Liebster Award

7/30/2012 , , , 3 Comments

I won the Liebster Blog Award.

Yay!

Ana at The Adventures Within blog, had informed me this morning that I won.

Thanks, Ana!



So what is the Liebster Award?

It’s an award that was started in Germany to give to bloggers who have less than 200 followers, and also to be recognized for their hard work. Liebster in German means, dearest, but it can also mean, favorite.

When Ana told me I won the award I was like, "Wow. Cool!"

Not too long ago I had mentioned I wasn’t striving to win a blog award. But hey, this is awesome and it made my day.

Anyway, there are rules that go along with this award. Here they are:

1.) Each person must post 10 facts about themselves.
2.) Answer 10 questions the tagger has given you and give 10 questions for the people you tagged.
3.) Choose 10 people and link them in your post.
4.) Tell them you’ve tagged them.
5.) Remember, no tags back.

So here are ten facts about me:

1.) I have a stuffed racoon named Coonie, that I cuddle with when I’m sad.
2.) I love dogs, but I don’t have the patience to take care of them.
3.) I’m a homebody, so I really don’t like to travel much.
4.) I don’t believe in organized religion, but I am a spiritual person.
5.) I have an irreverent sense of humor.
6.) I’m an emotional person. If something or someone touches my heart, I get choked up.
7.) I’m not afraid to die.
8.) I’m stubborn.
9.) I can’t watch commercials about abused animals. It hurts my heart too much and makes me cry.
10.) I love the woods and plan to live in them or nearby, some day.


Now here are the questions I was asked to answer, along with my answers:

1.) Name one book that you regret buying and wish you hadn’t read.

Actually, I don’t regret buying any books because I’ve learned from each one I had bought. However, I had bought Lord of the Flies, and I didn’t like the way it was written. It was a total yawner (is that even a word?). I don’t regret buying it though, because it's a classic.

2.) A book that you really want but haven’t been able to buy.

The original first Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone).

3.) What actor or singer would you want to meet if they were alive?

Marilyn Monroe

4.) Do you have an OCD?

Not really. . . Well, I do tend to narrate what I’m doing.

Example: I’m going to change my clothes, eat something, and then read for a while.

5.) If all the hot superheros asked you out which one would you pick?

If I wasn’t married or never met Kevin, it would be . . . I don’t know because here’s why:

Batman–When he disguises his voice, it annoys me.

Superman–He’s too goody-goody, and his outfit is lame.

Spiderman–He’s too skinny, and I hate spiders (see answer below).

Incredible Hulk–He’s too big, green, and looks like a Neanderthal.

Thor–I’m not attracted to long blond-haired guys. Eeew.

Ironman–Now, I might go out with him. Hmmmm.

Okay, I changed my mind. I’d go for Ironman.

6.) Your Phobias?

See below

7.) Do you have a phobia, if so what?

Yes. Spiders, wasps, ticks, roaches, and big things like grizzly bears.

8.) If you could visit any country in the world, where would you go?

Scotland!

9.) Favorite ice cream flavor or drink?

Peanut butter and chocolate ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

10.) Something you can’t live without?

Happiness
 
Here are the blogs I choose for this award:

1.) Sweet Tooth Reviews
2.) Bazinga
3.) Books and Movies
4.) Tale Spins
5.) Threads
6.) Life in the pages
7.) she really does love books
8.) leopard kitty books
9.) Lost in a Sea of Words

10.) The Random Ranterer

Here are the questions for the above people:

1.) If you had to be an animal, which animal would it be and why?
2.) If you could have one super power, what would it be?
3.) What is your pet peeve?
4.) If you had the opportunity to know when you were going to die, would you want to know?
5.) If the vampire Lestat offered you immortality as a vampire, would you do it?
6.) If your house was haunted by friendly spirits, would you move?
7.) If you found a Ouiji board under a wooden floorboard in a 300-year-old house, would you play with it?
8.) If you found a time machine that worked, which time would you go back into?
9.) If you could change anything in this world, what would it be?
10.) If an alien mothership came to earth, along with smaller ships, and positioned themselves around the world in each state and country, what would you do?

