🎉Wow, Rosemerry Writes won the Liebster Award!🎉 The Liebster Award’s purpose is to recognize and promote great new blogs (defined as blogs with 200 or fewer followers). You can check out the rules here.

Thank you so much, Lebana, for nominating me!🤗 I enjoy Lebana’s haiku, but so far what I like best about her blog is its authentic voice. I was really inspired by her post “Negative Inspiration”. That took guts to write, and even more to post for all the world to read. She helped give me the courage to post my own truth. It also made me want to write about some of my own negative inspiration in a future post. Whereas Lebana discussed negative inspiration from her father’s abuse, I plan to discuss the negative inspiration I took from many of the teachers I had. Her recent tanka “True Love is Like Ghosts” made me think and I want to write about the connections her poem brought out in my mind. I admire Lebana’s positivity and faith in a loving God. Her Thoughtful Thursdays always show these qualities. I also admire her for posting regularly and always finding the perfect picture to accompany her writing. That’s no mean feat!

This response has several parts, so I’m separating them with lines for easy reading. Keep reading for some fun Q&A and my nominee list!

Lebana asked:

Q: Where do you live?

A: I live in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area in California.

Q: What’s the best thing about the area where you live?

A: It’s hard to choose! I love the diverse mix of cultures. The high school I attended had students from over 200 countries, speaking over 50 different languages! As a result, I’m used to pale people being a minority and prefer it that way. We’re not perfect by any means, but I also love the tolerance that comes from such diversity. It’s wonderful to live in a creative and cultural mecca. I’ve had a lot of kooky “only in San Francisco” experiences; you never know what you’ll see around the next corner. There’s a lot of fuel here for a writer.

I love our geographic diversity as well. There are few other places on Earth you can experience the ocean, snowy mountains, redwood forests, wetlands, canyons, and more all within a few miles. Our foothills have a special place in my heart. In the spring they turn so green you feel like you’re in Ireland. Flat land with no hills in sight just feels wrong.

Q: Where is your favorite place in the world?

A: Hmm. I’m going to say the swimming pool. It’s my happy place.

Q: What’s your funniest travel story?

A: I went to Germany on exchange in high school with my best friend, Miles. My brother had previously gone on the same trip, so when we went to Hellbrunn, also known as Wasserspiele, we knew what was coming. “Wasserspiele” means “water play” and Hellbrunn is full of trick fountains and automatons that run on water. We kept it to ourselves so as not to spoil the surprise for the others, though. The tour guide showed our group an outdoor table that the bishop loved to have his guests eat at. It had just rained, so the rest of our group weren’t clued in by puddles in the area. One of our schoolmates, John, was invited to sit at the table along with some other tourists. Miles and I called to him to give us his backpack. John had his CD player and several collectable CDs in it that we knew he didn’t want getting soaked. Of course John didn’t understand why we wanted him to hand over his pack. “Trust us,” we told him. “You really want to give it to us right now.” John finally handed his backpack over. After the tour guide gave a brief spiel, he turned a hidden faucet. Suddenly water spurted up underneath the guests, soaking them! John was really glad he’d listened to us!

If you ever get a chance to visit Hellbrunn, it’s a stop you shouldn’t miss, both fun and memorable. Just wear stuff you don’t mind getting wet. 🙂

Q: What would you say is your biggest accomplishment?

A: I was severely burned during my sophomore year of college. Despite this interruption, I still served as my local sorority’s president and graduated in five years. Less than half of all students graduate within five years. Then I went on to complete my teacher training, though I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth by the end of the year. My health was worsening precipitously, but I still finished and received my dream job offer. It still hurts that I had to say no because my health had become so poor, but I’m very proud of myself.

Q: What makes you happiest?

A: The company of dogs.

Q: How many countries have you visited so far?

A: Three. Unless Texas counts. 😉 I’d like to visit Japan and a long list of other countries.

Q: Who is your role model?

A: Longfellow. He was also burned severely and from my research I believe he suffered from the same pain condition I do. Yet he wrote so beautifully.

Q: What can’t you live without?

A: Animals. Especially dogs.

Q: How many posts have you made so far?

A: Forty-two, not counting this one. (Wow! I amaze myself) Tip of the hat to my fellow Douglas Adams fans. 😀

Q: What is your message to new bloggers out there?

