Liebster Award and Nominations

Thank you to Fun Simplicity for nominating me for the Liebster Award!

Here are the questions I am to answer:

1. Who/What inspires you to start a blog? I started Serenity Now because I wanted a routine to capture my observations about the many beautiful things I encounter in life and to remind myself to notice and appreciate them; and because I love to write and am trying to get back in the habit.
2. Who is your favourite author? I have many favorite authors, as anyone who read my post on favorite childhood books knows: Too Many To Choose Just One. Favorite authors of books for adults right now are: Hilary Mantel, Ian McEwan, David Halberstam, Robert Caro, Elizabeth Goudge, Taylor Branch.
3. What is your favourite pastime? Reading.
4. Which country are you from? The United States.
5. What is your favourite season? Spring, but I also love autumn.
6. What is your most memorable moment? My wedding day; and the births of my children.
7. If you’ve won a free trip, which country would you like to travel to? Japan.
8. If you are alone in a haunted house, what will you do? Leave. Quickly.
9. If you meet an alien, what will you say? I think I’d be speechless!
10. If  you have a time machine, which era will you travel too? Tudor England.
11. What is your Christmas wish for Santa this year? A yearlong sabbatical with a generous travel allowance.

My nominations for the Liebster Award are:

1. Expat on ACK; a recovering lawyer, she blogs about life as a British expatriate living on the unique island of Nantucket off the shore of Massachusetts.

2. Newshound to Novelist; Donna-Louise Bishop is a journalist who is trying to complete and publish her first novel. She’s a gifted writer and deserves a wider audience!

3. The Hopeful Herbalist; a former nurse and city resident, she blogs about the move she and her husband made to a cottage in the country, near the sea, where she is restoring a derelict garden after having retrained as an herbalist in Scotland.

4. The Perfume Magpie; she has a wonderful blog about perfume, which she illustrates with her own beautiful drawings. Seriously, her illustrations are gorgeous.

5. The Introvert’s Dictionary; Charlotte Latvala blogs a rotating list of alphabetized word definitions from an introvert’s point of view. Speaking as a card-carrying introvert myself, they are hilarious and she is spot on.

Here are the questions I ask my nominees to answer; some are the same as above:

1. Why did you start a blog?
2. What is the best book you’ve read this year?
3. What is your favorite pastime other than writing?
4. What is your favorite smell?
5. What is your favorite season?
6. What is your most memorable moment and where did it happen?
7. Which country would you most like to visit?
8. If you could meet any author, past or present, whom would you choose?
9. Do you believe in fairies?
10. If  you could be any character in a novel or film, who would that be?
11. If a genie gave you three wishes, what would you wish?

The Rules:

1. Once you are nominated, make a post thanking and linking the person who nominated you. Include the Liebster Award sticker in the post too.
2. Nominate 5-10 other bloggers who you feel are worthy of this award. Let them know they have been nominated by commenting on one of their posts. You can also nominate the person who nominated you.
3. Ensure all these bloggers have less than 200 followers.
4. Answer the eleven questions asked to you by the person who nominated you, and make eleven questions of your own or your nominees or you may use the same questions.
5. Lastly, COPY these rules in the post