It appears that Badass Romance has been nominated (tagged) for the Liebster Award! Squee!?! Wait, what does this mean?
The Liebster is a friendly pay-it-forward getting-to-know-you thumbs up badge for blogs with fewer than 200 followers. Like other history-minded bloggers who have received this compliment before me, I did some googling to try and figure out where this started. Seems to be somewhat shrouded in mystery, but it’s German for “dearest” or “favorite” and at least one persistent blogger traced it back to a 2010 German blog, but no one seems to be able to find the original post.
It took me a while to figure out that being nominated is the same thing as “winning,” or more properly, receiving, this award. My blog and 10 others were listed and linked by two other bloggers who recently received the award for their own awesome bloggery.
My sincere and humble thanks to the Urban Book Thief and Rika Ashton for the thumbs-up vote of confidence that this represents. Please check out both of these blogs – a whole lot of clever and creative going on! I’m incredibly flattered, and in spite of my skepticism, I’m game for the good-natured chain letter-ish shenanigans involved in “accepting” the award, which basically means making a long-ass post about it and following a list of eleventy or so evolving rules. So read on for some deep dark secrets about me, answers to odd questions you didn’t ask, and some genuine inspiration in the form of links to cool new blogs. And here we go…!
As a recipient, I must:
- List 11 random facts about myself.
- Answer 11 questions posed by the blogger who nominated me.
- Nominate 11 other blogs for the award and link to them.
- Notify the bloggers that they are awesome and have won a shiny pink blogging logo.
- Pose 11 new questions for my Liebster nominees.
- Thank the blogger who nominated me and link back to their blog.
(*Note: Nominees, should you choose to accept this award, you will also have to complete the above tasks. 11 times everything! It’s cracking me up to find that there are Liebster posts from last year where the numerology was only FIVE of everything… sigh. Prices just keep going up.)
Eleven Random Facts about Pamela / Badass Romance ….in which we learn things we may never have wanted or needed to know:
- Bicoastally mixed-up: I am a diehard New Englander but I grew up in California.
- I don’t like riding bicycles.
- Finally remembered to plant some sunflowers this year.
- My first job as a teen was shelving books at the city library.
- I have a serious bird phobia, which is why I am not answering the pigeon question, and a seagull once clawed a sandwich right out of my hand at an otherwise lovely beach.
- I can’t carry a tune to save my life, but I love to sing along to the radio in the car.
- My 5th grade biography project and heroine/role model was Nellie Bly.
- Last year on my birthday I went Girls Night Out dancing with friends at a burlesque cross-dressing disco version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Donkey Show).
- I secretly LOVE Abba.
My children think most grownup books show people on the cover without their heads. Or half their clothes. Sigh.- I think this post by Carolyn Crane about the silliness of blog awards is truly hilarious (with thanks to Alpha Heroes!). I want to give myself the Little CJ Blog Award!
Eleven Answers to Questions posed by the Urban Book Thief and/or Rika (Ha! I decided I get to pick a total of 11 from both lists.)
- Chicken or the Egg – CHOOSE! Chicken. It’s dinnertime not breakfastime here right now.
- How did you come up with the name of your blog? I knew what I wanted to call it but it took me a while to summon the nerve to put myself out there with the Badass label!
- Which one of your posts/book reviews was the most fun to write? Historical Romance: Lament, or Let it Die?
- What did you eat for breakfast today? I’m boring. Coffee, yogurt, granola.
- What are you reading right now? UNTAMED, by Anna Cowan. Plus about 4 or 5 other books. I multi-read.
- Which book character do you simply love the most? Rhett Butler or Richard Sharpe. Or Becky Sharp. Really, Jane Eyre of course.
- Which is your favourite book series? The Oz books by L. Frank Baum, or the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.
- Ninjas or pirates – CHOOSE! Pirates, absolutely.
- What mythical creature would you want as a pet? Buckbeak! I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t pick Buckbeak, for my daughters who are so sad hippogriffs aren’t real.
- What is your favourite song right now? Same Love by Macklemore.
- Are you a summer or winter person? I live in New England. You gotta be both.
My Badass Nominees for Liebster Award Winning and Related Shenanigans (this means they are lovely blogs you should check out!):
- Insta-Love Book Reviews – deflowering romance one book at a time
- Quicunque Vult – The Blog of Alexis Hall (Rakehell, dilettante, writer of things, waver of swords and wearer of hats; also guest reviewer at Dear Author)
- Miss Bates Reads Romance – Miss Bates is the loquacious spinster from Austen’s Emma. No doubt she read romances… here is what she would have thought of them.
- Outlander Fan – Weaving the world of Outlander into her everyday life
- Elise Cyr – Medieval Romance Writer (debut novel forthcoming from Lyrical in 2014)
- Emma Barry – fresh, smart historicals and contemporary romance (author of forthcoming U.S. Civil War-set Brave in Heart)
- Evangeline Holland – Where history comes unlaced… Author of Edwardian/WWI historicals (her fabulous history blog is Edwardian Promenade)
- diary of a(n accidental) housewife – she’s making it up as she goes along (debut Untamed author Anna Cowan)
- Genevieve Turner, Historical Romance Writer – her adventures in romantical writing (also the Lazy Homesteader)
- Elfmama – Ruffling Her Feathers: reader, writer, wife, mother, tree lover
- And Then He Kissed Her – History and Romance with author Cora Lee
And finally, Eleven Questions for my Badass Liebsters – go ahead, it’s not that bad to “win” this award. And no dire consequences if you decide to forego “winning” it. But I’m dying to hear your answers!
- What is your favorite actual trophy or other award you can put on a shelf or hang on a wall?
- Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights?
- What book is the most recent addition to your DIK shelf?
- What book is at the top of your TBR stack?
- What book keeps getting remaindered at the bottom of your TBR pile, and do you think you’ll ever get around to reading it?
- What language do you wish you were fluent in?
- Medieval castle or Mediterranean villa?
- What did you eat for breakfast?
- How do you feel about time travel plots?
- What is your favorite carnival ride?
- What blog did you find this week that you love? (time to start thinking about your Liebster nominees!)
the original Liebster tag, before someone tarted up the glossy pink one! Also, Carolyn Crane‘s hilarious Little CJ Blog Award, which I am awarding to myself. And to all of you!
Badass Romance 
Thanks so much for thinking of me! And I think I’d scared of birds too if a dirty pigeon stole my food! Now I have to put my thinking cap on for your questions…
Oh, goody! Can’t wait to hear your answers. 🙂
Wow, thanks so much for the shout out! I honestly didn’t believe anyone was reading my rambling.
And thanks for introducing me to Miss Bates’s blog. Such a clever idea!
Off to put “blog post with eleven questions” on my to do list….
You’re welcome, and I’m sure Miss Bates thanks you as well.
Miss Bates most definitely thanks you. She not only thanks you, but waves a slightly shabby but respectable and monogrammed hanky at you! She paid a visit to your blog and has converted. She once spent a whole week-end learning to bake baguettes. They were perfect!
Why doesn’t anyone on romance novel covers have a head? This is a question that desperately needs answering. ; )
Ha! I see a Headless Covers post on the horizon….
Congratulations on the recognition! I’m so awed by your ability to write a blog and juggle everything else in your life.
Thank you so much for being one of my first followers and encouraging me to do it! I’m starting to think that scrimping time for blogging is forcing me to me more efficient and less lazy about chores and scheduling…
What? Your favorite book character is not Jamie Fraser? But I know you’re telling the truth here because I witnessed the scary seagull attack! And just so you know your blogger power: I ordered Deanna Raybourn’s Silent In The Grave today based on your review. Thanks for the list of so many other blogs that look great – not enough hours in the day!
Och, Jamie…. a beautiful badass hero to be sure. He’s on the list, but I’m feeling ambivalent about the Outlander series these days…Loved it so much, and I’m loyal, but didn’t love Echo. Maybe I’m unwilling to grant tip top favorite status to a character whose story is still in the telling, since the series is still unfolding. 🙂
And yes, all my answers were/are truthful – thanks for the character witness!
Congratulations! I love your blog. The writing is amazing and entertaining. Thanks for all your book reviews.
And yay, a fellow fan of pirates!
Aaarrrgghh! Thank you so much, matey.
[…] Pamela from the lovely Badass Romance blog has nominated me for the Liebster Award, which is less an award than a way to connect with other small and […]
Miss Bates is so honoured to be a part of this amazing group of bloggers. And to be called out in this way after only two weeks of blogging, Miss Bates is overwhelmed, speechless … which, if you remember the picnic scene from EMMA, is near impossible for her. She’s barely figured out all the doohickies on WordPress, so kindly begs for your forebearance (is that a word?). Miss Bates loves a pun and is wiling to twist the English language to get it.
Two weeks!? Miss Bates, you must have some other very relevant experience, because you blog like a pro. Fortune favored us indeed when I found your blog thanks to a link in a very enthusiastic tweet by another romance blogger the other day!
Now I’m blushing! To be exact, been blogging since May13th, yes, a mere 13 days ago. Well, Miss Bates spent a week deciding on a theme, testing a concept, cowering, & praying, but decided to take the blogodive. No particularly relevant experience, just a love of romance (read The Flame & the Flower in grade 6, that pretty much did it for me), a degree in Liberal Arts, & always too much to say, converted many female friends to reading romance & thought I might cast the net a little wider. Never thought I’d find such generosity though. Thank you!
Heh – The Flame and the Flower does it again. It’s at just about that age that many of us succumb to the potent cocktail of a little Bronte, some Austen and/or Heyer, plus a generous pour of Woodiwiss, Cartland, or Deveraux. I’m always interested to hear from friends/fellow romance readers whether they (like me) have been reading romance since adolescence, or are adult converts. I do know many women who avoided romance because of perceived shame/stigma that it’s not for “serious readers,” and they often speak of “giving in” to it. But once you start talking openly about it, especially now that there are eleventy-thousand online forums, it’s clear how many astoundingly serious readers of romance there are. Emma linked to a fascinating new “serious” blog about romance in her post yesterday: http://romancenovelsforfeminists.blogspot.com/
There are as many different responses as there are readers, and not everyone wants to think big thoughts about their reading, but I think readers of romance are so delighted to find like-minded readers and fans of the genre to converse with, that we/they are a very welcoming and open community of bloggers. It’s one of the things I find so “badass” about romance blogging.
Yup, that Flame and Flower and Wolf and Dove drew Miss Bates in. However, she then spent many, many years reading English lit. from Old English to Middle and Chaucer, through all of Shakespeare to the great novelists of the 19th century, not just in English, but Dostoevsky is a favourite, through Modernism (she’s an expert on Virginia Woolf) to post-modernism. One book that everyone must read is Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. It is devastating & masterful. But overall, literary fiction grew so self-conscious & pretentious that Miss Bates grew restless & unhappy. She’d read some Bard, or great poems, like Dickinson’s, or the sublime “Home Burial” by Robert Frost (up there with Roth’s) & that fed the soul, yes, but there was a persistent absence still & a nostalgia. Miss Bates was stocking up at the Costco one day & tossed a copy of a Julie Garwood historical into the cart for old times’ sake. She stayed up all night reading that humble little book … the expansive arms of romance fiction had gathered her to the bosom once again & she was resurrected as a lover of romance fiction. She’s been healthier & happier since. Now that Miss Bates can regale others with the worthiness & goodness of deserving romance fiction in her blog … & having now made a blogo-pal & hoping for others, she’s awash with joy & will be more loquacious than ever.
Oh my goodness, that is a very long dry spell without romance novels! I, too, read theory in grad school and literary fiction in my 20’s and 30’s, but I always layered my reading with romantic historical fiction, and full-on romance novels. Respite, reward, and ultimately a kind of reckoning. As I got older I realized life is just way too short to bother with books that are depressing and/or feel like work — unless, of course it is your work (which also explains why I happily abandoned the academic side of academia!). So happy for Miss Bates that Julie Garwood called out to her in the wilderness (Costco!) and brought her home to the wonderful world of HEA! And blogo-pals!
Miss Bates too abandoned academe after her M.A. when she realized that the theory over-rode the literature, which had only been her one and only love. She also did more grad work in religious studies, hence why she does occasionally read inspies. Miss Bates lives in the Great White North and the wilderness of her Costco carries fancy French cheese & Toulouse sausages. She sends good wishes to P. & ensures her that virtue is rewarded! 😉
I love this romance novels for feminists blog … check it daily for an article. Even though I am an old school structuralist literary critic (I don’t think literature should be subjected to any ‘ism,” as I experienced way too much of that in grad school), this blogger you mention has a genuine love of the genre & expresses that with a strong & interesting voice.
Oh, Miss Bates thanks that lovely tweeter too!
[…] Big thanks to Pamela at Badass Romance for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Award! […]