Liebster, and the plotting of a mystery

I just won a Liebster award from the wonderful MissusWolf so here's my thankyou post with 11 random facts about me, answers to 11 questions posed by the honorable MissusWolf, and 11 new questions for my eager (and probably mysterious) recipients. (Are you eager? Are you mysterious?)

First I have to post the award button, and so do you if you choose to accept this award:

Then,  I offer 11 random facts:

1. I used to be unable to read my own writing due to holding the pencil in my fist.
2. Then I learned to write properly and legibly, just for a while.
3. Then I went to college where lectures forced as much information from the lecturer's book to the student's notes without going through the brain of either. My writing deteriorated.
4. Then I got a job and used computers a lot.
5. Then I had kids.
6. Then my writing went full circle and became illegible again, but I can usually read what I type.
7. I can't always spell what I type.
8. I was just beginning to realize English spelling is logical when we moved to the States.
9. American spelling is scarily illogical.
10.  I like logic (and math, and science, and history, and faith, and writing, and fiction, and myth, and...)
11. I think eleven's a very strange number.

11 answers:


1) What inspired you to start writing/blogging? I started writing as soon as I could hold that pencil (see #1 above), probably because people kept complaining that I talked too much. I can't imagine not telling stories, and writing's the easiest way to convey them.
2) What is your new year’s resolution? To balance writing, marketing and networking a little better than I have done this year.
3) If you could be in someone elses shoes for one day, who would that be and why? Someone with smaller feet than mine so I could buy shoes more easily.
4) What is your favourite season? Spring because everything comes back into bloom and the world's full of promise--and I love Easter.
5) Where has been your favourite holiday destination? We went to Alaska in 2011 and it was amazing!
6) Where do you see yourself this time next year? This time next year it will be just after Christmas. I'll be home enjoying the presents, cards, greetings and Christmas tree, with as much of my family as possible gathered around.
7) What has been the highlight of your writing/blogging experience so far? The highlight so far was seeing (and signing) my first novel in a bookstore.
8) Do you prefer coffee or tea? Morning coffee, afternoon tea.
9) What is your favourite song? It's a hymn we sang at my brother's ordination. There's a verse that goes something like "The dreams I dream today my Lord are only a shadow of your dreams for me."
10) What has been the most influential book you have read, that has really caught your attention and made you think? Frank Collins' The Language of God.
11) What has been your highlight of 2012? See #7

Finally, 11 questions for my willing or unwilling victims: I just ran a workshop with our local writers' group where we tried to plot a story, so I'll base my questions on that:

1. Imagine you want to write a mystery. Who is your main character?
2. Where is your main character?
3. Your next nine answers should form a mystery story. At number one, how would you introduce the character and place?
4. At number nine how would your story end? Does your MC ride off into the sunset, or jetski into space, or...?
5. At number five, what crisis or mystery would you like your character to solve?
6. At number seven, how would a second crisis grow from the first one, making it a mystery that really has to be solved?
7. At three, how might your character end up in a place where he/she/it would encounter the mystery?
8. At two, why would your character end up there?
9. At four, give the character a need to care.
10. At six, show how one crisis turned into another.
11. And at eight, tell how the crisis was resolved by your character before the ending.

I'm feeling lazy, worn-out, shattered, etc. (see new year resolution, #2 above) so please nominate yourselves in the comments and accept the award if you want to mysteriously answer my 11 questions. And thank you MissusWolf for nominating me.