The Liebster Blog Award Challenge

I have been nominated by the superb Adite Banerjie to take the Liebster Blog Award Challenge. The aim is to help bloggers spread the word about each other’s blogs.  Adite is an excellent blogger and screenwriter, and I am looking forward to reading her first novel which will be published this fall.  She is also only one of only two of my Facebook friends whom I actually haven’t met.   As she explains, “Every nominee has to write 11 interesting/little known facts about herself, answer 11 questions set by the person who has nominated her and nominate 11 bloggers to take the challenge (and set 11 questions for them).”  So here we go.

First, my eleven facts.  I am going to try not to allude to anything I have already written about in this blog, but I may expand on them in later entries.

1.  I was once alone in room with Renee Zellweger.  Ok, it was a restaurant foyer, but both sets of doors were closed at the time, so technically this is true.

2.  I am the President of my local teacher’s union.

3.  Next year I will have my very first second generation student.  I am officially old.

4.  I have Parkinson’s Disease.  This is the only thing I have in common with Muhammad Ali–other than the killer right hook.

5.  I once had a pet tortoise named “Zorro.”  I lost him in a divorce.

6.  I was bullied in high school–by girls, who constantly made fun of the fact that I had no butt.  True, girls were making fun of me, but on the other hand they were paying attention to me.  It was a confusing time.

7.  I was part of a group of high school kids who heaved our lunches, rocks, and assorted bits of landscaping at members of the Ku Klux Klan.  I didn’t have a very nuanced view of tolerance in the tenth grade.

8.  I was cast as Horatio in a junior theatre production of Hamlet because I was the only one in the cast who could cry on cue.  Not sure what it says about me that I could do that at age 16.

9.  I am a recovering alcoholic with 29 years of sobriety.

10.  My college, UC Santa Cruz, at the time had no letter grades and was officially a clothing optional campus.  This was proven each day by the presence of “Naked Frisbee Guy.”

11.  Speaking of UC Santa Cruz, my wife and I had several classes together and some friends in common, but we didn’t meet until 5 years after graduation on the other side of the country.

I will now answer Adite’s 11 questions for me:

1.  What’s your favourite time to write or do creative work? And why?

I like to write late in the evening, I think because it taps into my natural night owlishness.

2. What’s the first thing that crossed your mind when you woke up this morning?

Is that the dog cuddled against me or my wife?

3. What’s the one thing that drives you batshit crazy?

Other than bat shit? Condescension.   It’s a great way to see how short-tempered I can be.

4. Describe briefly any one unforgettable moment in your life.

The day I married Valerie, my wife.  I remember being sublimely happy.

5. Which is your must-do dream vacation?

The Galapagos Islands.  The most unique place on earth.

6. Fill this blank: At age 10 you dreamt of “being _____ when I grow up.”

Someone who could talk without a stutter.  A bit sad, I know, but’s how I felt.

7. If you could travel back in time which “period” would you visit?

I’d go to London in the 1960s, so I could see the Who, the Stones, Yes, and Jimi Hendrix all starting out and playing the Marquee Club.

8. If you could transform yourself into a celebrity for one day, who would you pick?

Colin Firth.  That way I’d still have my wife’s undying devotion.

9. Complete this sentence. Fun is ________

Laughter.

10. If you could change any one of your (bad) habits what would that be? (You’re not allowed to say you don’t have any bad habits!!)

I would eradicate once and for all my social nervousness.

11. Tell us something that excites you about your current project.

It’s a teleplay about a high school, and it’s not silly and filled with autotuned signing.  In other words, its real, which means no one’s ever seen that on television before.

Now my 11 questions for A Detailed House, Brant Smith, Beneath the Lamp Post, Emily Knudsen, Lesley Carter, Melissa Nosal, Mike Barnett, Sanchari Sur, Sushil Kumar, Ayanna Nahmias, and Valerie Brodie:

1.  What’s the single most embarrassing thing to ever happen to you?

2.  What book do you remember reading as a child that has stayed with you since?

3.  What’s the one thing you would change about the world if you could?

4.  If you had to pick a moment in your life that defines who you are, what would it be?

5.  What song do you want played at your funeral?

6.  You can have any meal on earth tonight, and money is no object.  What do you choose?

7.  What is your greatest fear?

8.  What is your pet peeve?

9.  Who is the person you admire most in the world, and why?

10.  What is it in your life that gives you the most joy?

11.  If you could live in one place on earth (and money was no object) where would it be, and why?

Looking forward to your responses!