The Sunshine Award

I have just received The Sunshine Award from author/blogger C. J. Sullivan!

The Sunshine Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers. The recipients of the Sunshine Award are “bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogsphere.” The way the award works is this: thank the person who gave you the award, and link back to them. Then answer questions about yourself. Finally, select up to 10 of your favorite bloggers, link their blogs to your post, and let them know they have been awarded the Sunshine Award!

Thanks, C. J., for thinking of me! You rock! Check out her blog, Journey of a Soul, here. She's flipping adorable.

And now my answers:

What inspired you to start blogging?

After I become so active on Twitter, I decided there were things I wanted to say that just didn't fit in the limited 140 word count. And now I can't seem to shut up.

How did you come up with the name of your blog?

I wanted something easy that people would remember and I know my last name can be a real stinker to spell. Since I'm such a huge fan of anything dealing with paranormal, I decided to keep it simple and added on the "YA" since I primarily write young adult (although I have a few new adult in the works).

What is your favorite blog that you like to read?

Emma Meade's. We have so much in common and she makes me laugh.

Tell about your dream job.

Honestly, I'm living it. I've wanted to be a writer since I was eight. I have my own hours and I can write from anywhere in the world. I especially love summer time when I can retreat to our lake home with the kids. I don't have anyone telling me what to do or how to do it (with the exception of my editors, whose opinions I value). You know you're in love with your job when your family begs you to step away from it at times.

Is your glass half full or half empty?

Ever since I left my "day" job, I've been trying like hell to keep it half full. There's not much to gain from negativity.

If you could go anywhere for a week’s vacation, where would you go?

I'd have to say Italy. Something about the coast looks so stunning and romantic. I'd love to explore the cobble stone streets and eat some of their delicious food and drink their wine...

What food can you absolutely not eat?

Mushrooms and onions. Don't even get me started. Sick.

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

MILK all the way.

How much time do you spend blogging?

Probably five hours or better a week. I also co-blog on two other websites, so I keep busy!

Do you watch TV – if so, what are some of your favorite shows?

I've cut way back in the past few months and have only found time for The Walking Dead (my favorite show of all time) and Saturday Night Live. But during the year I also watch Dexter, Breaking Bad, Homeland and Nurse Jackie. And I watch old episodes of Supernatural when I'm working out. Some of my favorites that have ended are X-Files, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sex and the City.

Now to pass on the award! These guys are amazing and full of positive energy, so please take a moment to check them out!

Jolene Perry

Lauryn April

Leigh Moore

Emma Meade

Clover Autrey

Tabitha Martin

Deanne Sletten

Julie Flanders

VikLit

S. K. Anthony

Supernatural: Super Awesome!

Confession: I only work out because I know two hot guys named Sam and Dean are waiting for me.

For those of you who don't watch Supernatural, those are the two brothers on the CW series who hunt paranormal myths and urban legends mostly across the Midwest. I don't watch the show just because they're hot (because if I admitted that it would make me a cougar and I'm not ready for that kind of commitment). I watch it because it's so awesome - like X-Files awesome. And yes, I know I'm really late to the party considering the series is in its 8th season.

I've known about this show for a long time and I usually watch a lot of the shows on CW. For some reason, however, I didn't try watching an episode until a later season and just couldn't get into it. I have a bad habit of giving up on shows if I don't watch them from the very beginning.

Enter Netflix.

For Christmas we bought a large flatscreen with internet for our theatre room, so I decided to give Netflix another try. There are probably a dozen series waiting in my queue, but I really wanted to give Supernatural a chance. From the first episode I was hooked. The brothers have a relationship that's amusing to watch, the paranormal stories are so right up my alley and there's just enough of the scare factor to keep me satisfied and not overly freaked out.

So every morning when I have a hard time crawling out of bed and getting on the elliptical machine, I think of Dean's beautiful eyes the creepy stories that are just waiting to be told and just like that, I'm up. If only the Winchester brothers could motivate me to do everything hard in life...maybe I could reward myself for cooking and cleaning each time with an episode.

Our Place in a Violent World

Just as most Americans, after the horrific slaughter last week in Connecticut I suddenly feel like I'm drowning in my personal quest to keep my children's moral compasses in check. How do you explain to your child something that you don't understand yourself? What kind of monster could kill so many innocent people? How do I send my kids off to school each day and assure them that they'll be safe?

Today's generation of kids are waaaaay too desensitized. Between movies, Internet and video games, they've become numb to the whole concept of death unless it happens in their personal life. When I was growing up, many of the killers in horror movies were either a mythical creature or someone who came back from the dead to revenge their deaths. But an exception to that rule, and also one of the most disturbing I had ever seen, was Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's no secret that I love a good scary movie, but there are times when I draw the line with senseless violence.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the first of many films to feature mentally deranged humans torturing others. One of the first horror movies I was unable to finish as an adult was Hostel. I just couldn't grasp the concept as entertaining and it was too disturbing to watch. Businessmen paying to torture young backpackers in Europe? How is that anything other than sick and twisted? There have been a slew of movies to follow Hostel that focus on deranged humans torturing other humans.

When The Dark Knight Rises came out, I braced myself for the worst after the shooting in Colorado. But I didn't find Bane's character nearly as disturbing as Heath Ledger's role in the previous Dark Knight film. I guess this only proves that mentally ill people are going to imitate things that come out of Hollywood, no matter what degree of twisted they may be. While I understand this, I still wonder why we add fuel to their imaginations with disturbing films.

When speaking to a friend this past weekend about the Newtown shootings, she pointed out that Americans think shows in Europe revolve too much around nudity and sex, while our entertainment has taken a major swing into gore and violence. When looking at the fatalities from guns in each country, it would seem that the US needs to reassess our goals. There were a reported 8,583 gun-related deaths in the United States in 2011 alone. Just this past week, a grandfather in Minnesota shot his granddaughter when he thought he heard an intruder in the night. Why give anyone and their dog the right to hold a weapon that kills? Why are there weapons available to the public that hold a hundred rounds of ammunition? I'm not going to go into the whole "right to bear arms" issue here, but it just seems gun violence is out of control. Something needs to be done. I know that making guns illegal is not the answer because, as some people recently pointed out in the endless debate, so are cocaine and meth. But something needs to be done as here have been far too many senseless acts of violence in recent years. As President Obama recently stated at the Newtown memorial service, "We're not doing enough and we'll have to change."

What can we as a nation actively do about the violence? Adults need to educate the next generations on right from wrong and monitor what they're exposed to. As much as I try to limit what my 10 and 12-year-old see on the Internet and watch on TV, I know it's impossible to protect them from everything. Still, they don't get to watch The Walking Dead with me and they don't have any video games that involve shooting humans. I know they'll go to a friend's house and see a violent horror movie or play the latest Call of Duty - they already have. But for the majority of their young lives, they'll be exposed to shows in which people are kind to each other and hopefully understand that senseless violence is inhumane.

And above all, we have to teach our children how to be considerate to others. In this modern society of road-rage and school shootings, we have to make more of an effort to demonstrate kindness. We have to show by example that it's not okay to bully others or wish cruel deaths on our enemies (i.e. explain to your children why the Korean singer Psy was horribly wrong in singing about torturing American soldiers and their families). This holiday season, make a point to reach out to others in need and lead by example. Let's show the world that the United States is still filled with good, and teach generations to come that violence is not the answer.