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Lo & behold an angel of light appeared in the form of an award from a feisty, blonde with a hearty-helping of sunshine to brighten our dreary, wintry days.
It would seem, Inion N. Mathair has been nominated for an award. The Sunshine Award. Coarse we should’ve known that it would be the bubbly, energetic & hysterical Texan, Beth Teliho (our Bethie) that would douse our dark-duo with some much needed sunshine. And what a perfect time to receive the rays, with the thermometer reading 2 degrees in the Smoky Mountains.
So first off, let us give thanks to Beth Teliho for always being such a great friend & wonderful blog sister whose always thinking of others. Thx Bethie!!! xoxo
If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting this Beautiful & Brilliant, Southern firecracker, please take the time to head on over to her blog {Writer B Is Me} & read some of her posts & southern anecdotes that will have you laughing til ya cry!
Next, we’re going to fulfill the stipulations which we absolutely love by the way and answer seven (7) Unknown Facts about Inion N. Mathair, then give seven (7) Quirky Facts about us as a duo. Once we’re done with that, we’ll be passing this award onto eleven (11) others, spreading the sunshine, in some other chilly places across this great, big blogosphere & hopefully brightening another bloggers day as Bethie did ours!
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So, let’s get started…
</F:1) If you could go back in time ten years and tell yourself one thing what would it be?
I-A) Not to eat that second bowl of Butter Pecan Icecream. It all went downhill after that.
M-A) Not to sweat the little things.
F:2) What's your favorite ice cream flavor?
I-A) I thought I already answered that? lol
M-A) Only one?! Cookies-n-Cream
F:3) If you were to take me on a date, where would we go and why?
I-A) Well, first to a bookstore I haven't been too, maybe in Highlands or Asheville. Then, somewhere quiet with a breathtaking view (which our area has plenty of) & Read…read…read! When are stomachs begin to rumble, a quiet restaurant that has phenomenal vegetarian dishes & lastly a quaint coffee shop.
M-A) A Poetry Reading first. Then, a tasty Southern dinner, at a downhome, barbecue joint "Fat Buddies" would do! Lastly, if your starting off quiet & calm finish the night with a bang. A concert, perhaps Clapton, Pearl Jam, Harry Connick Jr., Foo Fighters.
F:4) Above all else, what are you afraid of?
I-A) Failing which in my book is anything other than the Best. I'm a perfectionist thanks to my competitive mother who has high expectations & whose driven me my entire life to be the best. I can't stand to be second at anything.
M-A) Too many things to count, which would make me a coward (lol). But, if I had to pin one thing. I guess I'd go with my biggest which seems to be snakes.
F:5) What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?
I-A) Be the first of my family to leave the South. Although I love my Dear Dixieland, I'd Move to Washington & set down roots, then write, write, write some more!!
M-A) Oh the possibilities… Okay, I guess I'd throw on an evening gown, grab a mic & sing Whitney Houston songs for millions. Lord help us!!
F:6) What has been your favorite age and why?
I-A) I like the age I'm at right now. My career, relationships, achievements, goals, my health. My late twenties have been good. I feel as though I've come into my own & know myself better than I ever have. I'm really happy.
M-A) Much like Inion, 28. Although I can't put my finger on it, as it was a number of things, I loved my late twenties.
F:7) Coffee or tea?
I-A) Without a doubt, Coffee.
M-A) I'd have to agree with Inion. I love me some coffee whether it's first thing in the morning, late at night while we're working or on a cold winter night it always hits the spot.
</Seven quirky facts:
1. We can’t write unless the television’s on, much like teenagers can’t do homework without tunes blasting in their ears. Of course now that I think of it, mom throws her Nirvana DVD's on which would count as music. But we also have, horror fest's, our nods to the 80's Molly Ringwald as well as Director John Hughes. Tim Burtonthons & what would a writing room be without the 2 muses who grace our space. Mine: Emma Thompson… Moms: Meryl Streep.
