Ten Random Facts About Me, and Another Liebster Award!

Big thanks to my friend and fellow struggling author JENNIFER TANNER for honoring my blog with another Liebster Award!

Thanks, Jennifer!

Jennifer also tagged me in her "Ten Random Facts" - this requires me to tag four more blogs and list ten random facts about myself.

The four blogs I'm tagging belong to:

1. GABRIELLA EDWARDS - Her blog is called "The Story of Ro: Confessions of an Erotic Romance Writer." Gabriella is a great friend and long-time critique partner - you can follow her on Facebook here. And if you haven't read UNTIL EMIE yet, what are you waiting for? (Warning: It's HOT!)

2. DEBBIE HAUPT - Her blog is called "The Reading Frenzy." Debbie moderates Barnes & Noble's General Fiction board at BN.com, and reviews for Library Journal, RT Reviews, Mira, Grand Central, Tor, Penguin and more. Stop into BN.com and hang out with Debbie and me!

3. MARY ULRICH - My friend Mary's blog is called "Climbing Every Mountain: A Base Camp for Parents and Caregivers of People with Disabilities." A fellow member of the Ohio Valley chapter of RWA, Mary is also an aspiring writer.

4. CAREY CORP - Carey is another OVRWA friend. Her YA story THE HALO CHRONICLES: THE GUARDIAN was an RWA 2010 Golden Heart finalist. Carey's blog is called "My Own Brand of Madness" - check it out!

Okay, now for Ten Random Facts about me:

1. One of my all-time favorite movies is AMERICAN DREAMER starring Tom Conti and JoBeth Williams.

2. My future husband and I were voted Most Affectionate Couple in the senior issue of our high school paper.

3. I was named after REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM.

4. When I was in high school, I starred in a freshman production of SORRY, WRONG NUMBER.

5. I didn't get my ears pierced until I was 55. I have accumulated an embarrassing number of sparkly earrings since then.

6. In July 2007 I read my first Jennifer Crusie book. In October 2007 I attended Jenny's "Cherry Con" in Covington, KY, which included several writing workshops. It was at this mini-conference that I decided to try my hand at writing fiction. I finished my first story, OVER EASY, in January 2008 - it finaled in three contests. I still like parts of it, and hope to revise it one of these days.

7. Driving: Hate it. I am the world's biggest chicken. I don't like night driving, expressway driving, driving in rain or snow. Yes, I have a license. But I avoid driving as much as possible.

8. I am a greeting card junkie. I collect cards for all occasions so I always have plenty to choose from. Cards with random sayings are favorites, along with anything sparkly. I like to match cards to my friends and then save them until their birthdays.

9. I was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, even though I never lived there. My parents (who were very young - I attended my father's college graduation) flew down to Hot Springs so I could be born at Army Navy Hospital, where my grandfather was Commander-in-Chief. My mom said she was treated like royalty!

10. Speaking of royalty, I once met the Queen Mother (Queen Elizabeth's late mother) at a trade show in England. She had the bluest eyes I've ever seen.

The Lovely Liebster Award

I WON THE LIEBSTER AWARD!

It's always fun to receive an award, especially a cool one like the LIEBSTER.

I'm sending a big thank you to the extremely talented CARRIE SPENCER for giving my blog this coveted award! Carrie can be found at Romance University as well as at her own blog.

In keeping with the traditions associated with receiving the Liebster Blog Award, I must now convey the following:

Winners of a Liebster must:

1. Post the award on your blog and show thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them via the award graphic ~ Check!

2. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog or send them a shout out on Twitter. ~ Check!

3. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the Internet – other writers (and bloggers) ~ Check!

My top picks for the next Liebster are:

1. JESSICA DAVIS - Okay, she's my daughter, but she also has a very cool make-up blog called DON'T CALL ME JESSIE. You can also find lots of cute kitten pictures there!

2. KERI STEVENS - Twitter Goddess, author of Carina Press' STONE KISSED, member of OVRWA, belly dancer, mom, good friend and brilliant critique partner. Keri is multi-talented! Check out her blog LEAP! And love will catch you.

