My Sweet Delirium has been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award; an illustrious honor granted only to the most provocative, well-written, and insightful blogs on the web.

Well, this may not be entirely true. It’s really just kind of a fancy blog hop that my lovely friend Susan Kicklighter from the one lovely blog, Writing for Kicks, was kind enough to tag me in. Be sure to follow her on Tumblr and Twitter and tell her who sent you.

Here are the rules.

Rules:

1. Share 7 Lovely Facts about myself
2. Link to 15 blogs (or as many as possible) that I enjoy reading. I know it sounds like a lot, but once I started writing the list, I wanted to add more.
3. Nominate the authors of those 15 blogs to participate and do the same, linking back to the original Lovely blog. (That would be this page)

 

So sit back, relax, and enjoy some random facts about your host.

 

 1.  I started taking ballet before I went to kindergarten.

When I was eleven or twelve, I finally got my pointe shoes. This is a huge moment for dancers. I was up to four classes a week of intense training when our family had to move. I tried to continue lessons in our new town, but the level of teaching was so far below the caliber at my original studio. I felt I knew more than the teachers and I don’t think I made it to the second class before I quit.

I felt bad because my parents had invested so much time and money (the shoes, the costumes, the driving), but realistically, I would have never become prima ballerina anyway. I’ve always been built more like a draft horse than a lipizzaner.

I don’t feel like all the hard work was a waste, though. Ballet has given me discipline and grace, (well, sometimes I’m a clutz, but that might just have something to do with the vodka). Ballet is where I acquired my appreciation for classical music. It’s taught me extreme physical endurance and tolerance for pain. Ballet is brutal! And after so many years of classes, I developed a routine of exercise. Even at my ripe old thirty-ish age, I have to do some sort of physical activity every day or I don’t feel right. This is a habit I can’t break even if I want to, and I’m so grateful for it because it’s one of my only healthy ones.

 

 

2.  I have a thing with lighting. 

You know those fluorescent lights and those energy saving bulbs? The ones who make everyone look like the need a blood transfusion? They can ruin my whole day. I feel so uncofortable in any atmosphere with those kinds of lights. I lose my appetite, I feel anxious. I just want to get away from it.

I’ve even been tempted to bring my own light bulbs with me when we travel because in Latin America that morgue-type efficient lighting is very popular in most hotels. I don’t understand why they can’t change them. How does it not bother people? An otherwise cozy room looks like a cell in a mental asylum with that kind of light. I’m not saying they should switch to energy-sucking incadescants. They make the ‘warm’ spectrum energy saving bulbs now. Use them!

 

 

3.  I am a total bass-head.

I thought as I got older I would become like my parents and prefer easy listening music, but this transformation has not taken place yet. I love Drum & Bass, Electro, Dubstep, and I’m starting to really like Trap. I will probably go deaf soon because of this bass addiciton. I can see myself when I’m eighty. I’ll be the crazy old lady with turntables and the biggest speakers on the block.

 

 

4.  I love animals. I mean, I really love animals.

I used to manage an animal sanctuary with lions, tigers, leopards, cougars, primates, snakes, macaws, gators, a bear, a camel, an otter, and more­. I was the sole keeper and worked six days a week. I took care of more than seventy-five animals. I fed herbivores in the morning, cleaned cages during the day, and fed carnivores in the evening.  Sundays was my day off when we had volunteers come in.

I was grossly underpaid. I was a slave, but I loved that job! Each creature was one of my kids. I worked there a few years until they closed the zoo down to widen the road and sold all the animals. I hope they didn’t end up somewhere awful. The fate of exotic animals can be horrific.

Since then, my house has become a zoo several times. I don’t go out and buy pets. I just end up with them. Sick and injured wild animals flock to me. I’m not exaggerating.

I travel too much now, so I keep my rescuing urge under control, which is difficult here because the way some people treat their animals in Latin America is criminal.

Currently, I just have two dogs, one parrot, four parakeets, and a hummingbird who is not caged, but demands food at the back door when his feeder is empty.

 

 

5.  I love tragic endings.

Any movie or book where the hero or heroine dies or the lovers can’t be together, I can’t enough of it. Romeo and Juliet!!! 