2. We’re tomboys at heart. I am a comic book junkie and Sci-Fi geek and secretly wish I was Indiana Jones. Mathair has the mindset & mouth of a teenage boy. Those of you that read our novel The Perfect 7 should know this due to the fact that she and Kevin Yager are one in the same. She is also a hardcore horror fanatic with a heavy emphasis on serial killers and sociopaths.
3. Our characters NEVER leave us. Much like a schizophrenic, our MC’s are constantly kicking around our heads, telling us their stories, speaking to us randomly throughout the day, giving their input on a situation & often times demanding our full attention. It can be a bit jarring. Thank God there are two of us or we’d never get anything done.
4. We’re southern girls at heart. Born and bred Floridians 7 generations, the two of us have yet to venture beyond the Mason Dixon line and have a special place in our heart for the Dirty South. We love Southern food, Southern traditions, Southern people & have a nasty twang that gets much thicker when intoxicated or angry. And of course there's the hottie perk. Southern-fried-gentlemen too hot for words… (Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum, Chace Crawford, & of course Kentucky born but Florida Raised: Johnny Depp.
5. We’re addicted to soaps. Though Mathair and I swore we’d never fall prey to the inevitable cliffhangers of an episodic saga, it only took two words to change all that: True Blood. It started a chain reaction, or rather a domino effect, branching out to Game of Thrones, Shameless, Dracula, Vikings, Marvel’s Agents of Shield, American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Coven, and so on and so forth. After the end of every season & last episode, I get a nasty look from Mathair, who informs me that it’s my fault she’s addicted.
6. We both suffered from night terrors as children. Mathair had a reoccurring dream about an old woman with a beehive hairdo, in a white nightgown named Meg, that haunted her childhood home and my bouts with Freddy Krueger are legendary in my family. Our dreams are so bad, we've even been known to walk, talk and fight off invisible boogeymen/women in our sleep.
7. Much like Kevin Yager, we’ve followed Mathair’s Celtic sixth sense or "gut" and have based many if not all of our business decisions on this instinct.
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Nominate eleven (11) Bloggers:
1.) Coleen Patrick http://coleenpatrick.com/
2.) Marcia Richards Blog http://marciaarichards.com/blog
3.) Lafemmeroar http://lafemmeroar.wordpress.com/
4.) The Regular Guy NYC (Phil) http://blog.theregularguynyc.com/
5.) Lizzie R Considerings http://www.summat2thinkon.blogspot.com/
6.) Aussa Lorens Hacker.Ninja.Hooker.Spy http://aussalorens.com/
7.) Phil Gayle For Singles & Couples http://forsinglesandcouples.wordpress.com/
8.) Menopausalmother http://www.menopausalmom.com/
9.) Mike Vogler Past My Curfew http://pastmycurfew.com/
10.) J. Cornell Michel/Jordon’s Brains http://jordansbrains.com/category/blog/
11.) Anita Noted in Nashville http://notedinnashville.com/
Thank you once again to our Sister from another Mister~Beth Teliho for giving us this incredible award! To those of you we’ve nominated, congrats!!
Now, on another note. We would like to mention something completely off the wall & separate from the post. Below, we will be leaving a link to the School: Enka Middle School Teacher: Beth Lane. She is trying to raise money for the North Carolina Writing Programs for youth. Please do not feel pressured in any way, as we are not asking for donations but simply leaving the link for those who feel they want more information; while trying to bring about awareness for programs such as this one, that work diligently with young, apsiring writers.
http://www.donorschoose.org/blane
Thanks,
Beth Lane
beth.lane@bcsemail.org
8th Grade Language Arts
Enka Middle School
***Disney will match any donations up to $100 per donor between now and January 10th if donors use the promo code DISNEY during checkout.
Inion N. Mathair 
*tips hat* Why thank you both so much for the nomination 🙂
I love your facts and answers to Beth’s questions (not the night terrors – they sound harrowing!) and how very similar you are in some things, and totally different in others.
