The Mystery Blogger Award Part Two

“Mystery Blogger Award” is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion.

Part two of The Mystery Blogger Award comes with answers to all the questions I was asked by my remaining three nominators. I was tagged by Jacquie at Rattle the Stars, Michelle at Sherbet Lemon Reviews, and Tinka at The Crazy Reader. Thanks so much for the tag everyone, I had a lot of fun with this one.

Rules:

• Put the award logo/image on your blog.
• List the rules.
• Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Mention the creator of the award and provide a link to their blog as well.
• Tell your readers three things about yourself.
• Answer questions of nominator.
• Nominate 10-20 5 people.
• Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question.
• Share your link to your best post(s).

Jacquie’s Questions:

1. What is your favourite book cover? Why is it your favourite?

There are so many I love but the main one that comes to mind when I think of my favourite is the Firebird series by Claudia Gray. I love the bright colours and I love that it includes landscapes from around, and even outside of, the world. Also the series itself is pretty amazing too.

2. If you could have two book characters (from different books) fall in love, who would you choose? Why?

Lila and Kashmir
Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab and The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

The more I thought about this the more I realised how much I would love to see these characters interact, even if they don’t fall in love. Both Lila and Kash are thieves, and while Lila is more brash and ruthless than Kash one thing they have in common is leaving their own world behind for a taste of adventure.

3. Are books over 500 pages a turn off? Why or why not?

I think it really depends on the book. Some releases this year, namely A Conjuring of Light and A Court of Wings and Ruin, have been massive books and it’s been a case of the more pages the better in my opinion, but then there are others, namely A Dance with Dragons, where I see the page count and just think, ‘no!’

4. If you could pick one author to write a YA book based on your life who would you pick? Why?

V.E. Schwab for sure. She’s probably my favourite author and she is incredible when it comes to creating unique worlds, so maybe I could convince her to create one for my story. Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it never will.

5. What mythical creature should authors stop writing about? Why?

At the moment I don’t think there is one. A while ago – a long while ago, when Twilight was released and I first got into reading YA fantasy books – vampires seemed to be everywhere, but I can’t recall even one book released this year with a vampire in. It’s the same story with angels, they used to be overdone but now I don’t see them anywhere.

There are plenty of mythical creatures I’d love to see written about more, mainly dragons. A book can never have too many dragons in it.

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Michelle’s Questions:

1. If you were forced to do one of these things or else die – would you rather bungee jump or tandem sky dive? (assume you were at a legit safe place with people helping who were licensed and knew what they were doing) Also would you be excited to do either or both?

This is a terrible question for me because I am deathly afraid of heights. I went zip lining once and had to get my friend to physically push me off the platform (she was a little too eager to do it, I feel I should be worried). That said if I had to choose I’d say tandem sky diving for two reasons; one I’d be with someone the whole time, and two I actually am going to be sky diving next year.

2. If Pokémon were real, do you think you’d want to have and/or train and/or keep Pokémon? Why or why not? (no copouts like, “well I don’t really watch/play Pokémon,” just give me something!)

I’d definitely want to keep them. Granted I don’t actually play or watch Pokémon so I could be talking complete nonsense here but I love animals. At one point when I was younger I wanted to be a vet until I realized I’d have to deal with animals dying, so being able to collect and keep Pokémon would be like having loads of pets. That said I don’t know if I’d be able to train/fight them, I’d just want to keep them safe and well.

3. If you were forced to be a sea pirate or a sky pirate (think Steampunk style) which would you want to be and why?

Sky pirate (I’m thinking of the sky pirates in Stardust rather than any particular style). I love the idea of flying across the sky and through the clouds. Also if you think about it sea pirates are limited to travel where the seas are, sky pirates would have no such limitations because the sky is everywhere.

4. Name one kind of food you really want to try and haven’t tried yet. Or if you are more picky name one food you would be OK with trying if put in a position of trying something new!

I’m definitely not a picky eater, I am willing to try anything once. At the moment more than anything I’d love to try Japanese food. I’ve been to Wagamama and Itsu – places that do healthy, fast, take-away meals – and really loved the dishes there but one day I want to try real Japanese food, preferably while in Japan because that would be amazing.

5. What animal/Pokémon/Fantastic or mythical beast real or not real do you identify most with and why?

Dragons, because not only are they my favourite mythological creature but I too like fire and hoard my belongings. If I was a dragon I’d be one with a hoard of books, like Smaug in The Hobbit films but instead of gold coins I’d be surrounded by books.

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Tinka’s Questions:

1. What would you do if you’re feeling really down?

Normally I watch a movie, any movie I feel like watching at the time, or re-read an old favourite book, again any book with a cute and fluffy romance. Sometimes if I’m really really down I just stay in bed and sleep. It depends but it’s normally comfort activities that make me feel cosy inside.

2. What’s your favourite fictional world?

If I had to pick one I’d have to say The Night Circus (sorry Hogwarts). The world in that book was just pure magic, and the way it was described left me desperate to explore it for myself, discovering the magic and secrets each tent held.

3. Who is/are your favourite artist(s) or band(s)?

Fall Out Boy are my all-time, ultimate favourite band and have been for years. I also love Bastille, Imagine Dragons, Little Mix, Taylor Swift and One Republic. There are plenty more, but I have over two thousand songs on my iPod so it would take way too long to list them.

4. What is your most treasured bookish item that is not a book?

It would be some of the items I’ve got in my monthly Fairy Loot boxes. I loved The Night Circus cushion that was in this year’s January box, it’s my favourite book so now it’s my favourite pillow as well. If I could only pick one favourite and most treasured item it would have to be that one.

5. FUN/WEIRD Question: What is a scene from a book that made you experience some extreme fangirling/fanboying?

Most recently it would have to be the part of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue when Percy and Monty finally admitted their feelings for one another in Venice. Granted it wasn’t long before Monty put his foot in his mouth and ruined things but for a few pages they were happy and so was I.

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My Favourite Blog Post:

Recently I started writing again. I took part in NaNoWriMo this year and as of yesterday I officially reached my target of 50K words, so my favourite posts so far have been the ones where I’ve been brave enough to share small snippets of my writing with you all.

The Character Dating Profile Tag

Discussion Time: NaNoWriMo Update and Introducing my WIP

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My Questions:

1. Are there any tropes in books that you go out of your way to avoid, what are they?
2. If you could take the place of one book character, and live out their role in said book, who would you choose and why?
3. Money is no object and you can travel anywhere in the world (the real world, not the fictional one) where would you go first?
4. If you could meet on author, dead or alive, who would you choose and why?
5. FUN/WEIRD Question: Would you rather never be able to go back and read or re-read anything by your favourite author, or never be able to discover any new authors?

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My Nominations:

1. Anna at My Bookish Dream
2. Azia at The Uncharted Word
3. Dani at Perspective of a Writer
4. Meghan at Meghan’s Whimsical Explorations and Reviews
5. Poulami at Daydreaming Books