A: Keep on blogging! Stay true to yourself and blog to express your real point of view. Don’t chase the likes, but cherish them. Be social, but try not to let the social stuff overwhelm you. If you need to put limits on your blog for your own sake, that’s okay.

My Liebster Award Nominees:

Drumroll, please!

• Blind Injustice: This blog should be a major website. Brendan writes so thoughtfully and incisively about injustice and how we should address it.
• Mind Matters: I only recently discovered this blog, but I feel Donna Marie’s voice needs amplifying in this time of pervasive malignant narcissism.
• Queerly Texan: Alyssa is my sister in chronic illness and being LGBTQIA+ (sheesh! Could that acronym get much longer? We need a shorter term, y’all). Since a large portion of my relatives are Texan, I know it can’t be easy being either in Texas. Another very important voice with so much to say.
• Tina’s Radical Rant: Tina is one of my oldest friends and the secret to our friendship is simple: Tina always speaks her mind. She’s an amazing social justice activist with a focus on LGBTQIA+ and socioeconomic issues.
• Umm, I can’t find a fifth. Y’all are too popular! 😉

Congratulations! Should you accept, please feel free to take your time writing your acceptance post as I know there’s a lot to do! Find out how to accept here.

If I didn’t nominate you, please don’t feel left out. You’re probably too popular to meet the requirements! 😉 Please keep reading for more Q&A (I answer most of the questions I’m asking my nominees!), and don’t forget to check out the amazing nominees!

The following questions are for my nominees, but I don’t think it’s fair if I don’t answer them, too. So here goes!

1. How stoked are you? 😀

2. Why did you start blogging?

I’m pretty opinionated and I wanted to speak up about current issues. I also want to be published and know that having a “social media platform” is considered pretty important these days.

3. What keeps you blogging?

On bad days, it’s my public promise that I’d post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On good days it’s because I have something to say or that I want to share with my readers. I’m always coming up with ideas!

4. Which post has been the most difficult for you to write and/or publish so far? Why?

My #MeToo posts were the most difficult for me to write and publish so far. It was retraumatizing to write down all the ugly things that had happened and terrifying to publish since my experiences had taught me to expect more abuse for speaking out. But I thought it was very important to share my story and I’ve needed to for some time.

5. Have you published a post that was unexpectedly popular? Why didn’t you expect it to be popular, and why do you think it was?

My recent post “The End’s in Sight!” is my most popular post so far, much to my surprise! Since my blog nominally focuses on writing and my opinions, I just didn’t expect a post about my cross stitch project nearing completion to get the most likes. “Trump, King of Dulness” also surprised me. In this case, I didn’t expect a post connecting Alexander Pope’s sharp-tongued poetry to current politics. Both are good lessons in why not to chase the likes; you can never predict how readers will react!

6. What’s your theme song?

It varies, but “Houki Boshi” by Younha is often at the top of the list.

For a translation of the lyrics, click here. One of my favorite verses is, in English:

If perchance I could have become a comet
I would go flying through the sky
No matter what kind of tomorrow comes, this thought is strong
So my comet is unbreakable

7. Name a poet you enjoy (other than yourself 😉) and tell us why.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is an amazing writer. He and I share health issues, and he has written some of my favorite poems. Researching him I learned that he was the first to translate The Divine Comedy into English. The Divine Comedy, along with many of his original poems, speak eloquently of my experiences. He wrote the poem that became one of my favorite Christmas carols, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”:

Many sayings we have today, like “two ships passing in the night”, come from his poetry.

8. If you could have one superpower, what would you choose (heroic and villainous are both okay!)?

I know it’s a common one, but I’ve dreamed of flying so often, that would be my first choice.

9. If you were a character in a novel, how would you want to be described?

In sunlight oms hair was dark mauve with copper highlights. Not that om saw much sunlight. Oms pale skin was so translucent he thought he could trace oms entire circulatory system.

10. Who is the voice of your generation? Why?

The Smashing Pumpkins. They just really sum up my teen/college years.

11. You just found out dragons are real. What do you do next?

Prepare to be exceptionally polite. Or run. 😉

Not a nominee? (I still ❤ you! 🙂)Feel free to chime in and answer any of the questions above in the comments. 🙂