3 comments:

Stepping Into the Unknown

My book signing went well. Here’s a picture of the outside of Sweets ‘N Stories, and a picture of my author table advertising my book signing. I forgot to get a picture of myself because I was too busy visiting with people. But truthfully, I hate getting my picture taken.




 
People whom I haven’t seen in years, came by to support me, which was wonderful.

The only thing I would have changed about the book signing experience would be to have asked the people who bought my book, if they wanted me to personalize it. A father bought a book for his daughter, and he told me her name. Sometimes I could be such a dope though, because all I wrote was her name, and then signed it.

So lame.

Why didn’t I write something personal or something else besides: To Gabby, Rebekkah Ford?

The only answer I have for not personalizing my book before signing it is because Anne Rice didn’t personalize her book for me when I went to her book signing, so I didn’t think about it when I was signing my book for people yesterday.

I do feel bad about it.

I mean, really bad.

Heart-crushing bad.

But I can’t dwell on it.

I need to move on.

It’s a learning experience, and now I know what to do when I’m in that situation again.

So I got through the book signing and faced that fear, but now I have another fear I need to face . . .

The fear of being on TV.

I was invited the other day to be on a TV talk show here in North Dakota. We will be filming for their new season on August 28th.

YIKES!

I can do this.

I want to do it, and I appreciate that the producer is giving me the opportunity to be on his show, to help promote my book.

I had mailed him my book like three weeks ago, and I hadn’t heard from him. I thought maybe he wasn’t interested, but then last Thursday, he contacted me, and invited me on his show. I was surprised by the offer and immediately became nervous. I’m not an articulate speaker, and I tend to say words wrong because my mouth usually moves faster than my brain. But it’s not like I haven’t mentioned that before.

But you know what?

Screw it.

I’m just going to be myself, like I was on the podcast, which was another fear I had to step into and conquer. So I will do the same with being on TV. It’ll be the host and I. I will focus on him and not the cameras. If I say, "Dude or cool" so be it.

I am me.

I will step into the unknown, speak from my heart, and hopefully blow through it with no problems.

3 comments:

Book Signing

This Saturday (July 28th)  I’ll be doing a book signing for the first time ever. It’s going to be here in my town at Sweets ‘N Stories.

Isn’t it cute inside?
This picture shows where you get your yummies at. On the other side is where the books are, and  where I’ll be signing my books. If I think about it, I’ll take a picture on Saturday before I do the signing (the above picture is from Facebook). 
The owner has a poster of my book cover on the door. It looks pretty cool, actually. You can see it when you’re driving down Main Street, and the owner also had fliers for my book signing made. Last night, when I went to Northside Treats & Eats (it’s like a Dairy Queen) to pick up some food, I saw my flier in there.
It looks awesome.
And then today, my boss told me she was at the library last night and saw my flier there too. J
Oh! And the library already bought one of my books and is waiting for me to sign it for them.
I ran into my ex-boss, a couple days ago. She told me she bought my book and really likes it. She also told me she shook the book in front of her coworker's face and said, “You got to read this.” So her coworker is reading it right now. 
I used to work at the medical clinic here in town, and I guess my book is getting circulated among them, which rocks.  I was pleasantly surprised when Judy (ex-boss and one of the best ever) had told me that.
Now I have to get through this book signing. It’s totally out of my comfort zone, but so was the podcast, and like I had said before, I’m willing to confront my fear(s) in order to spread the word around about my book.
I just hope people show up.
It would be totally embarrassing to sit there by myself and nobody stops in to buy my book.
I know it happens though.
I’ve heard a lot of stories about authors sitting at their book signing event for hours and nobody showing up.
I just hope I’m not one of them.




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Think About Your Goals and Not Your Problems

