Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Alright. Here it is. Yall interviewing Me! *hangs head* Yall ask some funny things...

Soooo, Merry Christmas!! Can you believe it's already here??!! 

I decided this year to do something different for our Christmas post.

I'm letting YALL interview ME!!

It's always kinda funny to me when people find things out about my real life and are surprised about it so I thought I'd open it up and let yall ask me anything you've been curious about. About me, the blog, the herd, whatever it's been. It's a bit long since I tried to get everyone's questions answered.
If you have questions you're wondering about just leave them in the comments and I'll be by and check them out.

Now, I'd love to hear about YALL too! So, tell me a little about yourselves. Your herds, what you're up to for Christmas, favorite things, whatever you'd like to share!

If you're a blogger leave those links. I know a lot of yall and visit but I know there are some I've missed too.
The herd babies!
I am curious about your herd. How many cats do you have? 
  • LOL oh I have quite a few. Legally between mine (the ones that live with me) and the ones I'm responsible for through the rescue I own and run (we have an adoption center where most of them live) I hang out with 32 cats on a daily basis between the different locations. So I really do herd cats...
This is the adoption center. Well a couple shots. There's the main room which yall are seeing then three big rooms will huge windows where the kitties live cage free. Each room has it's own Christmas tree right now too :)
   

And how did you get involved with the foster cats and rescue cats you mention sometimes.
  • The kitties yall meet are all ones that are part of the non-profit rescue I run. How it got started? Well, the short of it is that one of my cats, Piedmont, ran away. I was in college and planning on doing rescue one day and spent weeks visiting our local kill shelters searching for Piedmont. I decided after 3 1/2 weeks that maybe his disappearance could be turned into something good. So I drew up paperwork, incorporated as a non-profit animal rescue with my state and brought home a slew of kittens. 2 days later Piedmont came sauntering in the house, went up the stairs and got on his dresser like he hadn't been gone nearly a month. LOL That was just about 10 years ago now. 
Tell me about you and cats, and turtles?
  • Other than the kitties I've got a pup right now named Margarite. She's about to turn 13 and I've had her since she was about 2 years old. She was adopted through a large sanctuary in Utah that I worked at one summer. 
  • The kitties are all ones that were part of the rescue and for some reason or another weren't adoptable and saw the SUCKER sign on my forehead and claimed me as their mama. lol Thank goodness because they're wonderful. Most days. When they aren't breaking things. Or pulling my hair. Okay. Some days they're pretty cute and wonderful. ;) 
  • The turtles. Well, we only have one at the moment and he's living in Florida with my mom. I bought two before I started the rescue at a gas station in Florida. They were about the size of quarters. They turned out to be a handful. Huge tanks, outdoor ponds, penis biting and hours and hours at the vet tending to the bitten turtle penis. Yeah, weren't expecting that as a reply were ya? ::snort:: You can check out Preston's Penis story here. I get lots of weird search engine results because of that post.   
Have you always had a herd?  Grow up with one? 
  • I have! There were always animals of some sort around. My first unofficial "rescue" was right before I was born. My mama was 8 months pregnant with me and found a Husky on the side of the road that had been hit by a car. Someone helped her load Tasha up and off we were to the vet. We had Tasha until I was in 4th grade. It only took her a few years to decide she liked me. She was so jealous of the baby getting attention until I started eating people food and then we were best friends. lol 
  • Then there were kitties and my first official "rescue" in pre-school when a kitty showed up and was so hungry he was trying to steel our chicken bone fossil projects. That's when I learned about the pound because one of the teachers was threatening to take him there and I was all over my mom about that and Marmalade came to live with us. 
  • There were hamsters (they were MEAN little Siberian dwarf ones that bit) and hermit crabs as well. 
the books...
What book do you recommend the most often?
  • I'm going with two series :) Jill Shalvis' Lucky Harbor series for vanilla readers and Cherise Sinclair's Club Shadowlands series for those wanting just a little kink. 
What word or words in a book make you go EW?
Oh sweet Mary. Okay, there's a few...
  • Ooze. Yes, things may in fact ooze but dude I so don't need to be thinking that word when things are getting steamy. Thank you very much. lol
  • the phrase...Mustache Ride *slow blink* that is just not a sexy phrase. Never. Never, ever, never to be used in a romance. Never.
  • spurt
  • moist. Cookies should be moist. Nothing else. ::shudder::
  • Nubbin. Okay so it doesn't squick me out but gah. It's a clit people. Call it like it is. Nubbin? That's Chandler Bing's third nipple. That is in no way sexy. *hangs head* 
First off I want to know if you remember the first book you ever read that made you fall in love with reading?
  • I came into the reading game really late. I hated reading in school. I may have a bit of an issue with being told what to do. LOL and that applies to being forced to read things at a certain time. Mmhmm. So reading and I weren't ever really on friendly terms growing up. 
  • Now, as an adult about 3 years ago I picked up the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. I couldn't stop reading them. Then devoured Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse, then Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters, then Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake series. And JD Robb's In Death series. Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick's Arcane series. I was in a reading frenzy and going through a book a day and haven't looked back.
Who is your favorite author(s)?
Oh geez. Mean! Okay. By category. And I love a lot more than this list these are just the ones I've read a bunch from and loved all of them..
  • Contemporary--Jill Shalvis, Erin McCarthy, Cat Johnson,Bella Andre, Tessa Bailey
  • Romantic Suspense--Maya Banks, Lori Foster, Tonya Burrows
  • Historicals--Sabrina Jeffries, Jennifer Haymore,
  • Paranormal-- Sherrilyn Kenyon, Shelly Laurenston, Patricia Briggs, Illona Andrews, Kresley Cole, Karen Marie Moning
  • Erotica/Kink/Dark-- Cara McKenna, Cherise Sinclair, Anne Calhoun, Jaci Burton
  • Other-- JD Robb, Laura Kaye (she does a few categories), Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick
Favorite position... to read in of course gut your head outta the gutter!?! LMAO
  • ::snort:: I spend a lot of time in bed with a view of my ceiling... *looks around innocently*
"And now! I want to know what is the most outrageous kinkery you have read that made you think hmm...wonder what that's like? hehe
  • LOL there's a lot of kinkery I wouldn't mind trying with the right person but top of the list is fire-play. I read it not too long ago in a book by Cherise Sinclair and I was fascinated. Started doing research and watching videos of it. Definitely would like to try that one day.

