The Liebster Award

Wow, so over the past week or so, I have been nominated for a Liebster Award by three other fantastic bloggers - Shannon at Simdale Valley Post, Emma at Around Aleaton and Maisie at Millwood. Thank you so much to all of you!

It's a pay-it-forward sort of thing, so nominees are supposed to nominate others in turn. These are the rules.

1. Put the award on your blog
2. Thank the blogger who nominated you
3. Nominate 5 to 11 other blogs
4. Answer the 11 questions that were asked
5. Then ask the people you nominate, 11 questions.

Let's get started!


I'll start by listing my nominations. I won't include Shannon, Maisie or Emma but had they not nominated me, I would have! I very much enjoy all their blogs and have their most recent updates loaded in other tabs for me to read when I'm done with this. I've probably repeated other people's nominations. I purposely didn't read them, so these blogs are the first ones to come to my mind.

1. Starr from Apple Valley (TS2)
2. Jane from Richmond (TS2)
3. Rachel from The Edith Prescott Mysteries (TS3)
4. Laura from Postcards from Sierra Nova (TS4)
5. Sandy from Around my Sims (TS3)

6. Tanja from Simsville (TS2)
7. Sari from Wellington (TS2)
8. Fini from Newtopia Heights (TS2)
9. Mao from Aperture Valley (TS3)

My questions to the nominees are as follows. I've stolen a couple of questions from others, because they were just such great questions!

1. What was your first Sims game and what version(s) do you play currently?

2. Do you write outside of the game or do you only write sims-related stories?

3. Do you do anything creative, apart from writing?

4. If you could create any mod for the the game, what would it do?

5. What made you decide to start blogging about your game?

6. Are any of your sims or storylines inspired by people you know in real life?

7. What is your favourite thing about simming or blogging?

8. What is your least favourite thing about simming or blogging?

9. Do you plan your updates or just play and see what happens? Or do you do something in between?

10. Is there any "ritual" (for want of a better word) you have to do before you sit down to play or blog? Making yourself a particular drink, turning on some music, making sure you have some quiet space?

11. What's one thing you've never seen in your game or done with your sims/hood that you would really like to?

Seeing I have been nominated three times, I'm going to answer three sets of questions but I'm going to answer Shannon's in this post and Emma's and Maisie's in two subsequent posts, just so I don't overwhelm you guys and this isn't a huge text wall!

Shannon's questions:

1. What’s your all-time favorite place in the world? (If you don’t feel comfortable giving the location, just a description).
You know, it's probably my bedroom. I'm such a homebody and an intense introvert. Even though there are other places I love, I'm never gladder to arrive anywhere but home.

2. Who is your favorite, non-sims author?

John Irving. Near the end of his books, I always have this jaw drop moment where all the weird things that have happened earlier on start to come together and you realise they were way more important than you thought they were. I think his writing is so incredibly clever.

3. When did you start playing Sims?

Uh...whenever TS1 came out? 2000? I don't think it was on release day but not especially long afterwards. I was so excited to get my hands on that game!

4. What is your favorite part of playing or blogging sims?

Seeing the progression of my hood over time, both the sims and the hood itself.

5. What is your least favorite part of playing or blogging sims?

Figuring out crashing problems. :\

6. Where do you find/get inspiration for your blog’s characters?

The sims themselves! They tell me pretty much everything I need to know about their personalities, and I extrapolate from there. I'm sure I draw inspiration from all over the place - people I know, other people's characters, movies and TV - but I couldn't say I get the majority of it from any one source, apart from the game itself.

7. What about the setting, how did you come up with the imaginary aspects of your sims’ world?
Sullivan is a bit of a mish-mash, because I have no patience for themes or anything or the sort but often forget that fact about myself! So I'll start off with a theme and then abandon it before I've ever really got started. Sullivan was actually originally going to be all Cape Cod style houses and look a lot like I imagine areas of New England in the US to look like. I don't think that even lasted past the initial building and decorating stages. I pretty much just do whatever I feel like. I am intentionally coy about Sullivan's real life location, because I don't want stick to the traditions or aesthetic of any one particular place. It's on Earth somewhere. ;)

8. How did you decide to start blogging about your game?

It was a bit of a snap decision, actually. I'd been reading sim blogs for a while but never had any real inclination to start my own. Then I decided to start a new hood and document the process on N99. I was amazed that people were actually interested in what I was doing in my game! I did the first few rounds or so there and then it started to get cumbersome to keep track of on the forum. I thought "hey, what about one of those blog things?" and got started that same afternoon!

9. Do you know any simmers in your everyday life, or just online?

I know a couple of people who have played/still play the game but no one I would call a simmer. We're a special breed, I think! I don't know anyone in real life with quite the level of obsession that most simmers have.

10. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being completely), how freaked out are you when the power/internet go out and you can’t play or read or write about sims? (I’m about a six, this happened last week!)
Oh, dear, probably 7 or 8! I'm actually fine if I just can't get to my computer to play and I have TV to watch but if the power is out? No, I'm almost completely incapable of entertaining myself without electricity!

11. All time favorite sims moment?

So many! This is a cruel question, Shannon! I'll just share the first memorable one that pops into my head, which would be when Nick and Sarah decided to get themselves knocked up at somebody's wedding (maybe Aaron and Calvin's?), when they had baby Thomas at home. I think he was about 6 months old at the time, so they were keen. But if anyone was going to do that, it seemed fitting that it was them!