My beautiful new blogger friend at storiesbyfrances just nominated me for a Liebster Award and I couldn’t be happier.

Frances, you see, is a wonderful writer of delightful, personal fiction and for her to find any of the things I have posted to be helpful or in any way inspiring is humbling. Of course, now I have to keep up the quality.

And, it appears, the first thing you have to do with a Liebster Award is open yourself up to the inquisitive mind of your nominator. So, here goes.

1. If you could be any character from any book, who would you want to be and why?

Henry V from the Shakespeare play of the same name. I have always wanted to be able to inspire people to reach within themselves and find the strength to reach beyond the limits of their fears to something greater…albeit, not on a battlefield.

2. What´s the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

I got caught staring at the cleavage of a fellow student in Grade 12 theatre class…and by staring, I mean, her breast were practically keeping my ears warm. She neither welcomed the attention nor shunned it, so I guess I lucked out in one sense.

There was also the time that I walked in on a friend receiving fellatio from his girlfriend at work. Not sure why I was embarrassed by this, but he wasn’t, so I guess I just thought one of us should be.

3. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you want to be?

That’s a tough one to answer. As of recently, I have been happy simply being wherever I am at that moment.

If I could add “anywhen” to that, then I would say New York City, 1950, working as a comedy writer for Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows, alongside the likes of Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, Danny Simon, Neil Simon and Mel Tolkin.

4. Who is the person you miss the most?

My grandmother, who passed away in 2012. She was a guiding spirit throughout my life; someone who always believed in me, even when she didn’t agree with or understand what I was doing. In many ways, she was my best friend and a wonderful companion. Name me one other woman of her generation who would read all of her grandson’s science books, dictionary at her side, so that she could converse with the babbling prodigy.

5. What´s your favorite childhood memory and why?

I don’t have a lot of memories of my childhood. It may be that times were so unsettled for me and my family that in blocking out the bad memories, the good ones have become collateral damage. This is not to say there wasn’t laughter and smiles, but I would have to say my favourite memories don’t start until much later in life.

6. What would you like to write about, but have never muster enough courage to actually write about?

I am really fortunate that at this stage in my life, there is nothing I can’t write about. No subjects are off-limits. No media are untappable. No genre can stop me.

7. Who/what couldn´t you live without?

Laughter. And not just mine; anyone’s. Laughter helps me cope. Laughter disarms. Laughter gives me perspective. Laughter is often the only exercise I get. Laughter is why I live (although not all of my writing efforts are comedic).

8. Why did you start blogging?

I’ve considered doing it for some time, and then a friend said she was going to start blogging about one very personal issue for her (I am so proud of her).

9. What keeps you blogging?

Narcissism. I need to speak and I think what I have to say will be of value to someone, even if it’s a question. And a need to know I am not alone, although luckily, that is not so scary a prospect as it once was.

10. What´s a perfect day to you?

Sunshine, a slight breeze, a notepad, two pens, an XL coffee and a park bench.

11. What makes you laugh?

Everything. I consider myself blessed with the ability to find humour in everything and anything. Others, in my past, have experienced this as something of a curse. I don’t hang around them much.

Offer eleven random facts about yourself:

1. I have a Master’s degree in protein biochemistry, having spent several years studying the most poorly expressed protein in the genome of a virus that attacks bacteria–phage lambda for those keeping score.

2. I am an improvisation performance junkie, although I haven’t done it recently, and studied at Toronto’s Second City Training Centre and Bad Dog Theatre under some amazingly talented people.

3. I have romantically loved only 3 women in my almost 50 years of life and while none of those relationships is currently active in the romantic sense, I am grateful to each one of those women for getting me through a special part of my life and am fortunate enough to consider myself a friend to each to some extent. (We won’t discuss after how many women I have lusted…if only because the numbers would be inaccurate as soon as I posted them)

4. I have a man-crush on the mascot of the Toronto Marlies, farm team for the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. His name is Duke. (see, I told you I would write about anything)

5. I can’t read the word “cock” without smiling and perhaps even laughing because of a friend’s screenplay.

6. I love the Beatles.

7. In the last 12 months, I managed to become completely and unreservedly happy with my life. It is not perfect or idyllic, by any means, but I don’t care. I used to say that I wanted to be Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood, but felt more like Danny Kaye’s Walter Mitty. I am now Randy Willis’ Robin Hood.

8. I can’t grow decent facial hair to save my life, but it doesn’t keep me from trying, as witnessed by my present attempt at a handlebar moustache.

9. Nutella = sex in a jar

10. Speaking of sex: male.

11. Nothing can be off-limits when it comes to humour…NOTHING!

Nominate eleven other bloggers with fewer than 300 followers:

Okay, I feel terrible about this and will understand if someone wants me to turn the award back in, but I don’t have anybody to nominate at this point because of the 300 followers criteria. Pretty much everyone I follow has 500+ followers, and I must admit that I have not spent much time trolling for other blogs to discover the newbie gems.

In my defense, I did tell you I was a narcissist.

So, the task I set myself is to find more newbie bloggers doing something very interesting, and then nominate them for Liebster Awards. Promise!