Inion – I think it’s amazing that you’ve got such dedication that you’d just go and write and write and write. And that you’re super-competitive. That’s awesome, because I’m also super-competitive and HATE to lose or come second. It can be quite the burden and sometimes makes me not very nice to play with, but something I’m working on 😀
Mathair – the beautiful, hilarious deadpan with which you followed Inion’s rant about you driving her to be ALWAYS HER BEST by responding, quite calmly, that your biggest fear is snakes. I giggled 😀
I shall write my acceptance speech soon. And let you know. Thank you both once again 😀
Sorry, I’m laughing my ass off right now, Lizzie. Mom told me she loved your wicked sense of humor I have to tell you it’s rockin’ my world! I see now how we found you at Beth’s as we totally luv her sense of humor too! And perhaps, two distant souls with more in common than we might think, have met up for some cosmic reason. lol Let’s see…. Both Competitive~ Both working out issues of being neurotic, for fear of failing…~hmm….perhaps we can get together & throw darts at our mums pics! mwahahaha Luv the comment Lizzie & can’t wait to come by & read your answers!! By then I will have put snakes in Mathair’s bed. How dare she be so blase’ lmao 😉
WHOOT! See now I’ve managed to speak to ‘Mathair’ on a number of occasions, but you, Milady, have remained heretofore elusive. A pleasure to make your acquaintance 😀
And I promise you, I’ve not forgotten your beautiful award – I’m writing about GOING to accept it, and then I’ll follow through next week with the post. Thank you so much 😀
And yes – Life Is On Purpose. There is reason at work here. I shall throw darts at my Dad’s pic tho 😉 But YES to everything else.
Also I LOVE snakes, and would be an excellent (and willing) accomplice in your prank 😉 I like your style.
Love getting to know more about you!! I can write with the TV on but not music. I love music but I get the urge to dance and move around and it’s kind of hard to write when your dancing 🙂 I much prefer silence.
Such an interesting image to be tom boys at heart and Southern girls at the same time. But I get it – who can resist a good sci fi movie or plot? 🙂
Congratulations on the award — so well deserved! 🙂
Arlene I totally luv the way you can make us laugh at a moments notice!! I just got a visual of you trying to type then jumping up & dancing to Lady GaGa phenomenal!! 😀 Yeah, my Nana pretty much stays on us 24/7 about our anti-girl tendencies. Coarse it doesn’t help. Nana’s old South & I think she still curtsy’s. Of course the minute we’re discussing one of our skanky relatives whose done something trashy, she’ll look over at us & say. “Shhh….don’t air your dirty laundry!!” We laugh & respond with. “I think they’ve already done that for us, Nana!!” To which she says: “Every family has one!!” God luv her I don’t know what we’d do without her. Probably end up on Jerry Springer!! LMAO Luv the comment Arlene & you!! xoxoxo
Wow your Nana sounds hilarious! I’d probably start saying stuff just to get her going. But that would be mean and she’s probably too sweet for that kind of trickery 🙂
Ahem…it would be very very mean to purposefully do that to Nana!! How could you say such a thing Arlene? I mean we would never do something just to get a rise out of her…..Would we??? Of course not that would be just….Okay, you caught us red handed!! lmao. Actually Arlene, we loved the first part of the comment & both busted out laughing then said, YES!! Knew there was a cosmic reason that brought us to this girl!! She’s got a wicked sense of humor just like us!! Now if you’ll excuse us we’re going to put crazy glue on her toilet seat!! 😀 only kidding……or not! 😉
Congratulations on the award! And I’d rather the snakes keep a good distance from me, too. 😉 Like Carrie, though, I need quiet when I’m writing. Best wishes for your writing in the new year!
Thank you, JM. Best wishes for you as well. Can’t wait for your novel. It’s interesting to discover the methods of other writers. Noise, chaos and disruption always seem to keep us more focused, but we come from a big, loud, (dysfunctional, but loveable) Southern-Irish family. Silence and peace are unfamiliar notions. LOL.
