And the Award Goes to…

Yup, I won a Liebster award!

Thank you, collaredmichael, for nominating me and, boy, are the questions daunting so I’ll do my best (while others I’ll have to stay mum over to protect the guilty innocent) to answer every one.

There are however rules so here they are:

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:

1. Thank the person who nominated you (done – see above), and post a link to their blog on your blog (done);

2. Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.);

3. Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you;

4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself;

5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!);

6. Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer; OR

7. List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.)

8. Once you have written and published it, you then have to inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

Let’s start with the questions:

Questions:

1. How public are you with your blogging? Do you keep it a secret or do your family and friends know all about it?

I’m pretty public about my blogging although no one in my family and friends admits to reading it or care.

2. What is your dream job?

I’m doing it although I’m somehow missing the fully-staffed mansion and the cabana boy.

3.  What physical part of your significant other is your favourite?

 

4.  What human characteristic is the most important?

Being able to listen. We talk too much and there’s not much listening going on. Or if we’re “listening,” we’re also already formulating our response in our heads.

5.  What prompted you to start blogging?

The first time I blogged, it wasn’t called blogging. There was just Geocities and I had just learned how to write HTML and Javascript. These were Frontpage and Dreamweaver if you wanted to set up websites and I did that for clients while building my massage practice. It gave me something to do in between client sessions.

I blogged my poetry first and I also did an online journal where I wrote about my meditations and my muse. I also posted my stories back in 1999.  Here’s a sample –  my Muse’s name was Alexa and she wasn’t a nice person. I miss her. Here’s another one. I even helped one author post her ebook (I just remembered that now) back in 2000 and yet I abandoned my writing and blogging then, returning to it on and off until I returned again in 2012 after my son was diagnosed with autism. I thought I. could blog about my feelings but turns out, I couldn’t. I do better through the filter of fiction.

6.  Have you any piercings?  If not, would you like to have some?

My grandmother pierced my ears when I was about six years old using a heated tip of a safety pin and then alcohol. I remember that quite clearly still. I almost got my tongue pierced after meeting this woman who had one and I thought, whoa, that would be an amazing sensation for (insert then boyfriend’s name here).

7.  What hobby do you have that embarrasses you?

It’s taken me a whole ten minutes sitting here trying to figure this out so I guess none? I crochet, knit, spin wool, collect paperbacks… and maybe purses.

8.  What part of the world do you most want to visit before you die?

England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland. I want to visit the Dales, home of the Brontë sisters. I’ll probably freeze my ass off but I want to inhale that air.

9.  Do you have any tattoos?  What might prompt you to get one?

I have a small one that I got on a trip to Hollywood one day. It was spur of the moment and I picked an initial in a place you don’t normally see them. The initial was for my then-boyfriend whose first name started with the same letter of the alphabet as all the men in my family haha… or while playing beach volleyball and everyone could see it, represented to the boys that P word in erotic novels.

I wanted a full back tattoo once after seeing one of my clients with Kwan Yin on her entire back. But after hearing about all the work that had to go into it, the many visits for this color and that detail work, I’m good with my one teeny one.

10. Do you have sexual fantasies or dreams?  Can you share one?

I’m a submissive who happens to be a brat as well. So my sexual fantasies go the route of the consequences of being one. You’ll have to read my naughty pen’s books to know them but here’s an excerpt (kids, close your eyes):

Deep in my thoughts, I didn’t hear him approach until I felt his hand on my buttocks. “You have a perfect ass, sub. So beautiful. So perfect.”

I barely had time to process his words when I felt a hard smack on my butt and cried out in pain and surprise. What the f*ck? Was that the paddle? The smack came again, as hard as the first and my breath hitched in my throat this time. The pain went from my ass straight to the bundle of nerves between my legs.

He repeated the smacks to my ass two more times before he stopped, his hand caressing my burning skin. “Would you like me to stop, sub?”

I shut my eyes, the sensation of his hand touching my reddened skin making the hair on my arms stand on end. Was it always this good?

11.What is the sexiest piece of clothing/outfit you own?  Have you ever worn it out in public?

It’s a black lace teddy that looks and feels really delicious. Yes, I  have worn it in public under a tailored jacket although it’s been awhile.

Random facts about myself:

1. I’m a Gemini which means I like having two of everything if I can get away with it.
2. I was almost kicked out of school in eighth grade for writing this steamy taboo serial (which was popular in Homeroom, by the way) between an older woman and a younger man. To avoid getting kicked out, I agreed to be placed in the after-school Poetry club where the principal figured I’d get to work on my prose. The principal didn’t even tell my mother (which was part of the ‘deal.’)
3. As a massage therapist, I’ve worked on some of the Who’s Who in Hollywood. I know where they live (or I did and their addresses are in my old schedule book) and they’re just like you and me. Just prettier and richer.
4. My mom used to rent the back house to a mistress who’d get visits from her married lover a few afternoons a week and their window was right across from mine. For a long time, I thought that’s what I would end up as since those were the women (mistresses) I saw the most. That’s probably why #2 was easy to write…
5. My dad owned many businesses including an import/export company, a gas station and a “gentleman’s club” that had massage cubicles in the back. So my idea of massage was pretty much clouded by the memory of walking along this darkened hallway with these doors that said Tahiti, Bahamas, etc. instead of door numbers. It didn’t last long though. Needless to say, when I told my dad that I became a massage therapist, he panicked LOL
6. I draw although I suck when it comes to coloring them, like painting them with oils and acrylics.
7. I like to drive. When I was single, it wasn’t unusual for me to “go for a drive” all the way to Sacramento or San Francisco to visit friends. Or Albuquerque. Just pop my writing and driving music in the CD player and I was off. When I was dating my Mr. Big (Sex and the City reference), he’d rent whatever car I wanted for the month and I was off although I did have to pick him up and drop him off at the airport.
8. One of my former bosses gave me a pair of tickets to a chamber performance she couldn’t attend at the last minute and lucky for me and Mr. Big (then), it was the violinist Isaac Stern who happens to be the best violinist in, like, forever. We sat in the six row, center. It brought to mind that saying about the music of angels; with him it was true. It was heavenly and it was once in a lifetime. He would pass away a year or two later and how I wish I kept that signed CD but I had to give it to my boss as thanks because it turned, she bought the whole package of performances to see Stern.
9. Tom Skerrit sat down next to me at the airport once. But I was so nervous the only thing I could think of was Tom Green’s name so instead of blurting out the wrong name along with “Steel Magnolias!” and “Picket Fences!” I said, “Oh my God, I love your work so much but I forgot your name. But I know who you are.” He said thanks and left. Mr. Big then told me that next time, I should stop while I was ahead. Mr. Big, by the way, is that perfect ex-boyfriend my mom still wishes to this day I married. I call him my Mr. Big and he called me Trouble. He now lives on the Upper East Side and would probably run for office if not for having lived with that girl named Trouble in the past…
10. I used to play beach volleyball, having lived one block from the ocean for about two years in Hermosa Beach. I attended a well-known beach volleyball tournament in Ensenada, Mexico two years in a row so long ago and made it (by accident) to the semi-finals that first year all because of my partner, a semi-pro player who probably regretted ending up with a lucky beginner. It was a weighted blind draw sand doubles volleyball tournament (“CBVA” rules) where the blind part means players don’t pick their own partners.  The next year, I just played drunk and probably had fun more. All I remember were the ballena beers and someone climbing a coconut tree (no, it was not me).
11. Oh, I have to come up with 11? Okay, I like writing poetry but you probably already knew that…

Alright, so now the nominations:

@CarlyQuinn

@thealvarezchronicles

@Sweetgirl

Dacia M Arnold

Congratulations!