Hot on the heels of my Very Inspiring Blogger award I was nominated by my friend Sophie E Tallis for this fabulous award too!! To say I’m thrilled would be an understatement. Sophie is a good friend of mine, an amazing author and a brilliant blogger. If you haven’t checked out her blog yet you’re missing out! What makes this award extra special to me is the fact it’s Sophie’s own award and I’m one of the very first recipients!

Sooo about this award, this is what sophie says:

This award is specifically intended for fantasy writers only – creators and destroyers of worlds, fantasy authors who inspire us, who thrill us with their dark imaginings, ignite our dreams and fuel our imaginations. They can be writers of urban fantasy, high/classic/epic fantasy, comic fantasy, dark fantasy, fantasy horror, paranormal fantasy (ghosts are fine but no vampire stuff please) and sci-fi fantasy.

If you are lucky enough to be nominated for this award, then CONGRATULATIONS you officially ROCK!!!

The Rules of the Award are as follows:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. State 11 things about yourself (it’s a Spinal Tap thing!), including why you love fantasy and your first or favourite fantasy book.
4. Nominate 7 bloggers for this award and link to them. (If you want to link back to me as well, that would be lovely but isn’t required!)
5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements.

Right then, here’s 11 things about me:

1. Why I love fantasy? What’s not to love about a genre that allows you to ride dragons, use magic, travel to other worlds/ time zones/planets/etc. and generally get lost in your own imagination! I love adventure, romance, dragons, unicorns, the list goes on and on, but I think it’s the pure escapism of it that really excites  me.

2. The first really epic fantasy book I read would have to be Shardik, by Richard Adams. I was in my mid teens and it was probably the longest book I’d read up to that point, but it gripped me right from the start.                                        Shardik is a fantasy of tragic character, centered on the long-awaited reincarnation of the gigantic bear Shardik and his appearance among the half-barbaric Ortelgan people. Mighty, ferocious, and unpredictable, Shardik changes the life of every person in the story. His advent commences a momentous chain of events. Kelderek the hunter, who loves and trusts the great bear, is swept on by destiny to become first devotee and then prophet, then victorious soldier, then ruler of an empire and priest-king of Lord Shardik-Messenger of God-only to discover ever-deeper layers of meaning implicit in his passionate belief in the bear’s divinity.

Sounds really heavy doesn’t it? It’s a great adventure though and well worth a read.

3. A much more recent fantasy series I’ve read (all but the last book) and enjoyed is The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris d’Lacey. This series follows a student, David Rain, as he takes lodgings with Mrs. Pennykettle and her daughter Lucy. Liz Pennykettle makes pottery dragons which she sells in a local market. Well some she sells and some stay living in the house with them. With out giving to much away, these are very special dragons because Liz and Lucy are special too. As the series progresses you find that no one is quite who they appear and mysteries and danger are everywhere. It’s a very gripping story and well worth a read. I also have a collection of Pennykettle dragons living here with me, bought to life by the real Mrs. pennykettle, Val Chivers. Val is the real life inspiration behind Chris’ Elizabeth Pennykettle and makes the most wonderful pottery creations.
4. I do have quite a few different dragons living with me, some I have to say aren’t as well behaved as others!!

5. I was born in Stratford upon Avon.

6. I try to avoid dairy products as the lactose tends to clog my head up. Unfortunately some of the nicest stuff is full of cows milk, like chocolate, cheese and ice cream, which means I am clogged up most of the time!

7. I do love archery, not that I’m any good. I think my handicap last year was 73, don’t ask me if this is any good or not because I don’t understand it at all, I just shoot for fun.

This picture was taken on a very cold winters day last year on one of our field shoots. I would just like to point out we only shoot paper targets and plastic/foam animals! No living creature is ever harmed in any way!!

8. I am hopeless at house work! As I sit here typing the dust is building up around me to such an extent I think I may have difficulty in breathing soon.

9. I am the Chairperson of our local village hall committee, only because I was daft enough to say, “well if there really is no one else who’ll do it.”

10. I prefer winter to summer, even though it’s cold and dark most of the time. The sun hurts my eyes when it’s glaring down on a hot summer’s day and I always feel so lethargic. In the winter there’s the promise of snow and lovely, crisp frosty mornings and you can just put more clothes on if you’re cold.

11. I’m off to Las Vagas next summer to the RNConvention!!! Very excited

Now I need to nominate some recipients for this wonderful award:

Sophie E Tallis because she deserves more than anyone to win her own award!

J C Rutledge another wonderful dragon person

Zookie Chris d’Lacey’s inspiration dragon who writes lovely blogs, but has been a bit quiet lately, I’m hoping he’s busy helping Chris with some more fantastic stories!

M T McGuire 

TRM, the Dark Lord!!

Valerie Willis

Davie Graham

That just leaves me to say another great big sugar coated thank you to Sophie for nominating me for this fantastic award!