Two awards already!

Not sure I deserve any awards just yet. I haven't settled into any posting schedule yet, and I'm mostly a lurker on my friends blogs. But I'm honored all the same.

The Honest Scrap Award came from Emily at Stepping Into Fantasy and the Sugar Doll Award just a day later from Jai at Jai Joshi's Tulsi Tree. Hmm, similar type lists: ten things about myself that might be considered unusual, a bit hard when "unusual" depends on the viewer, and ten things about myself. How about one detailed list of ten?

10. I love to dance, but I'm self-conscious in front of other people, except in a class setting when we're all equally goofy looking.

9. I'm serious about that self-conscious thing with my dancing. I'm embarrassed to let even my hubby watch. Maybe I need more classes.

8. Styles of dancing I especially want to learn: belly dance, bollywood style dancing, American pop dance, hip hop, Asian pop... I guess I just like to groove it, groove it; I like to move it, move it--when nobody's watching. Except my son, but then I dance goofy on purpose to get him dancing with me. I love to see that little boy dance.

7. I love roleplaying games. Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and Savage Worlds for table-top games. For MMORPGS, I did Guild Wars for awhile, until I got sucked into World of Warcraft. (Yes, I still play.) And can't forget the live-action variety, mainly Circle of Swords (only went once, but I loved it) and NERO.

6. I met my husband at my first NERO event, though we didn't start dating until over a year later. I was a gypsy, a rather quiet one, as I didn't know what to do or say yet, and didn't know anyone but my roommate who was on the plot team. He was a seelie fae lord getting married to his human-turned-fae bride. Two years after that event, almost to the day, I was the one who married him, for real that time. Several of our friends skipped part of an event to come, still dressed in their costuming. It was great.

5. Roleplaying games sparked my drive to write. It all started with making one character, then another, and another. Figuring out different personalities, their backgrounds, their motivations. Put them into a setting with other characters, and stories will form around them. It's the writing them down that is the hard part. That and deciding which path of what-ifs to take the characters.

4. I love my in-laws. I am a lucky, lucky girl.

3. I am not a J. D. Salinger fan. Sorry. Catcher In the Rye bored me. So did John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. And I can't stand Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I had to read all three in high school, yet we never covered any of Louisa May Alcott's books. Or those of Madeleine L'Engle, Cynthia Voigt, or Lucy Maud Montgomery. (Can you guess what I was reading on my own time back then?)

2. Textiles thrill me. I have at least four totes of fabric waiting to be turned into clothing, costuming, and miscellaneous craft projects. My husband gets annoyed when I buy even more. I made my own wedding dress and have a standing offer to my sister to make her wedding dress when the time comes, if she wants a handmade dress. I also crochet and embroider, and have started to learn tablet weaving. If I ever have the space and money, I would buy a loom and try my hand with that kind of weaving as well. Spinning, however, is an arcane art that fumbles my fingers. I'll leave that part to those with better coordination. I still have to fit in writing time, you know.

1. I am a one-woman campaign to spread awareness of the awesomeness that is filk music. What is that, you say? The simplest answer is that it is SF folk music, but that barely scratches the surface of the diversity found in this category of music. It encompasses many styles of music and many topics. Not all filk is based on stories. Some stories derived from the songs. Some songs are about writing, science, and filk fandom in general.

Oh yes, there is a fandom. People get together for filk-sings. Some of these are so well known and done so regularly, they have practically become annual conferences. I haven't been to one yet, but it's on my list of things I want to do. For more information on filk in general, check out Filk.com. You can also check out the filk radio station from there. Now some songs can be so-so, but the gems mixed in make it well worth the listening time. There are some amazing filkers out there.

And personally, I think all spec fic writers should take note of how they can utilize filk music. It's advertising! Write a song about your story or have a musical acquaintance write one for you. Then share it at a filk sing, post it on Youtube, Facebook, your social network of choice, and it will build awareness. I have tracked down a number of stories from filk songs I've heard since I first discovered this musical subset. Stories I might still have never heard of. Filk music is also a great way to enrich the worlds of spec fic creations. Mercedes Lackey wrote a number of songs that her characters refer to in her books, songs such as "Sun and Shadow" and "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night." My favored choice for purchasing filk is at Firebirds Arts. Wonderful stuff there, and not just music either.

Nomination Time!
I pass on the Honest Scrap Award to Brad at Bradley's Brain. He may be even newer to blogging than I am, but I like his humorous take on parenting. Funny, yet insightful at the same time. And the Sugar Doll Award goes to Juliette Wade at TalkToYoUniverse and Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story for their wonderful insights into writing. Juliette's specialty is linguistics, and Janice covers story composition.