I deleted the last post I did because it was too depressing. At least to me it was.
After I had written that post, this was the conversation I had with Kevin:
Kevin: “Are you happy?”
I shake my head
Me:  “No.”
Kevin frowns.
Kevin: “Why?”
Me: “I feel like no matter how hard I try, it’s not enough. And the way this world is, like what happened in Aurora, Colorado, makes me sad. I just don’t understand any of it.”
Kevin: “You know, five hundred years ago, people would get slaughtered for no reason, and it was by a sword, not a gun. Sometimes they’d force a guy into their army and would make him fight for them. So imagine being on a battlefield with just a sword, facing another army you didn’t want to fight, but had to.”
I nod.
Me: “Yeah, I can see what you mean. It’s all a matter of perspective.”
Kevin: “You also need to start thinking about your goals and not your problems.”
Me:  “That’s true. I forgot about that. I will.”
So Kevin jarred me out of my funk, and now I’m back to focusing on my goals and not my problems, although I have to admit, I still feel sad about what happened in Colorado.
Anyway, I thought of something fun to do to help promote my book. I’m not going to say what it is because I’m not sure if I’ll be able to pull it off. I did tell Kevin about my idea. He laughed and told me I have too much time on my hands.
Um, not really. It’s just my creative mind keeps throwing ideas at me. I hope this idea works though, because it would be fun, and I think you guys would get a kick out of it.
Anyway, I have to get back to work. I hope you’re having a good day. J

0 comments:

Out-Of-Body Experiences–Again

7/19/2012 0 Comments


I had done a post last August on out-of-body experiences (OBE), and to be honest, I hadn’t realized it until after I started writing another post about it.                      

*slaps hand on forehead*

Duh!

Anyway, it’s an interesting topic if you want to check out that post.

Here’s a couple of experiences I personally had on the subject that wasn’t mentioned:

When I was six-years-old, I fell from a building. My cranium had split, right down the middle (yeah, that’s what’s wrong with me. :D ), and I was in a coma for three days. I was unconscious when my dad found me (obviously, since I was in a coma). He carried me home, placed me on our couch, and I remember observing my sister from above, pacing around our living room in hysterics, telling him to call the ambulance. And then I felt him gently slapping my face, telling me to wake up. I was then immediately back in my body, trying to open my eyes. After that . . . Well, I can’t really say what happened. Those memories are foggy until right before I had opened my eyes.

The picture below reminds me of another experience I had . . .
 

 
Years ago, I had woken up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Afterwards, when I was about to enter my bedroom, I froze.

Kevin was sitting up in bed, and the first thing I thought of was, what’s he doing? And then my mind shifted out of place when the realization came, his body was lying in bed.

That was his spirit!

I stood there, staring at it for at least a couple of minutes, but when I entered the room, it disappeared.

I’m still puzzled by it to this day.

Was it his spirit I had seen?

I don’t know.

It is a mystery.

So what do you think?

Have you ever had an OBE?

If so, I’d be interested in hearing your story. Or, if you think it’s all bogus, I’d like to hear your view point on it.

Check out Winnie the Pooh. He had an OBE too. :)



 

And before you go to sleep, remember this:

 
 
 
 

0 comments:

Ghost Haunting

Yay! I was finally able to get on Blogger tonight. I don’t know what happened, but I’m so glad it’s working now. :)

Oh! Have you guys ever heard of the ‘walking taco?’ It’s one of the coolest ideas ever. You take a grab bag of Doritos, crunch the bottom of the bag up with your hand, cut the top of the bag off, put lettuces, taco meat, onions, taco sauce, black olives, tomatoes, and cheese on it. And then you get a fork and can walk around with it without having mess.

Pretty cool, huh?

I never heard of a ‘walking taco’ until we moved here to North Dakota.

Now, moving on to what I had planned to post yesterday . . .

As most of you know, I grew up in a family that dealt with the paranormal, and although my parents had gone their separate ways when I was eight, the paranormal world still remained a constant in our household. I have no doubt in my mind that is why I love writing and talking about the supernatural world. And what is cool is, I can take my experiences and weave it into my stories. It’s kind of comical though, I fell in love and married a person who is totally not into this type of thing. It’s not like Kevin doesn’t believe in this stuff, but his argument is this: why go there? There’s too much going on in this world, and if we were to focus our energy on the supernatural world, we could easily slip into Peter Pan land and would want to stay there because it would be much more interesting than the mundaneness of our daily life.

True. I can understand that, however, my comeback to his argument is this: if you’re a logical, levelheaded person who can still live your daily life and not fall into the trap or allow your mind to be easily swayed into living a hocus pocus life, then why not? But what I appreciate about Kevin is he doesn’t expect me to mold my ideas and beliefs to his. He doesn’t want me to, which is a good thing because there’s no way I would anyway, and he respects the fact I’m my own person. Granted, it would be awesome if he were into it, but I could understand his beef about it.

