Winners, Awards, and First Chapters! Oh, My!

My blogfest is officially

OVER.

Whoo...guys, let me tell you, my eyes are worn out. But I believe I manged to stop around to everyone's blog. If I missed yours (I'm sorry), just tell me and I'll hop right over.

Did everyone else have as much fun as I did? I read so many good beginnings! And I got a buttload of awesome feedback on DARK WATER. Have I mentioned lately how much I love you guys? You're all so helpful! If I could, I'd jump through my screen and give each and every one of you a bone-crushing bear hug. (As if I could with these little noodle arms of mine...)

But, now that the fun is over, we have matters to attend to. A $20 Amazon gift card that one of you lucky ducks will be receiving. And the winner is...

Oh, wait a tick! Before I announce my winner, I want to thank Madeline over at Capricious Existence for the awards she gave me!

Thanks, Madeline!! *waves*

 To accept these awards, I have to:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 15 or so recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

So, here goes!

Seven totally-random-and-probably-weird things about me:

1.  I've got the sense of humor of a fifteen-year-old boy. Up until high school, most of my friends were guys. (I had a grand total of TWO good female friends.) And it's pretty obvious their um...crudeness rubbed off on me. I once thought about doing a tally to see how many crotch jokes I make in a day, but decided against it. I'm not sure I can count that high.

2.  I don't watch a lot of movies. I'm always one of the last to see all the big hits. (My brother had seen Avatar four times before I broke down and decided to go see it.) I think it might have something to do with the time it takes to watch one--I feel like I could be doing something more productive. My boyfriend is a movie buff, so it really gets on his nerves when he starts talking about a movie he loves and I just stare at him like an idiot.

3.  On the flip side, I'm a music buff, but Travis (the boyfriend) only listens to what he hears on the radio. It annoys me to NO END that he's so resistant to looking for music. (Because we all know they don't play good music on the radio anymore. You have to seek it out.)

4.  I'm addicted to coffee. I can drink a whole pot by myself and make more later. But I don't like my coffee to taste like ANYTHING that actually resembles coffee. It needs to taste like a milky, sugar-filled diabetes trap.

5.  I like to listen to music and picture my characters in epic scenes. I feel kind of silly, but I've got a sneaking suspicion I'm not the only one out there doing it.

6.  When I was a little kid, I had my heart set on becoming a marine biologist. Yeah, believe me, I was the only kid in class with that response.

7.  I have a weakness for funny guys. If they can make me laugh, I'm done. I once dated a guy I had no chemistry with for nearly a whole year because he was quite possibly the funniest guy I'd ever met. I dunno--the funny just blinds me.

I'll be passing these awards along to:

1. A. Grey at Grey Places

2. Tessa Conte at Tessa's Blurb

3. Teralyn Rose Pilgrim at A Writer's Journey

4. Zan Marie at In the Shade of the Cherry Tree

5. Alexis at Korê Averna

6. Loralie Hall at It's Always About the Journey

7. Rosie Connolly at East for Green Eyes

8.  Marie Rearden at The Flying Cheetah

9. Rane Anderson at The Lit Express (Yeah, not a recently discovered blog for me, but have you seen it? If any blog out there deserves a stylish blogger award, it's The Lit Express.)

And that's that.

I know it said 15 bloggers, but eh...rules are made for breaking, right? Annnnnyway, now that all of that is out of the way, all that's left is to announce our blogfest winner.

Our winner is...

Trisha at WORD + STUFF

I'll be sending your gift card through email ASAIFOH!

(Translation: As soon as I figure out how. Lol)

But I can't stress enough how grateful I am to everyone who participated. You guys really made my first blogfest an awesome one. If I could give you all a prize, I would. (Damn my wallet for being so empty.)

You can all be counting on seeing more blogfests out of me in the future!

Oh, and one more thing!

You might remember me mentioning something about posting the first chapter of Broken for you guys to read if you're interested. Well, take a gander (yeah, I just said gander. I feel lame) at the top of the page. See that new tab that says 'Broken'?

Yeah, that one. Click it.

BOOM! First chapter.

There's a comment section at the bottom, so if you do read it and have something you're just burning to say--be it positive or negative--go right ahead. But let me warn you...it's kinda long.

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!