    It's so hard to find good video/pics of it that are, um, blog appropriate. This was the best I could find just now.

What book makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside no matter how many times you read it?
  • Hmm. I'm really not much of a re-reader. Just too many new books to read first. But, hmm, the Lucky Harbor series I think. I always feel like I'm visiting family with that series and it's a comfort read for sure.
TRAVEL, etc
Top 5 things on bucket list to do.
  1. Own/restore/live in an old building--a church, school, bank, warehouse. Something like that
  2. Learn to fly a helicopter
  3. Visit all 50 states. I'm around 30 now I think.
  4. Own a used/new bookstore
  5. Host an author/reader book convention! 
Something you've completed on your bucket list if any.

  • Starting the animal rescue and becoming a non-profit. It's been about 10 years. I'm getting ready to move on to the next thing in my life but I'm glad I did the rescue. I'll always do rescue in some way and open my home to animals in need but smaller scale from here on out and not so "official" and I don't have quite so much responsibility on my shoulders. 
I see you like to travel. What's your favorite place you have ever traveled?
  • I love to travel! I don't get to nearly often enough. One of my favorite places is Italy. I've been multiple times and just love the country. Especially the island of Capri. It's right near Sorrento. Both places I hope to visit again one day. Especially at Christmas. We went a few years back for a friends wedding in Dec and it was stunningly beautiful and just magical.
Other randomness...
 If you could only eat 5 foods for the rest of your life what would they be?
  1. Eggplant Parmesan--but only the version I make. Never found one quite as good.
  2. Pasta! All kinds. I love it all. But white sauce. I'm not big on pasta with white sauce
  3. Potatoes in their various forms (but only if ketchup is involved)
  4. Chocolate--milk chocolate. None of that white chocolate. *stern look* that is not chocolate. But chocolate in all it's other forms like cookies and brownies and cakes :)
  5. Salad. I'm a vegetarian. I'm big on my salads. I love em.
You get to invite one fictional character over to your house for dinner,  who would you choose & why?
  • Do I get to do naughty things to them while they're here?! lol Hmm. If I had to pick I have to say two because they're a pair... Eve Dallas and Roarke from JD Robb's In Death series. Over 35 books and I'm still madly in love with those two. They're fascinating.
What is your favorite thing about reading? 
  • I just love the escape and getting to explore different lifestyles. If you've followed the blog you know I love all kinds of romance from sweet to really messed up. I find it all fascinating and enjoy seeing the fringe lifestyles via books. I think it's the criminologist in me. I like seeing how people (even fictional ones) tick and how they survive things life throws at them.
What is your favorite thing about blogging?
  • I really enjoy it all at this point. Hanging out and chatting favorites (or not so favorites) with followers and other bloggers, talking with authors I adore and visiting ones I'm just meeting. It's a great outlet where I can be a little silly, a little naughty, etc and not have to worry about being proper all the time.
And the thing about dirt and "nature?"
  • LOL I do not like it! ::snort:: My firm belief is that it all is okay. If it's kept at a distance with a nice..thick piece of glass/concrete/metal between us. Bugs and slithery things freak me the fuck out. I am not ashamed at all by my girly shrieks or that my male neighbors have had to rescue me a time or two from frogs, lizards, snakes or baby bunnies. Not. Ashamed. At. All. Heh.
What do you like to do in your free time? Hobbies?
