here are the questions that Teagan set for me to answer

• What is your earliest childhood memory?

Now this answer gives away my age! When I was very young, we lived a few doors away from my grandad and I spent a lot of time at his house. One day, I found an old HMV gramophone and lots of 78 rpm records tucked away in his shed. From then on, I loved winding it up and playing the records. It would keep me quiet for hours.

• What was the first story/poem you ever wrote?

I can't remember any of the stories or poems I wrote as a child but I started writing fiction for the first time when I retired. I joined a local writing group and the first story I wrote had to open with the words 'She peered closer inside the church.....' It was about a newborn baby being abandoned on the chancel steps.

•  Post a link to your favourite poem.

Those of you who follow my Jan Baynham Writer page on Face Book will know how much I love the work of Dylan Thomas. His centenary is being celebrated this year and I have been reminded of his wonderful command of language. It was hard to choose a favourite but I think it has to be 'Fern Hill'. Here it is, read by Richard Burton. 

• Who do you admire, in terms of style, as a writer? 

My work-in-progress novel has a dual narrative, Clara's story set in 1965 and Rose's story set in 1947. My tutor, Lynne, suggested that I read Maggie O'Farrell's novel 'The Hand That First Held Mine' to see how two narratives can work alongside each other. Since then I have read and enjoyed two more of Maggie O'Farrell's novels.

• What is your current writing goal?

My main goal is to finish the first draft of my novel. I keep getting distracted by writing short stories!

• Who is your celebrity crush?

No contest here - it has to be George Clooney!

• Post a link to your favourite painting.

Again, it was difficult to pick a favourite but I love this one entitled 'Snowdon From Ty Obri' by Kyffin Williams.

•  What do you think is your biggest obstacle to achieving your goals?

I need to spend time getting immersed in my novel and getting to know my characters really well. At the moment, I leave too long in between writing sessions so that I have to pick up the thread again when I have left the novel to write other stories.

• What wish is at the top of your bucket list?

At the very top has to be every writers dream, I'd love to get published and see my novel in print. 

• Post a link to your most popular post.

The post that appeared to have the most interest is the one I wrote about attending the Woman's Weekly Writing Workshop

Choose a number of bloggers to nominate.

I understand that this varies according to your research. The number you can choose is between three and ten. I’m going to nominate three bloggers because a number of the writers I follow were involved in a chain blog just before Christmas - in fact that was how I got started writing my own blog. I couldn't take part then! 

Here is my choice of three writers: 

Samantha Bacchus is someone who is very supportive of a newby like me. She retweets and replies regularly on Twitter @Sammylou37 and leaves posts on my blog. She is documenting her own writing journey, writing both short stories and a novel, on Samantha's Blog: Living The Write Dream. 

Mary Papas is another writer I follow. On her blog Mary Papas, you will find interesting posts about books, authors and stories. One of the features on her blog that I particularly enjoy is the Question and Answer section where we can read her interviews with other authors.She lives in Greece, one of my favourite parts of the world. You may follow her on Twitter @MaryPapas2.

Alice Elliott is a writer whose progress I'm following. I first came across Alice's writing on Alfie Dog Fiction where we both have a number of short stories published. She blogs about reading and writing on AliceInWritingLand. She may be followed on Twitter @alice_writing.

Make up more questions for your nominees to answer.

Here are my questions for my nominees:

1. Who is your favourite author?
2. When is your favourite time for writing?
3. What is your current work-in-progress and what inspired you to write it?
4. Does your writing fit into a particular genre?
5. If you could invite three people from history to dinner, who would they be?
6. What book are you reading at the moment?
7. What book that you've read has successfully been turned into a film? 
8. Post a link to one of your favourite poems.
9. What do you like to do when you are not writing?
10. Whose blog - not already mentioned here - would you recommend for writers to follow?

I look forward to reading the answers from Samantha, Mary and Alice. Look up all three writers on their blogs. I know you will find their posts interesting.

Thank you once again, Teagan,  for the nomination. I can now display this on my blog!

Thank you all for reading.