Anyway, I ran across this video of a shadow person or spirit and wanted to share it with you. When I was very young, we lived in a house that was haunted. I remember this one night, I went into my sister’s room and crawled into her bed. She asked me what was wrong, and I told her I saw a witch. Before I had done that, my sister had seen a shadowy figure go down the hallway towards my room. Of course, being as young as I was, for some reason I thought it was a witch. Maybe because I used to have the same dream over and over again of being in the woods and seeing a figure wearing a cloak, beckoning me towards it.

Weird, right?

So check out this video. I had to post the link because the video won't post here.

http://dai.ly/a4kdxk

So what do you think? I know a lot of videos tend to be bogus, however, this one reminded me of the shadowy figure in our house, and of other ones I've seen throughout my life. I could even go as far as to say it was a dark spirit from my Beyond the Eyes series. But there's more to it than that, and those who have already read my book know what I'm talking about.

*grins*

Talk to ya later.

*waves*


                                                           

2 comments:

Blogger Issues

Hey! Just a quick note you guys. I'm at work right now, taking a break, and I wanted to tell you I've been trying to get on Blogger and Facebook at my house since yesterday. I don't know what the deal is, and I'm totally baffled by it. I thought they were having problems with their server, however, it's working fine here at work. WTH?

Anyway, I'll see what I can do at lunch time or this evening when I'm home. It's frustrating though because I'm ready to post something and can't. . .

Oh! What's weird is, I can get on Pinterest, Goodreads, Amazon, etc. with no problem, so why can't I get on Blogger and Facebook?

Grrrrrrr!

0 comments:

Interviewing My Main Character

A while ago, I had interviewed one of Paige’s best friends–Tree. His real name is Jack but his friends call him Tree because he’s tall and has a Mohawk. Well now I thought it was about time to interview my main character, Paige. I won’t though, ask questions that would spoil the story for future readers.

I’m interviewing Paige, via video chat. At the beginning of this series she was seventeen, however, she just turned eighteen this past May. Right now, she’s wearing her long, dark red hair down. I can’t help but envy how perfectly straight it is. Every morning I have to take a hair straightener to my naturally wavy hair to accomplish what Paige’s hair naturally does. She’s also petite like me, however, she’s a few inches taller than I. She’s five three and is wearing a white tank top and camouflage shorts. Her normally pale skin is nicely tanned, and I imagine it’s from hanging out at Cannon Beach with Nathan, Tree, and Carrie.

Me: "Hi, Paige. How are you today?"

She smiles and shifts nervously in her seat.

Paige: "I’m good. Thanks."

Me: "You don’t like to be the center of attention, huh?"

She tucks her hair behind her ears and shakes her head.

Paige: "No, I don’t."

Me: "I appreciate you allowing me to interview you, and I promise it’ll be short and painless."

A small smile forms on her lips, and she nods.

Me: "I know you can’t tell me too much because I just released your story to the world, and I don’t want to ruin it for future readers and--"

Paige: "Do you think . . . " She looks down.

Me: "What?"

She takes a deep breath and fixes her dark green eyes on mine. They look worried. I notice my heart is beating a little faster.

Paige: "Do you think the people who read this series will believe about the dark spirits?"

I shrug.

Me: "I don’t know. I wrote it as fiction."

Paige: "But since the human race has existed here on earth, there have been humans who have done some horrific things, like what the Nazis have done."

Me: "Yeah, I know."

Paige: "Or humans with super-human strength overpowering another human and performing cannibalistic acts on them."

I just nod, a little taken aback by this unexpected turn in our conversation.

Paige leans closer to the camera. The look in her eyes is sad, yet there’s a desperation in them that is alarming. My heart picks up speed again, and then she says two words that send chills down my spine.

Paige: "Dark spirits."

For half a minute we stare at each other. Her eyes are as round as her face. What she just said isn’t really news to me, but I can’t help but wonder if I had opened up a can of worms when I decided to publish this series.

I can hear a heavy door closing in the background with a loud thud. I blink, and Paige glances away.

Nathan: "Paige, Carrie and Tree are waiting for us at the theater."

Paige covers her mouth and looks at me apologetically. She drops her hand.

