The Get to Know Me Tag {Writer’s Edition}

About half an age ago (a.k.a 3 months) the dear Savannah from Inspiring Writes created the Writer’s Edition of a Get to Know Me Tag. And I loved it so much, I was toootally gonna put on my pirate hat and steal the tag if she didn’t tag me for it. Buuuut she DID tag me, so I shall be doing it all legally and stuff. Yay me! (Except can I still wear a pirate hat and pretend to be nefarious???)

ANYWHO.

This is one of those super fun get-to-know-me tags so you dear nosy dragons can learn more about the person behind all these words you put up reading every week. Except this tag is all about the writerly life! Which is the only life for me, yo-ho yo-ho! (Ha! See, I am a pirate.) Because Savannah is brilliant and fun and you should all go follow her.

So let’s get to it! Because I know you’re all dying to know about every aspect of my life, riiiiight??? (Just humor me and feed me pizza and I’ll leave you alone, I promise.)

. . . RULES . . .

• Link back to the person who created the tag (That would be SAVANNAH!) 
• Thank the person who tagged you (Thank you, Savannah, for tagging me so I don’t have to become a thief. And for creating this tag in the first place! Woot, woot!)
• Share the tag graphic (Optional, but of course I wanted to because Savannah’s graphics are gorgeous.) (Except her blog name is now “Inspiring Writes” instead of “Scattered Scribblings”, if you’re wondering what’s up with that.)
• Tag eleven bloggers (Getting’ there!)

. . . THE TAG . . .

Vital Stats And Appearance

Name: Christine Smith

Nicknames: Lauriloth and more commonly Lauri by the internet crowd. (Lauriloth means shining, golden flower in Tolkien’s elven language, if you’re curious where that came from.) And that’s…it? I don’t really have a nickname people call me by in person. I give people murderous glares when they try to call me Chris. Eheheheh. I just…don’t like being called that. No clue why. Two of my friends called me Stiney for a while which was amusing, but it didn’t stick for terribly long. OH. And when I was little I went by Dee a lot because when my sister was a toddler that’s what she called me. Nooo clue how the child got “Dee” out of “Christine” but what can you do with toddlers?

Birthday: Somewhere between January 1st and December 31st. *grins* Or maybe I’m an ethereal being who has no birthday. WHO CAN KNOW???

Hair color and length: Blonde. (I joke that I’m blonde in both ways because of my hair and I’m ridiculously airheaded. XD) And it comes a little past my shoulders.

Eye color: Hazel

Braces/piercings/tattoos: Not a one. I mean, I wear a retainer at night if that counts??? Lol.

Righty or Lefty: Righty! Shocking turn of events I know. :P

Ethnicity: Uh… A mix of a bunch of different stuff like most Americans. Lol. I shamefully don’t even know what all blood I have in me. Though my grandmother is from Canada, which is fun. And I have some Denmark blood too. Plus supposedly Irish blood which is great! Also sometimes I feel like I’m a descendant of snowmen because my skin is so absurdly pale…

Firsts

First novel written: My first story was called Christine and Pepper because apparently I was that narcissistic when I was little. I also wrote it in a Lisa Frank notebook ‘cause I was a cool kid. It was about, er, me finding a horse in my backyard with no explanation to speak of and naming it Pepper. Because, like any 9 year old girl, I was ridiculously obsessed with horses. I wrote a little bit of it, but then decided I didn’t actually want the girl to be me. So I started it over and titled it Samantha and Pepper, and I think I got about 11 or 12 chapters through before I realized I wanted to write fantasy. THAT’S RIGHT. My first novel was a contemporary with no fantasy elements to speak of. SHOCKING I KNOW. But I quickly changed that and never wrote a realistic story ever again because ew the real world.

First novel completed: My first “big” fantasy titled, wait for it, The Grand Adventure. (Wooooow! I was so clever with names.) I started it a year or two after my Samantha story, and stuck with it for a long time because I had found my element. Fantasyyyy. It took me a year to write it, and I was so proud when I finished it. It was a portal fantasy about a girl named Maria May Maiden (I thought I was so clever with that name oh my gosh), who gets sucked into a fantasy world via a mirror and must save the world from a cliché villain because she’s prophesied to do so and it had basically every cliché fantasy trope to ever exist. Oh. Maria also befriended and went on the adventure with a talking horse because my horse obsession was still strong. Except this time it was a magical horse. Naturally.