Aw, this is such a great post! I almost missed it in my reader and scrolled down one more and saw it – yiiipppeee!
first, love the date you would take me on. I would totally enjoy both of them! Read read read, vegetarian restaurant, coffee house, and uh…YES to Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Harry Connick Jr. oh my! I actually went to a HCJ concert many moons ago. It was at a small venue here in Dallas and was in my top best concerts I’ve EVER been to. He was amazing! Also in my top is the Ben Harper/ Charlie Musselwhite concert I attended in September, also at a small venue. It was magic.
I totally relate to your characters staying in your head! Mine are with me all the time, it’s weird. I know how each of them would react to different situations. I know them better than I know myself sometimes!
Night terrors??? omg that’s terrible!
You two are simply the BEST. You were the first bloggers to champion me and I’m forever grateful. You have my heart, ladies. Truly.
So glad you stopped by to read it. And it took us a while to think of a perfect date for you, Bethie, and Mathair and I just couldn’t agree on one so we decided to divvy it up and take you on two. Yep, we can use that loophole because we’re bad ass like that. Love that statement about your characters: “I know them better than I know myself sometimes!” Mathair and I are always saying stuff like, “Kevin would totally love that.” or “Renni wouldn’t go there!” You are one of our dearest friends and we don’t know where we’d be without your support, so we THANK YOU! You have our hearts, (though they tend to be a bit weathered and coarse at times. LOL)
Congrats on the award, ladies–and for sharing. 🙂 It’s always sunny and supportive around here. You two rock. By the way I love quaint coffee shops too–and in high school I ALWAYS had the TV on as I did homework!
Right! I can’t even fathom concentrating on anything without some kind of noise in the background, but our family is big, loud, Southern-Irish so the house is always noisy and full of people that don’t understand you’re trying to work. Mathair and I are just built to work through it. Guess that’s what comes from being raised like that, though. We don’t mind. The other side of the spectrum would be way too weird for us. Mathair’s reading your novel, so I have to wait until she’s done, but I’m too excited to get my hands on it! Literally waiting on the edge of my seat to delve into it. Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Coleen. We love hearing from you. XOXOXO
Congrats on the award. I’m so sorry you’re scared of snakes, I mean I can understand anacondas and maybe a boa here or there, but snakes are really wonderful. 🙂
Okay Kate you’ve just become the bravest woman we’ve ever met. A woman who likes snakes. That’s a first!! Unfortunately I just can’t get over my fear of them. I see them & my legs draw up & I turn into a five year old. lol. It’s funny cuz my father like you, spent my entire life trying to convince me I was wrong. “They’re just another one of God’s creatures.” Or his favorite thing to tell me. “They’re more afraid of you, than you are of them.” I highly doubt that!! LOL Perhaps one day I can get over my insecurities over the slimy, wiggly, slithery….Yuk!!!! Thanks for stopping by & for commenting. We hope your holidays we’re great!
Love Pearl Jam and Harry Connick Junior! Congrats, ladies. Wishing you lots of success in 2014.