Paige: "Crap. I totally forgot. We’re supposed to see The Avengers this afternoon. I’m sorry, but I have to go."

Me: "That’s okay. We can finish another time. I imagine Tree is anxious to see it, huh?"

She laughs and smiles.

Paige: "Yeah. Tree and his superheros. You gotta love him."

Me: "My dad told me it was an excellent movie. He’s into superheros too."

Paige smiles again, and then Nathan kneels beside her. The corner of his mouth curls, and I can’t help but think how cute he is. His hair style reminds me of Brad Pitt’s character (Tyler Durden) in Fight Club–short brown hair, and spiked up on top–except Nathan has blond spikes. Nathan also has a boyish look, like Brad Pitt, but he doesn’t look like him. Nathan’s eyes are dark blue, and honestly, he’s cuter than Brad.

Nathan: "Hi, Rebekkah."

I can’t help but grin.

Me: "Hi, Nathan."

Nathan: "I hate to be rude, but I have to steal Paige from you."

Me: "No worries. I understand. You guys go have fun. I’m sure we’ll meet again in the future."

Nathan lifts his eyebrows and locks his gaze onto mine.

Nathan: "You can count on it."

Paige: "Let me know when you want to do this again."

Me: "Okay, I will."

Paige: "Thank you for sharing my story with the world, and just so you know, I have more to share if you ever decide to continue after the third book."

Me: "You’re welcome, and we’ll see how well this series does before I decide whether to continue it or not."

Paige and Nathan stand up.

Paige: "Well, if you do, let me know."

Me: "Sure thing. Now you two go have some fun."

Paige: "Okay, bye."

Me: "Bye."

Wow. That interview was certainly not what I had imagined or expected. We hardly had a chance to get to know Paige, but we’ll do it again some other time. I also would like to interview Nathan. I just don’t know if I can without giving too much away. Maybe when the second book comes out I will.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this interview. I didn’t plan it this way, nor did I change anything. I left it in its rawest form so it would retain its purity and essence.

My butt is numb so I best be off (not that you wanted to know that, but hey, I’m still going for the raw and uncut version). :)

0 comments:

Fun, Happy, Memories.

I thought I’d take a break from blogging about my book and post about some of my early, fun, happy, childhood memories. Every time I think of the following stuff, it always puts a smile on my face . . .
 
 
 
 
I loved, loved, loved, my big wheel. I miss my big wheel. Back then, we didn’t have to wear a helmet or knee pads. Sure, we got banged up a little from doing death-defying stunts like skidding across the road and going down steep hills, but we’re still alive. We might have battle scars from those stunts, but so what. Those scars have a cool ass big wheel story behind them. It reminds us of a much better time when kids would play outside until the street lamps came on and we weren’t so restricted like we are now.
 
 
 
 
When Star Wars came out, I was four-years-old. My dad took me and my sister to see it, and like the rest of the world, I was in total awe. For Christmas, I got a bunch of Star Wars toys, which included the Death Star Space Station. My dad still has it, along with the Star Wars case and figures. I remember playing with my Star Wars stuff for hours because I thought it was so cool. And guess what? I still do.
 

 
I loved Burger Chef and always got a happy meal. It came with a toy and had cool stuff on the box. So heck, yeah, I'd get a happy meal. Oh, and yes, I’m a Star Wars fan. However, I’m a fan of the original one. I didn’t care for the prequels.
 
 

 
My dad used to take my sister and me to Friendly’s. I loved Friendly’s. The only thing I didn't like was afterwards, my dad would pull his handkerchief out of his pocket, spit on it, and then wipe the ice cream off my face.

Yuck!

*makes a face*

Did your dad ever do that to you?

As you can probably tell, all these fond memories are with my dad, but that's because. . . Well, he's a big kid (maybe that's why I'm like that too and write YA books), and he's fun to be around.

So there you have it, some of my early, fun, happy, childhood memories. When I think about that time, it always puts a smile on my face: toys, cool movies, yummy food and ice cream. Yup, I think those things would put a smile on anybody’s face. :)

0 comments:

My Podcast Is Live

Hey, here’s my podcast if you want to listen to it. Keep in mind this was my first one, so I felt a bit awkward. I did have fun though. Also, my book is now available in paperback.