Award for writing: Er…none? Woot, go me! (I’ve literally only ever entered one writing contest. XD One of these days I’m gonna join in more!)

First publication: Also none as of yet? One day maybe hopefully??? I might have a better chance if I, ya know, started submitting stories to things. But I’m getting to that point, I promise!

Conference:  I’ve never attended a conference…YET. But I’m going to Realm Makers in July and AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! I CAN’T STOP SCREAMING ABOUT IT.

Query/Pitch: Also none yet. (Wow, Christine, you’re doing great.) BUT. I will be pitching my book to a couple of agents at Realm Makers so…yeah. Prayforme.

Favorites

Novel (that you wrote): Wow, Savannah, just ask evil questions why don’t you??? I DON’T KNOW. I don’t really have a favorite. My favorite novel tends to be the one I’m writing at the time. I love following along on the journey of every single one of my characters. I honest to goodness don’t favor one novel over the other. They all hold a special place in my heart, even the horrific ones, because they’ve shaped me into the writer I am today. Each one is a grand adventure (oooh, harking back to my first fantasy novel) and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

Genre: FANTASYYYYY. (Aren’t you surprised?) Although I love almost all YA speculative fiction. (Save for maybe paranormal, and I’m picky when it comes to sci-fi.) Why do I love teen drama set in the very-not-real-world here at 26 years old? NO CLUE. BUT I HAVE NO SHAME.

Author: Wait. Author? As in ONE??? HAHAHAHAHA. No. *cracks knuckles* Here we go: Bryan Davis, Jill Williamson, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Diana Wynne Jones, Kyle Robert Shultz, Donita K. Paul, Anne Elisabeth Stengl. Okay, okay, I’ll stop. But I feel like I’m forgetting like 20 authors.

Writing Music: Soundtracks are LIFE. I don’t ever listen to lyrical music while writing, it’s too distracting. But I have to have music going. The silence is distracting too for some reason. With each book, I listen to different things. Such as for Burning Thorns it’s a loooooot of the songs from Maleficent and Cinderella (2015). For another book, I listened to a lot of the music from Final Fantasy X (possibly my favorite video game soundtrack period) and Legend of Zelda stuff. The music from the game Skyrim sounds like it was made for my Colors of a Dragon Scale series. (Video game music is fantastic, just so you know.) I DON’T KNOW. Anything nice and instrumental that fits the tone. I like it all!

Time To Write: My most productive time during the day is anywhere between 2 and 5 in the afternoon. I actually write best at night when the house is quiet and I can turn my light out and put headphones in and just utterly immerse in the story. Buuuut nighttime is usually my unwinding time where I read or watch TV because my busy afternoons burned me out. Lol.

Writing Snack/Drink: I pretty much never snack while writing. I mean, come on, snacking is the perfect excuse to take a writing break! But I always have a beverage with me. Mostly water, but sometimes I get a glass of coke. And coffee and tea are necessities.

Movie: The Lord of the Rings trilogy is and probably always will be my favorites ever. Despite some of the unthinkable things they diverted away from the book. BUT STILL. The amount of epicness in those movies moves my soul. I’m also an utter Marvel movie geek (The Avengers, The Winter Soldier, both Guardians of the Galaxy ones, and Ragnarok being my top faves.) Both the Maleficent and Cinderella movies inspires my writing heart possibly more than any others out there though. They encompass everything I love to write, Maleficent especially. And then there’s Tangled and How to Train Your Dragon and… Okay, I need to stop. (If you didn’t know, I’m almost as much of a movie/TV show fan as bookworm. CRAZY I KNOW!)

