The Get to Know Me Tag!

Rules!

Link back to the person who created the tag. (Savannah! Thank you!)Thank the person who tagged you. (Grace and E.G. Bella – thank you!)Share the tag graphic (see above!)Tag eleven bloggers Vital Stats and Appearance

(pen)Name: Vanessa Hall. And yes, that’s my real name. I thought about having a pen name, but I decided I would get way too confused and probably give away my actual name at some point!

Nicknames: Hmm, I don’t really get that many nicknames even though I love nicknames in general. I have been called Nessa before, though, which was super cool!

Birthday: I think this one is classified information. I’ll just say it’s in May. Is that enough?

Hair color and length: Brown. Sometimes it has some lighter highlights, but it’s basically brown. And the length depends on how happy my curls are. It’s actually way longer than it looks most days, because it just scrunches up into curls.

Eye color: Brown. Yep, I got those beady little French eyes from that side of my family.

Braces/piercings/tattoos: No piercings or tattoos, but I had braces and wear glasses.

Righty or lefty: Right-handed!

Ethnicity: A jumble of European stuff (Scotch-Irish, English, French, German). Then there’s at least a few drops of Cherokee Indian in there somewhere!

Firsts

First novel written: Hmm, I guess there were a few there at the beginning, but one of the first was my wonderful epic about the people with eight kids that each had their own POVs. Needless to say, I never got around to all of the kids’ POVs because the story was so short.

First novel completed: Well, two answers here. First was my Civil War novel that ended at exactly 100 pages because … well, because when you reach a certain page number, you know your story is done!

Just kidding. But I think my first “real” novel that I completed was the first of a later Civil War series. Funnily enough, it was entitled Grace Sufficient. (Yeah, I stole that one for my series.)

Award for writing: Nope, no awards.

First publication: Unknown, published last August. (Can you believe my babies are nearly a year old?) It seems like ages ago, but I don’t know how that much time has passed.

Conference: Nope.

Query/Pitch: Never, and it sounds quite scary.

Favorites

Novel (that you wrote): This is not a fair question! Eesh, this is so hard. I guess my favorite would have to be the fourth book in the Grace Sufficient series. (At least it used to be.) It was the easiest book I’ve ever written, but we’ll see what I say when I have to edit that mess.

Genre: Overall, I’ve got to say historical fiction. (I know, I know, I write romantic suspense, but I’ve also wrote several historicals, and I love reading that genre.)

Author: For fiction, obviously my sister, Kristina.

Writing Music: Whatever strikes my fancy in the moment. It also depends on what sort of writing I’m doing. If I’m writing something terrible (um, difficult) like a research paper, it usually turns out to be Irish music. (Because I need something very light and fluffy.) Other times it’ll be some sort of hymn or something. But recently, it’s been really hard for me to edit and listen to anything. My brain cells just get overwhelmed, I guess.

Time To Write: Definitely afternoon/evening.

Writing Snack/Drink: Tea. Always tea! Hot tea is my favorite (green and herbal), but cold tea is also pretty good. As for snacks … dried fruit is yummy. Like dried pineapple. Yum. Or dried mini bananas (they’re so good!) Or dates or figs or mangoes …. yeah, I love dried fruit. Nuts are also really good.

Movie: Hmm, I don’t know if I have a favorite movie. I do really like The Sound of Music, though I have some complaints, per usual. (Rolf? Grr, that guy.)

Writing Memory: I’ve had some really amazing writing sessions before, and those were super fun. But also when the Lord just taught me something through writing or a scene came out especially well … yeah, those were good.

Childhood Book: Horse books. I specifically remember The White Stallions of Lippizza. I adored that book!

Currently

Reading: Kate’s Innocence by Sarah Holman. I’ve been enjoying it!

Writing: The sixth book in the Grace Sufficient series. Oh those poor, precious people …

Listening to: Well, I have to listen to myself practice the violin, so that’s fun. (Well, it’s fun sometimes, but not when my intonation goes south.) And I usually listen to a mix of folk songs, Irish songs, and hymns/Christian music.

Watching: Does Youtube count? I don’t really watch many movies or TV shows in general …

Learning: I wouldn’t say I’m a very good student, but I’m definitely learning how to rest in the Lord. Not striving for anything to make myself feel like a Christian or prove to myself that I’m worthy to be a Christian … but trusting Jesus and His sufficiency that has made me His.

Future

Want To Be Published: Yup, and praise the Lord, it’s done!

Indie or Traditional: Indie!

Wildest Goal: Ahh, this one’s hard. Publishing 100 books in my lifetime? Becoming a bestseller? I don’t know. I should probably be one of those more driven, dreamy people that reach for the stars, but I’m just not. I guess my biggest goal is just to obey God and to pray that I can change lives with my writing.

Wow, that was a long tag! Thanks for sticking in there with me. I don’t think I can’t tag 11 people who haven’t been tagged, so I’ll just do a few, and if you’re interested in doing the tag, consider yourself officially tagged!

I tag …

Alyssa @ Seeking the Timeless Anchor

Bethany @ A Ruby in the Rough

Sherrice @ Penlightenment

Lillian-Keith @ The Introspective Introvert