A Game of Tag

I have been tagged by fellow SA writer/blogger Misha from My First Book to answer the following questions:


If you could go back in time and relive a moment, what would it be?
That exact moment when I opened the newspaper on the day my Matric results came out and FINALLY discovered what I'd got... And it wasn't just the results themselves, but the entire terrifying world of possibility that lay before me at that point.

If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?
I'd go back to my first year at Cape Town University and HAVE MORE FUN! (I was so darned responsible and boring!)

What movie/TV character do you most resemble in personality?
Ok, this isn't a movie/TV show, it's a book. The reason being because the whole way through reading it I was thinking THIS IS ME! The character was a neat freak, complete germ-o-phobe, scared of getting into trouble for missing classes, and quite happy to stay home and read a book instead of going out and partying. ANNA from Stephanie Perkins' ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS.

If you could push one person off a cliff and get away with it, who would it be?
Go see Misha's answer. We live in the same country with the same unfortunate politicians, and I feel the same way she does about this bloody agent (<--- if you've seen the interview you'll know who I'm talking about!) guy.

Name one habit that you want to change in yourself?
Biting my lip.

Describe yourself in one word.
Busy
(All the time!)

Describe the person who named you in this meme in one word.
Helpful
(She's doing a blog series (here and here) on tips to improve your and your audience's blogging experience)

Why do you blog? Answer in one sentence.
To amass adoring fans To chat with other readers and writers about stories, writing, publishing, rubbish and basically all things book-related.

Name at least three people to send this meme to, and inform them.
These are all people I've met recently:
Carla
Luana
Sammy



AND AND AND!! Don't go yet!

Sarah is hosting a blog hop (and competition!) to build links between and get to know other awesome writers :-)
(And I'm on her 20 Awesome People list! Eeeeee!)

Treasure Hunt Winner!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the X Marks the Spot Treasure Hunt!

I hope you guys had fun finding the golden eggs.

Mr Random.org was kind enough to choose the winner....

who is....

Crystal!

Congrats, Crystal. I'll be sending a $10 Amazon Gift Card your way.

Enjoy :-)

PS. Don't forget about the Power of Tension Blogfest I'm hosting with Cally Jackson!

The Power of Tension Blogfest

tension noun mental or emotional strain; intense, suppressed suspense, anxiety, or excitement.

We all know that in fiction, tension is vital. Tension ramps up the emotional stakes for your characters and keeps readers burning through the pages to find out whether that tension is resolved. Tension comes in many forms – it could be animosity between family members built up over many years, sexual tension between strangers, or jealousy between work colleagues as they vie for a lucrative promotion.

SO, we want to see how tense your fiction can be. Which means... Blogfest Time! 

Yup, Cally Jackson and I our hosting our very first blogfest!

"But, Rach," I hear you say. "I just finished the A to Z Blogging Challenge, and the alphabet is still whirling before my eyes, and to be honest I'm *$%#$#* exhausted!"

And to that I say... "Don't be such a party pooper! I know you've got some fabulous tension-filled scenes filed away somewhere in your computer/notebook/alphabet-filled brain. They're probably the scenes you had the most fun writing!"

Ok fine... What do I do?

Give us an excerpt (up to 300 words) from your manuscript or recently completed work (or just a random scene) that just drips with tension and will tie us up in knots wanting to know more. It doesn’t matter what the piece is about, as long as it screams tension.

What are the prizes?

• 1^st prize: $15 Amazon voucher + interview on Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes OR 1^st chapter beta read by Cally and Rachel
• 2^nd prize: $10 Amazon voucher + interview on Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes OR 1^st chapter beta read by Cally and Rachel
• 3^rd prize: $5 Amazon voucher

Prizes? I’m in! What are the rules?

• The blogfest will run from Monday 23 May to Friday 27 May. (So you A-Z challengers can have a few weeks breathing space!)
• At 12:01am (AEST) Monday 23 May, a linky tool will go live on both Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes.  Post your entry on your blog and then add a direct link to your post to the linky tool on either blog before 11.59pm Friday 27 May.
• Come back on Thursday 2 June to see the six finalists (chosen by us), and then again on Monday 6 June to see the winners!
• All genres and forms of tension are welcome, but if your entry includes anything graphic, please include a warning at the beginning of your post!

Anything else I should do? 

Glad you asked. These aren’t mandatory, but they’d definitely be appreciated :-)

• Include our badge in your sidebar during the duration of the blogfest (download the image above)
• Post and/or tweet about the challenge in the weeks leading up to spread the word.
• Throughout the challenge week, check out as many other entries as you can and give the entrants some comment love!

Can’t wait to read all of your entries. Please leave a comment to let us know you’re planning to enter. :-)

The Big Reveal, and Reflections on A to Z

Ok, so if any of you have ever wondered what the wine bathed (thanks erica!), angel-sculptured (thanks Laura!) me actually looks like, here I am:

So what do you guys think about using a real photo

vs

a cartoon/your pet/a closeup of your eyeball/any other random image?

~ ~ ~

And, in other important news, we survived the A to Z Blogging Challenge!
My reflections:

• Thank you to all the FABULOUS people who visited here and decided it was worth clicking the FOLLOW button. Do you want a reward? Do you? Do you? Awesome! Click here.
• It was a lot of FUN to post about random things for a month instead of always trying to write something about writing! (Can I keep posting randomness?)
• I was very bad about visiting new blogs. In comparison to the whole list I only managed a FEW. I was on holiday with a limited internect connection, using my super slow BlackBerry to check blogs, and I considered it a good day if I even managed to get back to just the people who visited me first.
• I FOUND some awesome new blogs to keep up with :-)
• And... am I going to be doing this again next year? Um *gulp* probably!

Thank you soooo much to Elizabeth Mueller for creating this award for us :-)

Extreme Makeover!

Ok, so I'm not actually making over my blog, but I am making over me :-) Well, not me me, but the way I represent myself across cyberspace. I've been using the same picture on all my different social media platforms, but you can't actually tell from it what I look like.

I guess when I started out in the blogosphere I was scared of using a photo that shows exactly who I am (um... I can't actually remember why now!). Anyhoodle... The time has come (as the Walrus said, to talk of many things: of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of... ... I'm definitely getting carried away here, but I love that poem!) for the great reveal!!

Ok, not great compared to really great things... but still, this is a big step for me!

So come back tomorrow for the great reveal!

Oh yeah, and don't forget about the X Marks the Spot Treasure Hunt. Now that the A to Z Challenge is over you should have time to find the hidden Easter eggs ;-)