Writing Memory: What? WHAT??? I’ve been writing for 17 years now! I HAVE SO MANY. That first moment I discovered I loved telling stories when I was 9. When I found my niche in fantasy novels. The first time I actually finished a story. The fun I had with my beta-readers when they read through Burning Thorns. GAH. SO MANY HAPPY MEMORIES. But, in all truth, my top favorite would probably have to be my first ever NaNoWriMo back in 2010. It’s what really changed my world forever. Not only did I make writing friends (where before I did this writing thing all on my lonesome), was inspired to make this blog, and just had the time of my life poring myself into a novel for a month, it also was the turning point for me. After that magical experience, I knew, without a doubt, this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Before, writing was just a fun hobby that I didn’t take nearly as seriously as I should. But from that first NaNo on, I began learning the craft, writing like mad, making more writing friends, and seriously pursuing this thing. And I’ve never wanted to look back!

Childhood Book: Favorite childhood book??? And the evil questions continue! I DON’T KNOOOOW. I just loved to read. I didn’t really have a favorite favorite for a long time. Maaaaybe Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace? That whole series is really special to me.

Currently

Reading: At the time of writing this post, Horseman by Kyle Robert Shultz and loving every bit of it!

Writing: I’m actually not writing anything at the very moment. *gasp* *shock* *agh* BUT I AM WORKING ON THINGS. I just finished a major revision for Burning Thorns, and am getting it ready to pitch at Realm Makers. See? Progress!

Listening to: While writing this post I have a playlist of pleasant instrumental songs going, lots of soundtracks. At this very moment it’s playing “A Bracing Cup of Tea” from the new Beauty and the Beast movie.

Watching: My sister and I just rewatched the 2015 Cinderella movie because we’re obsessed. (Which apparently is obvious since that’s the third time I’ve brought that movie up in this post.) I’m slooooowly making my way through ABC’s Once Upon a Time because I literally got seasons behind on that show and am trying to catch up. Currently just started season 6! Annnd my new obsession is Steven Universe, a cartoon put on by Cartoon Network. It’s super weird (and has some questionable agendas going on, grrr), but it’s also somehow relaxing and has an epic story and if you look up cinnamon roll in the dictionary you’d most likely find a picture of Steven. He’s the epitome of a cinnamon roll and I adore him.

Learning: Oh wow. Well, this round of revisions for Burning Thorns has taught me so, so much. I still would like to do a post about my editing journey for it. But I think a big thing it taught me is, with a lot of patience, any story can turn into something readable. All it takes is going through it one chapter, one sentence, one word at a time. And, most shocking of all, editing can kinda be…FUN! *GAAASP*

Future

Want To Be Published: Most definitely! That’s been my goal all the way through.

Indie or Traditional: I hope to go traditional. That’s the plan for now! I know it’s a looong and slooooooooowwwww road, but, as awesome as indie is, I don’t think I can do it. I actually need someone to be my boss and guide me through it all. I would happily send my babies off into the world to be shaped and sold as a publishing press sees fit! Strange I know. Most people want full control of their books but, eh. I’ve never claimed to be normal.

Wildest Goal: Oh goodness. Really, all I’ve ever wanted is to be able to write full time and sell multiple books. To be able to produce and sell one after the other for…ever? I know that doesn’t happen often for any author and the chances are next to none. But hey, it said wildest goal! So here we are.

That was super fun! Hopefully you found these little tidbits interesting? Maybe? Can we pretend?

BUT NOW FOR THE EXCITING PART! Time to pass this on…

. . . TAGGING . . .

Skye @ Ink Castles | Kiri Liz @ Lianne Taimenlore | Liv @ Liv K. Fisher | Jameson @ Lovely Whatsoevers | Sarah @ Sarah Plain and Average | Josiah @ The Steadfast Pen | Victoria @ Wanderer's Pen | Kate @ Story and Dark Chocolate | Kyle @ Kyle Robert Shultz | Allison @ Allison's Well | Christine @ Overflowing Mind and Pen | + anyone else who wants to don their pirate hat and steal this! (Does it count as stealing if I give you permission tho?)

Noooo pressure to anyone whatsoever! (Goodness knows I fail at doing all the tags I’m tagged for…)

TALK WITH ME!

There we have it! Some writerly stuff about the strange girl behind the blog which you may or may not have known about. Now it’s your turn to tell me something about yourself! Mwahaha! To all my fellow writers, what was the first story you ever wrote? And to my dear non-writing readers, what’s a favorite show or movie you’ve been obsessing over lately? (Because you know I love to fangirl over these things!)