Yay!

I have the paperback and it looks awesome!

I hope you have a fun 4th of July. Here are the links to my podcast and paperback book:

http://bookgoodies.com/rebekkah-ford-paranormal-author-interview/

http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Eyes-1-Rebekkah-Ford/dp/0615652581/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341410844&sr=1-1&keywords=beyond+the+eyes

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Free Ebook

To celebrate Independence Day and my own independence, I'm giving away a free ebook of my book, Beyond the Eyes, on Smashwords. Here's the link:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/168857

The offer on Smashwords says it's until July 31st, however, I might decide to end this promotion before then. So check it out. It's an awesome book that's free, and who knows, you might love it like I do. :)

0 comments:

Podcast

Thursday night I was supposed to be on a podcast, and I’m not going to lie, I was really nervous. Kevin even told me to drink some brandy–just a little bit, to take the edge off. So I did, but then the podcast was rescheduled for Saturday night.

Bummer.

I’m the type of person when something I have to do makes me really nervous or anxious; I want to get it over with, like giving blood: sit in the chair and squeeze my eyes shut until it’s over with, hoping my vein doesn’t roll and it’s not going to hurt.

Now don’t get me wrong. Doing a podcast is nothing like offering a vein and getting your blood sucked out of you. I’m just saying, I was really nervous and would have liked to have had it done right then. But that’s okay, it was no big deal.

Two days later, it’s Saturday night. I looked at the clock and had an hour and half before the podcast. I hopped on Facebook and expressed how nervous I was. My friends answered with kind, supportive words.

The clock was ticking. I had half and hour to go . . .

Am I being dramatic?

Seriously, this is how it went, and I’m taking you on this ride with me.

I grabbed a brandy glass and poured a small amount of brandy in it. I started drinking.

There’s a trick to drinking brandy, by the way. You put some in your mouth, hold the liquid between your tongue and roof of your mouth, then swallow. Eventually, you get so used to it you don’t have to think about how to drink it, but if you swallow wrong, it burns your throat and chest and makes you hack . . .

Yeah, not good.

In case you’re wondering, I’m not much of a drinker, but it is nice to have one once in a while.

Back to what I was talking about.

I finished the brandy ten minutes before the podcast. I looked at the empty glass and wondered out loud if I should have just a little bit more. I felt somewhat relaxed, but not as much as I wanted to. But then Kevin told me, it might not be a good idea because the alcohol in brandy tends to sneak up on you. I listened to him, set the glass down, picked up my notebook and the phone and headed down the basement.

I spoke to the gal who was going to interview me before we started the podcast. She was very nice and easy to talk to. So much so, when the podcast began, I wasn’t as nervous as I thought. Usually, when I’m really nervous, my chest and throat tighten up, and I can barely breathe. I was so scared that was going to happen, but it didn’t.

Was it the brandy that rescued me from having to endure what could have been a half hour of choked, breathless replies? Or was it because Deborah (the interviewer) was so easy and fun to talk to? Or was it both?

I don’t know.

What I do know is, I did enjoy myself, but I stumbled a few times, and I may not have explained some things correctly. I can’t remember though. But like I told you in my last post, my mouth tends to move quicker than my mind, which sometimes causes me to say things wrong.

Does that ever happen to you?

One of the many things I love about writing is you can write things out, reread it, think about it, and delete it if it’s wrong or not how you want to express something. But speaking is a whole different ballpark. I wish I was an articulate speaker, but I’m not.

After the podcast, Deborah told me I did great, and she was excited about it. She asked me how old I was, so I told her. She thought I was 18 . . .

Well, I guess I do talk (here we go with the talking thing again) like a teenager. I guess because I still feel like one, which if I think about it in a positive light, is why I can write young adult books with no problem. I think for as long as I’m alive, I’ll always feel like a teenager, and I don’t see anything wrong with that. Yeah, I’m mature, but I’m also light-hearted and have my silly moments.

Anyway, I should be getting the link to the podcast any time now. When I do, I’ll post it here.

Now, I must return to my second book in the series. I’m rereading it, and then I’m going to do some revisions before sending it to my editor who is waiting for it right now, so I best get busy. :)

0 comments: