I’ve been nominated for one of those link-sharing things called a Liebster Award, by a fellow writer and blogger I’ve lately followed, Paige Nolley. Thanks!

The rules are thus: you get nominated, you answer a few questions, you nominate a few someone elses with questions of your own – writers I presume. I’m not sure I know of five that have blogs so I might come up a little short in that regard, but here are my answers to the questions I was given.

1. If you could resurrect a deceased author to pick their brain over lunch, who would it be and why?

I’m going to go with Jane Austen on this one. Not only is she one of my favourite authors, she and I are birthday twins. I imagine the conversation will mainly revolve around how much it sucks to be born so close to Christmas when no one pays any attention to you and none of your friends can come to your party because “it’s such a busy time of year.” I’d introduce her to sushi and she would explain the many benefits of corsets.

2. If you were famous to the extent of JK Rowling, Stephen King, or Nora Roberts, would you embrace that fame or hide away? Why?

Oh, I would SO hide away. For two reasons. 1. My kids don’t need that kind of attention in their lives. I want to be normal mom, not why-are-all-those-people-taking-your-picture mom. 2. Hiding away has always been my plan, regardless of career outcome. There’s a little plot of land in the BC interior somewhere with my family’s name on it, along with a bunch of chickens, a goat or two, a large vegetable patch and a woodstove. I’m a half-assed prepper, because being a city girl half-assed is pretty much all you can do. The money from King-level fame could build me a pretty sweet bunker that could withstand any zombie apocalypse.

3. What is your biggest inspiration as a writer?

Music. Besides the fact that my books wouldn’t even exist without the random chance of two songs out of 900 playing back-to-back on my iPod one day, so many of the relationship dynamics and events in my story have been inspired by lyrics and music. My ‘Songs for Writing’ playlist has a lot of Tegan & Sara, Metric, Pixies, the Bird and the Bee, Matthew Good, Shout Out Louds, Lykke Li, and plenty more. I like to post songs that are on repeat while I’m writing on this blog periodically, and eventually I’d like to do a chapter-by-chapter playlist for anyone who might read it. When I’m stuck on something or out of ideas I put on ‘Shuffle All’ and wait for something to catch my ear. It works 100% of the time, and a lot of the time it sends me off in a direction I hadn’t anticipated.

4. If you could have one super-power, what would it be and why?

The inability to feel fear. It’s no coincidence my main character has a crippling phobia. I write what I know.

5. What is the hardest thing you have ever had to do on your own?

Push out a baby. As much as there are people there to support you (and I had wonderful midwives and my awesome husband with me) in the end you’re doing it all by yourself. It’s your body vs. your brain. It probably comes as no surprise then that the hardest thing I had to do on my own is also the most amazing thing I had to do on my own.

I’m going to reflect on who I might send this to and update with a list and questions. If you straight up want a nomination, post in the comments and you’re in.