3. JENNIFER TANNER - I met Jen at the Romance Bandits blog some time back. Now we have Romance University in common in addition to being long-distance friends and critique partners. You'll be seeing her name on a book cover before long! Her blog is ROMANCE AND OTHER LEGAL STIMULANTS.

4. RENEE VINCENT, author of RAELIKSEN and others, is a member of OVRWA and a prolific blogger with endless energy and a gift for discovering some of the hottest male models you'll ever see. Her blog is called PAST THE PRINT - don't miss her Wake-Me-Up Wednesday posts!

5. JAN O'HARA - I met Jan through Jennifer Crusie's Cherry Forum several years ago and had the pleasure of meeting her at RWA National in 2009. We belong to a writer's group called the Cherry Tarts. Jan blogs at Writer Unboxed and the always interesting TARTITUDE: Art. Attitude. Vitamin C.

Thanks again for the award, Carrie!

My 40th Anniversary - Again!

Last year, my husband and I celebrated our REAL 40th anniversary - the anniversary of our first date, and the beginning of a long, wild ride. On October 2 we'll be celebrating the 40th anniversary of our wedding - it was a fun day, but we still consider it secondary to our April anniversary.

Yep, that's the famous $12 wedding dress. My mom managed a couple apparel departments at Marshall Field's, including the prom shop. When this dress went on clearance, it was marked down to $20. With her discount, $12. Even in those days, that was freaking cheap! The fancy headgear I was wearing cost more than the dress, and it was painfully anchored to my head with a gazillion bobby pins.

My flowers and wedding cake came from local businesses that had family connections: Jarosch Bakery (one of my first jobs was there - saw Betty Jarosch about a year ago, and reminisced) and Berthold's supplied the flowers. Both are still going strong!

We've been reminiscing, and one of our favorite memories is the music. Neither of us were much on organ music, so when the organ in my tiny Presbyterian church died, we were more than happy to create our own wedding soundtrack.

These songs were among the highlights!























Here are the instructions for the lead-in music:

Some cute cards from my wedding shower:

In Memory...

Spam-a-Lot, or Treasures from the Trash Bin

I must lead a more boring life than I thought, because lately I find myself entertained by the spam that sneaks past the filters on my website.

I can't for the life of me figure out what good it does these people to send me these spams. Do they think I'll visit their websites and buy their products, if they even have such a thing?

Note that I said these comments came through on my website, not my blog. So it cracks me up a little bit when so many of them sing the praises of my wonderful, brilliant, enlightening blog posts. (Except that there aren't any...well, there is a blog attached to my website, but that's not where the comments are sent.)

Maybe I'm just easily amused, but I have to share a few of these. I go through and delete them regularly - I should have saved some of the really mind-boggling ones.

Here's a few from today's virtual trash bin:

"Oh my goodness! a tremendous article dude." (Dude??)

"hi! Great Friday here. This is a super nice article!!" (What article?)

"This really answered my drawback, thank you!" (Huh?)

"Full of propaganda and revisionist history." (Hello? This is a romance writer's website?)

"Your house is valueble for me." (Didn't Agador say this in "The Birdcage"?)

"Great submit. I observed what I was seeking." (So happy for you...I think.)

"A formidable share, I simply given this onto a colleague who was doing a little evaluation on this. And he the truth is purchased me breakfast as a result of I found it for him." (Yeah, um, okay. What he said...)

"Massive thumb up for this blog publish!" (I think that says it all!)

And a new one:

"You pointed roughly finicky subject matter." (I did? Who knew?)

Still more winners (I'm updating this as new spams appear):

"My partner and i no longer nurture doubts including a troubled mind because you totally attended to the needs in this post." (Why do I feel like I need to wash my hands?)

"I am very happy that I stumbled throughout this in my seek for one thing regarding this." (I'm sure this person speaks English better than I speak his-or-her language, but still. My grammar geek gene just exploded.)

I'll have to add more later!

Aaaand...I'm back with another winner:

"In the event you neediness to litigate, you just take up to head to port of entry, he include in concert, provide up into the companionship force stylish the North American country." (Yep, I'll get right on that!)