How cool are you Catherine!! Should’ve known you we’re a Pearl Jam & H.C. Jr fan as your that bad-ass!! My mother’s been dying to see Pearl Jam & had a chance long ago but got really sick the night before & had to give her ticket up so she’s awaiting her time to finally see them. Thanks for stopping by & for commenting. We hope 2014 brings you much success, happiness & love!! 🙂
Your blog deserves all the awards there are! Kudos~
Aw, thank you so much, Cindy. We hope your holidays were wonderful and thank you so much for stopping by and commenting. We love hearing from you. XOXO
Happy New Year, ladies! Congrats on your award! Just wanted to let you know that I’m tagging you in a blog post tomorrow about Top Ten Books. I look forward to seeing your list (if you choose to write one, of course)! Take care! 🙂
And a Happy New Year to you too. We’ve never done a top ten books list before, but we’d be more than happy to post one. Don’t know if we could pick a top ten, we love so many books that it would be like playing favorites with children. LOL. Oh, the possibilities though. Hope you had a wonderful holiday and thank you for all of your support. It truly means so much to us. 🙂
Such a deserved award! You ladies are awesome =) And after reading The Perfect 7 and hearing you have nightmares, some of the stuff in the book makes more sense =)
Thank you, Jennifer. You’re an awesome lady as well. Yes, The Perfect 7 is exactly like some of the whoppers we’ve had and sometimes it feels as though our minds are plagued with stories like Kevin’s. It’s why we write, to release the demons. LOL. Our night terrors get their own little nod in P7; we bestowed Kevin with the gift of premonition in his dreams. Definitely will be elaborating more about that in the future installments of the series.
Ooooo! Congrats on the award! And very interesting facts and answers… you are certainly a dark duo over there 😉 I would be curious to be a fly on the wall while you’re playing American Horror Story and typing away your stories…
Thanks for the nomination! I’m off to stalk your other nominees now.
Thank you, Aussa and congrats on your nomination. It’s so deserved. We love your blog. BTW, should you be a fly on our wall, you’d see that we’re glued to the TV screen with much more intensity than we should rather than paying attention to what we should, which is our books. LOL! 😉 It has a tendency to pull us in. Inion and I are suckers for anything with witches and it’s definitely inspiring us for our late Spring release of New Salem Chronicles: The 13 Reapers, which is our story about a traveling witch. Hope you had a wonderful holidays and very happy new year.
Congratulations on this very appropriate award!
Thank you so much, Patsy. We were honored to receive such a positive and uplifting award like the Sunshine Award. And, given we write such dark things, it came as a complete surprise to us… albeit a very happy one. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. We love hearing from you. XOXOXO
Congratulations! A much-deserved award!
Thank you so much, Miranda. We jumped around in our writing room like two tweenies who had just won front row tickets at a 1D concert. LOL. Hope you had a wonderful holiday.
So fun to learn about you both. I’m like you with the characters you write. They never leave me alone. I love bedtime because I crawl into bed and then let my characters start interacting in my head and see if I need to change something in the story the next day from what happened at night as I went to sleep.
Thank so much, Char. Love what you said about letting your characters interact with each other. Our MC’s never play nice, (namely Kevin and the boys) so we have to keep them separated from the girls, but oh how they love to spin their wilds while we sleep. That’s great that you keep your stories so open for your characters to rewrite. I’ve always said that a story tells itself, and it takes a strong and confident author to let go of those reins. It can be a little scary and very daunting, but always better for the story. Hope you had a wonderful holiday and a happy new year. XOXOXO
Fun to learn these things about you! I’m with you guys on the failing and the snakes (and True Blood, though I’m embarrassed to admit it), but I can’t write to music or TV. I like it quiet. Shhhh… 🙂
Congrats on the award!
Aw, thanks, Carrie. Yep, failing’s a constant fear of mine. Mathair always pushed me to be the best at everything I do and she’s a perfectionist herself, so we’re pretty much our own worst enemies. (Though Mathair’s always on my case telling me to be easier on myself.) And don’t be embarrassed about showing your True Blood love… let your fang flag fly! LOL. ;P I used to hide my TB dependency as well. It can be a little cliché at times, but when I realized there were others out there, suffering from the same addiction, I admitted my problem. Of course, that’s always the first step. I’m on my way to recovery what with this upcoming season being it’s last.
I’m a season behind–I wait for the DVD to come out. So I guess that means I have two seasons left. Will be sad to let go of that guilty pleasure!
Congrats on your award 🙂
Thank you, Andy. Love your newest poem on your blog. It was so powerful. Hope you had a wonderful holiday and a happy new year. 🙂
And you as well 🙂 🙂