The Mystery Blogger Award

Thank you so much to Marina @ Books of Magic for nominating me for the Mystery Blogger Award!!!

The 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.
– Okoto Enigma

Rules:

1. Put the award logo on your blog.
2. Thank whoever nominated you and include a link to their blog.
3. Mention the creator of the award and provide a link to their blog as well. (Maggie @ okoto enigmas blog)
4. Tell your readers three things about yourself.
5. Nominate 10-20 people.
6. Notify your nominees.
7. Ask your nominees any five questions of your choice, specifying one weird/funny question.
8. Share a link to your best post(s).

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Three Kara Facts

• I love grandma hobbies. Cross stitching, crocheting, knitting, sewing… Anything you think a grandma would enjoy doing, I’ve probably tried it and loved it. I’m not necessarily good at all of those things (I haven’t quite got the hang of sewing machines yet), but I love those types of hobbies all the same. I’m mostly into cross stitching. Here are some of my favorites that I’ve done:

• One of my favorite things in the world is going to concerts. In the last 5 years, I’ve been to 21 concerts, and IT’S NOT ENOUGH. A few of my favorite lives bands are The Front Bottoms (my fave band of all time <3), Against Me!, and We Are Scientists, all of whom I’ve seen at least twice. They always sound great, and they always seem so happy to be there, which makes me happy to be there, too.

Top to bottom, left to right: ’68, Against Me!, Brand New, Eisley, Say Anything, The Front Bottoms, and We Are Scientists

• I have horrible, horrible vision. I have since I was about 9 or so. My current prescription is -7.50 in one eye and -8.00 in the other. I once asked my eye doctor what my vision would be considered on the 20/20 scale, and he told me it’d be like, 20/400. Meaning what I can see at 20 feet, someone with perfect vision can see at 400 feet. To give you an idea of what that looks like, it’s basically like this:

My vision vs. 20/20 vision (image c/o EyeCareDoctor.com)

It’s pretty crazy. One day I hope to get lasik done, but I’m wanting to wait until I can afford to see a really good doctor so there’s not as much risk involved.

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Marina’s Questions

— Is there anything you’re proud of doing/achieving and what is it?

I’m most proud of becoming a published author. I’ve loved to write ever since I was a kid (raise your hand if you also write angsty high school poetry), and I’ve always had confidence in my writing, but I never expected to actually publish anything. Two have two of my short stories published within the last few months is a dream come true — a dream I didn’t even know I had, haha!

There were a few times in high school where I got recognition, though. I wrote a lot of children’s books in high school (idk what it was with teachers and children’s book assignments), and one of my teachers tried to set me up with a publisher for one book I submitted. I remember being hella surprised cause I literally churned that thing out in a couple hours the night before it was due. But I was a lazy high school student, and I wasn’t thinking about publication at the time. I didn’t even meet up with the publisher. Dumb, dumb high school Kara.

I also won a “write like Emily Dickinson” contest in 11th grade (pro tip: just focus on death and make use of that capitalization and hyphenation and wham bam thank you ma’am, there’s Dickinson). I won a $25 gift card to the store of my choice. Being Captain Goth back then, I chose Hot Topic 😂 Do you guys wanna read my winning poem??

Silent as the haunting Night —
She slowly ambles on
Walking through the dead fall leaves
Letting fall — her Crown

Cold blue eyes piercing the fog
Turning heads of stone
Resting beneath blankets — of dirt
Still not becoming warm

Her fingertips — like ice to touch
Her lips a chilling blue
Her countenance — a Frightening sight
Of one who once was True

She lies among her new-found friends
As cold and stiff as She
Heads sleeping on — pillows of stone
Forever there to lay

#goth 😎

— In your perfect dictatorship day-dream, which book would you ban and which one you’d give to the masses for free?

I honestly don’t think any book should be banned! Even the books I absolutely hate or think are stupid or whatever. Someone out there probably likes those, so why deprive them of the literature they like? As for which one I’d give out for free… man, I don’t even know. I think I’d pick Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking book about homosexuality and society, and it’s super important and relevant today, despite it being written in the 50s. It’s astounding how judgmental people still are regarding sexuality and what other people do in their own homes. “Land of the free” my ass. Though I’m (mostly) straight myself, a lot of my really good friends are gay and some of the best people I’ve ever met, and they don’t deserve to be looked at any differently than anyone else. I’m sure there are other important LGBT books out there that would be beneficial for everyone to read, but Giovanni’s Room is the one that’s stuck with me the most, so there ya go.

— If Edward Cullen bit you and you gained immortality, what would you dedicate your life to? After being properly disinfected and de-sparkled of course.

Bahaha, that linked gif. So sparkly. I’d probably dedicate my life to some form of education. I was never good at science, so I probably couldn’t create the cure for cancer or anything. But I could do the research for something like that and provide educational write-ups or something. I really just want to write, so I’d find some way to do that while also giving some good back to society. Who knows, maybe I’d write a short story that would give NASA an idea for new space exploration, or a blog post that would inspire scientists to new takes on research, or an article that would convince certain presidents to gtfo of office before they ruin the country. You never know — writing has power!

— Imagine your ultimate reading moment – the setting, the time, the weather conditions, the chair coziness aspect, every bit.

Mid-morning, like 10am. My back deck. Sunny with a slight overcast, temperature in the mid-60s (Fahrenheit). Spring (but NO POLLEN. So maybe early autumn instead, before it gets cold enough to wear a jacket). No socks or shoes. My cats are laying out on the deck, sunbathing. I have a comfier swing than the one that’s out there now. Something with cushions. Something that doesn’t feel like it’s about to fall apart if I move the wrong way. I’ve got some sort of refreshing drink. Iced tea or a fruit smoothie or something.

— Why is a raven like a writing desk? 😅 (this is the weird/funny question obviously)

I’m SO bad at riddles. I legitimately have no idea. They both can be black? They have… sharp edges? Oh my god, I don’t know 😂

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I Nominate…

A lot of the bloggers I’d like to nominate have already been nominated by Marina! Frankie, Hana, and Lacy, consider yourselves double-tagged 😀 I also think I’m just going to do 5 nominees to go along with the 5 questions. So my other two nominees are…

Dania @ Bookish Thoughts

Alexis @ Arguably Alexis

If you’ve already been nominated or aren’t interested in doing this tag, no worries!

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My Questions

1.  What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?
2. If you had to tattoo one line/image/reference to one book somewhere on your body, what would that line/image/reference be and where would you get it tattooed?
3. If you lived in the ocean, which sea creature would be your bff? (I guess this would be the weird one, haha)
4. What’s your dream job, and what are you doing to work towards the goal of obtaining that job?
5. Would you ever want to travel into space? Why or why not?

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My Best Post

Aside from the Sunshine Blogger Award, my post with the most views is my Book Blogger Hop response about retellings. I really liked this one because I got to talk about Shakespeare things, and I do love me some Shakespeare! 😀