And The Liebster Goes To ...
I've been nominated for the 2013 Liebster Awards (sob) and it's ... it's a honor to just be nominated. (Yeah, but I want to win!)
So let's see, my friend Aurora Martinez nominated me Monday and I'll just fill out this questionaire and maybe I'll learn some things about myself! (And those of you fellow authors who choose to participate!)
Here's the directions on Aurora's blog that I've attempted to follow to the letter:
http://www.elizabethdrosa.com/liebster-award/
I. MENTION ELEVEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT YOURSELF.
1. All my names -- first, middle, and last -- are first names: David Augustus Alvin.
2. My dad once told me that his dad (my grandfather, who was also named David Alvin) who came to the United States from Sweden changed his last name from Johnson to Alvin because "there were too many black people named Johnson"!
3. If you called for "Bob" at my wedding ten years ago you'd get three people looking at you: my father, Robert Alvin Sr. whom everyone called Bob; my father-in law Robert Fix, whom everyone calls Bob, and my half-brother Bob Alvin (who'd be Robert Alvin Jr., but I've never heard anyone call him that) who was my best man!
4. My daughter Sarah's name came to me in a dream when I was still living in Florida in 2001, shortly after I'd flown up to North Dakota to meet Martha (whom I married in 2003, from fact #3) for the first time. I wrote "SARAH ELIZABETH ALVIN" down in my journal after I'd woken up from the dream. Four years later when Martha became pregnant with our first child, we bandied names around and decided not to find out whether we were having a boy or girl. Sarah's name came up, and Martha's sister Mary said yeah, go with that one. I'm so glad we did.
5. I was a virgin before I got married to Martha on July 12, 2003.
6. Had our first child been a boy, he would have been Philip Robert Alvin. But since I did get to name child number 1, when Martha got pregnant with child number 2 in late 2006, our choices for names became HER choices (fair enough): either Jeffrey Robert Alvin for a boy -- no family reason for Jeffrey I know of, Robert for the abundance of them in our families, and Alvin (DUH!) -- or Emma Viola Alvin for a girl. Emma, we learned later, was my mom's grandma's name, but we didn't know it at the time; Viola was Martha's grandma who'd died a few years earlier, and Alvin (again DUH, but maybe not -- see #7 below).
7. Martha is the youngest of four sisters, and since it was likely should all the sisters get married that the male name Fix would die out for their family, I volunteered to take Martha's (now) maiden name as my married name, so if she had acceded to that you would be talking to David FIX now.
8. I have kept a blog since mid-June 2006, when Sarah was about four months old.
9. I have kept a handwritten journal continuously since July 20, 1992.
10. Each entry begins with a Scripture reference or devotional reading.
11. Since January 1, 1994, when I started writing in a Star Trek: The Next Generation journal, I have rendered dates the way we do (when I write this, it's May 8, 2013) and beneath that date I write a "stardate" (today would be 11305.08; 1 for the 21st century, 13 for the year, 05 for the month, and 08 for the day) that really helps with keeping my dates and facts straight!
II. ANSWER THE ELEVEN QUESTIONS THAT AURORA ASKED ME.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
That every novel I write for National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org) has to end with the word "stars".
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
That my grammar does NOT have to be perfect and people will still read my work with some respect! I start sentences with "And" almost religiously now ... I can also kill people in the most ludicrous ways when they get in the way (witness Salamander from my 2004 debut novel Progeny).
http://www.amazon.com/Progeny-David-Alvin/dp/1418499455/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368037610&sr=8-1&keywords=progeny+by+david+alvin
Where did you get ideas for your books?
Stories that run in my head, stories I've always wanted to tell or something that just fascinates me and I feel ... I don't necessarily tell it BETTER, but perhaps make it a mite more relatable (witness my retelling of the Old Testament book of Numbers, at least the second half of it, in my 2009 NaNoWriMo story The Book of Numbers).
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Numbers-David-Alvin/dp/1449934307/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368037642&sr=1-1&keywords=the+book+of+numbers+by+david+alvin
What do you think makes for a good story?
Something that keeps you turning the pages, making you wonder what happens next!
Who are some of your favorite Authors?
Luke (the author of the New Testament gospel and of Acts)
Jose Saramago (when you're not lost in his stream of consciousness writing, he's really good, almost unique)
Judith Viorst (of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day but also her poetry is laugh our loud funny and thoughtful)
George Orwell (especially his essays; while the novels stand out more, they're not super-coherent -- but that's the point, maybe)
If you could pick one actor to play a character in your book in the movie version, who would it be?
Hayden Christensen (or somebody less well-known, if possible; being Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader did not quite boost him in Hollywood's eyes as you may think) as Gadgetmaster/Lord Gadget in my 2008 NaNo novel Litany, two separate characters but they're essentially equal bits of crazy and heroic at the same time.
http://www.amazon.com/Litany-David-Alvin/dp/144049472X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368038590&sr=1-1&keywords=litany+by+David+Alvin
What song best describes your book and why?
"It's The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M. for Progeny because all the events in the book lead up to a revolution and a revelation orchestrated by the main villain, the Empress, for decades. (Samantha Mumba would play HER in the film version, by the way.)
If you had one piece of advice for an aspiring author, what would it be?
Get started.
What kind of sweet things do you like to eat?
Cadbury Easter Eggs. Plain M&Ms. The chocolatiest Dairy Queen blizzards I can lay my hands on.
What's your guilty pleasure that you can't miss on TV?
This is a tie, between ABC's Once Upon A Time and NBC's Revolution.
What funny memories do you have of your childhood? Name one.
(Yeah, besides the ones I'm blocking ...) A classmate of mine hit me on the head with a badminton racket -- by accident -- in sixth grade P.E. For some reason that is the funniest thing I can think of right now.
III. FIND ELEVEN PEOPLE AND DO THE SAME
Jasmine Blackraven, Author Simone Fairchild, Terry Kincaid Verduin, Ellie Mack, Melanie Rio, Roxi J. Elliot, Yusuf Toropov, Schuyler Thorpe, Tracy Heck, Cari B. Ann, Sara DeVaney
And so I'm done, David
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