  • Really I'm rather boring. The last few years I've been such a homebody. I spend a lot of time working on the blog, I volunteer at our USO center and do overnight shifts there pretty often, I love cooking and crafty sorts of things and working on my house doing weird projects--like a wall in the living room that I decoupaged with 1950s black and white yearbook pages... I also have a real life and e-book clubs that I'm part of and book events in town that I go to pretty often.
So you like Erotica I know that. But do you have any fetishes you want to share with us?
  • LOL I am so vanilla in real life. So, no, no real fetishes that I'm active with. lol I keep that just fictional for now though one day hopefully I'll meet the right person and get to play around with some of the ones that intrigue me most.
A little about me...
What brought you to NC? 
  • I grew up down in Gainesville, Florida where the University of Florida and the Gators are. I so don't like the heat and wanted to spread my wings a bit from my family. So I applied to a ton of schools on the east coast. I'd planned on Vet School eventually so when school visits started first up with NC State since they have a veterinary program. After that visit I decided there was no way I was going to make it through 10 more times of doing that and it was good enough and about as cold as I was willing to do (Boston, DC and Ohio were good in theory when I was applying but way too damn cold for a Florida girl in reality). And then, somehow even though I'd planned on only 4 years here it kinda stuck and has been 11 now. No. 12. 
How many years have you been blogging? 
  • The blog officially turns two January 1st! Woot! So a year and 360 days. lol
Do you have a day job besides taking care of your cats, and reading and blogging and cooking and documenting everything for us?
  • Nope. I run the animal rescue and then just fill my time with blogging and volunteering with different organizations. I did work part time at a used bookstore for about a year but that ended earlier this summer.
Are you married, in a relationship or single? Ever been married. Close?  Live ins. 
  • Um, nope to all of the above. I'm single and haven't been close to marriage before. One day hopefully but I'm in no rush. I enjoy being single and haven't met the right person that made me just crave them and had me wanting to spend the rest of my life with them.
And finally...How did you get a job in a used bookstore? And writing reviews?
  • Last year I worked in a used store in town (not there anymore) and got the job because I'd gone in shopping and chatted with the girl working there who mentioned they were hiring. So I applied and there ya go. 
  • Writing reviews just kinda happened too. My mom was visiting for Christmas 2 years ago and I got the spur of the moment idea that I wanted to put a blog together just to keep track of what I was reading since I was going through so many so fast and it could get confusing. And then things just spiraled with that until you have the blog as it is today :)

Whew! Okay. I think I got everyone's questions answered. Holy cow. So now yall know a bit more about the girl behind herding cats & burning soup. If there's anything else yall want to know feel free to ask. I'm a pretty open book about things :)

I'd really love to hear about yall now! Are you bloggers, readers, authors? Are you a lurker or new to the blog? What are yall up to for the holidays? Or what yall do in real life. Do you have herds of your own? Or something you've always wanted to try and hope to one day? Really anything you'd like to share feel free. Or if you wanna share pics you can do that too!


Feel free to find me online!


Yup. There's that big month long giveaway going on. 
Don't forget to enter over in the giveaway widget ---->

There's more than 50 books, ebooks, giftcards and swag bundles up for grabs!

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~Anna

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