 

 

6.  I smoke five cigarettes a day.

I used to smoke all day. Now I only smoke at night. I can’t quit completely, but as long as I can keep it at five, then I figure it’s not a huge health risk. I have to smoke five, no more, no less, and I can’t smoke before sundown. This is usually because I only have the urge to smoke after a few vodka tonics, and my happy hour starts around 6-7pm. But wait, this is not necessarily the rule because if I have drinks during the day I still don’t want a cigarette until it’s dark. I don’t know why. Weird. I just roll with it.

 

 

7.  I’m not a vegetarian, but I love vegetables.

I crave salad like other people crave chocolate. I crave chocolate sometimes too, but not nearly as much as I crave lettuce. I started juicing about a year and a half ago, and now it’s worse. I crave celery when I first wake up in the morning.

Maybe my love of veggies is because when I was growing up my parents always made a salad with dinner. Another healthy habit they instilled in me. Thanks Mom and Dad! Aren’t they great?

Hopefully, it will counteract the five cigarettes.

 

So now you know that when I’m not writing, you’ll find me pirouetting (preferably in candlelight) with birds on my shoulders and dogs at my feet, listening to Drum & Bass while eating salad, drinking vodka tonics, and smoking no more or less than five Marlboro Lights.

 

 

Now I will pass the award to writers I would like to know more about and my friends who just happen to be stellar bloggers. (If you’ve already done this blog hop or don’t have the time, please feel free to decline.)

 

Congratulations to:

AR Rivera

“Author (Between Octobers), mother, blogger, and Blockhead. Should said book become an uber-successful film before being adapted for TV, I’ll fall on that grenade.”

 

A.L. Mabry

…is an author currently working on her first trilogy while dabbling in short stories, poetry and prompt writing.

 

Ashley Antoinette Sapp 

“That quiet girl with the written words. Editor wannabe. Literature enthusiast. Wanderlust addict. Southern charm with a twist.”

 

Candace Johnson

“I am a professional freelance editor, writer, and ghostwriter. Previously, I was a senior editor for Health Communications, Inc., a traditional trade book publisher best known for the original Chicken Soup for the Soul series as well as other nonfiction bestsellers.” (She’s also my editor and a super nice human being)

 

Ceejae Devine

“my goal now is to figure out how to overcome the fact that with spirituality, with God, there’s colossal opposition to new ideas.”

 

Charlotta Amato

“I love life, even when I don’t understand it. I’m a single mama, High School teacher, experiencing building a life for my children and I in a country which I myself do not come from.”

 

Felicity Johns

“I am a lover of passion, sensuality and the written word. While at times my work can be dark, beneath it all lies the inherent human need of physical contact, from romantic love and playful lust, to the dark hungers that, left unchecked, can tear people apart. I have been writing for almost 20 years.”

 

Hannah Givens

“I’m a history and political science student in Alabama, and an aspiring genre author. My blogging philosophy is: If I don’t think it’s interesting, I don’t post it!”

 

June Hur

“An aspiring novelist who works for the Library. English lit & history graduate at the University of Toronto. Follow my journey to publication via my blog :)”

 

Madhuri Blaylock

“Creator of The Sanctum Trilogy / Attorney by day / Dress buyer / Ice cream eater / Snark purveyor / WeNeedDiverseBooks supporter / Dork / HOLLA BITCHES!”

 

Michelle Joelle

“In my real life, I write academic papers about Plato, Augustine, myth, reason, the relationship between language and sensation, and as it happens, also about writing, stories, and imagination. In my pipe dreams, I write children’s stories and poems, and am attempting to write a middle-grade novel.”

 

Shonda Brock

Author of IR Paranormal Romance, who believes there’s nothing wrong with a little wine, but remember not every bottle is created equal. Some are just better!

 

Shelley Masini

Sharing 365 days of a writer’s journey.

 

Anne Dias

Host of Deranged Writers who says, “I really like to see the glass half full of Jack Daniels.”

 

Trent P. McDonald

…writes about the Arts (particularly writing), creativity and inspiration. Don’t be surprised to see short stories, poetry and random reflections on life.

 

 

 

And don’t forget to enter my drawing for the Klimt tote! I getting one for me too.

 

 

 

Photo credits Flickr Creative Commons

Pointe Shoes

Draft Horse

Light Bulb

Romeo and Juliet

Bunny