Happy Monday, friends!

Today I am finally (finally finally) doing a tag that has been sticking to me for a few months now. Way back in March (or something like that), the lovely Savannah Grace tagged me with The Get to Know Me Tag: Writer’s Edition, and I am finally doing it.

So here we are.

The rules:

• link back to the person who created the tag (Savannah)
• thank the person who tagged you (Savannah)
• tag eleven bloggers (I don’t know if I can do eleven, but we’ll see)

Fun fact about Savannah:

She and I are Splickety buddies! Her flash fiction, Shoot Straight, and my flash fiction, Our Family, were published in the same issue of Splickety!

And she’s since been published with Splickety twice. Yeah, she’s that cool.

And now for me actually doing the tag (question: is that what we call it? “Doing” a tag? Or participating in a tag? Or something else????).

[Vital Stats & Appearance]

(pen)Name: Rosalie Valentine (it also happens to be my real name).

Nicknames: Rosie, Rose, Seeta, Honeywheat, and Sourdough (thank you for those last three, brothers).

Birthday: July 30, 1998 (aka: I’m very close to leaving my teen years behind me, which is oddly somewhat unsettling).

Hair color and length: Brown and down to my lower back (and straight like there’s no tomorrow; it won’t hold a curl or wave for more than half a day so woe is me if my life one day depends on having texture in these brown locks).

Eye color: Hazel!

Braces/piercings/tattoos: Pierced ears (I got my ears pierced for my fifth birthday).

Righty or lefty: Righty all the way (though who hasn’t had the ambidextrous dream?).

Ethnicity: A lot of European blood with just a little Cherokee mixed in.

[Firsts]

First novel written: Truly, a Cinderella retelling novella (and that was right before it got cool to write retellings).

First novel completed: I’m not sure if setting aside a story because it is irreparable counts as completing it, but we’ll just go with that. That would be Truly as well.

Award for writing: N/A

First publication: A flash fiction for Havok magazine back in 2017 titled The Necklace. It’s still one of my favorite stories I’ve written. :)

Conference: Realm Makers 2015!!! This is where I first met Katie Grace for the first time! I literally cannot imagine my writing life without Katie because she inspires and encourages me in so. many. ways.

And I finally met Nadine Brandes at RM 2015 after I was on the launch team for A Time to Die (A Time to Speak was coming out in just a few months at that point, and I was DYING with questions). And I got to ask Steve Laube a bunch of questions in a mentoring session. And I met Victoria and Jordan there too! And Jill Williamson for another mentoring session!! So many amazing things happened at Realm Makers 2015. :)

Query/Pitch: Possibly False Gods by the end of this year. We’ll see where it’s at after this draft and then what alphas and betas think. But guys, my heart is so ready for the world to meet these characters and this story; I cannot wait to see what God does with it (especially since it’s the most direct, not-subtle-at-all story I’ve ever written).

[Favorites]

Novel (that you wrote): Lol, False Gods for sure.

Genre: Between flash fictions and novels, I’ve dabbled in science fiction, various kinds of fantasy, contemporary, and YA. My default seems to be fantasy, but there’s a sci-fi story-possibly-novel that I am dying to write.

Author: Just one? It’s impossible. I’ll go with two—Anne Elisabeth Stengl and Nadine Brandes.

Writing Music: It really varies on the story! A lot of my stories/characters have tailored playlists depending on the genre and situation. Lots of film scores (Hans Zimmer and Trevor Rabin are some of my favorite composers).

Time To Write: Early morning or late night it seems.

Writing Snack/Drink: Gummy bears, granola bars, coffee with enough cream to make it tasty, chai or lavender lattes, and water.

Movie: This is where I cannot do one or even two. Prepare for a list, kids. The Dark Knight trilogy, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and The Lion King.

Writing Memory: Hmmmm, this is an interesting one. My favorite writing related memory was probably when I got the email telling me that Havok wanted to acquire The Necklace.

My favorite memory of writing is probably when I drafted the climax scenes for False Gods. So much of me and what I’ve learned about God is in the story and the themes and the characters, and so when it was all coming together for the first time, it was all rushing from my heart to my fingers in a way that doesn’t happen very often.

Childhood Book: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and the Tales of Goldstone Wood by Anne Elisabeth Stengl are my childhood.

[Currently]

Reading: Fawkes by Nadine Brandes (which, by the way, releases in less than two weeks!!!!).

Writing: A flash fiction to submit for the Realm Makers live critique and False Gods editing/revising.  The flash fiction has to be 300 words or less, and it’s related to one of my other stories (but I won’t say which because it would be so fun/cool for you guys to one day figure out which story/character it’s connected to). And my project for Camp NaNo this July is False Gods again. We’ll see how it goes with Realm Makers in the middle of it.

Listening to: The Piano Guys because I somehow forgot about them for two years and just rediscovered them last week! And re-listening to my 2018 and worship playlists a lot recently.

Watching: Lost in Space—the new one that Netflix made. I’ve seen four episodes and like it so far!

Learning: To have faith over fear and to dream better regarding everything, including my writing life.

[Future]

Want To Be Published: Yes! So very much! … but I’m in no rush. I keep submitting short stories and working on novels, but it’s not consuming like it used to be. If I get published again, it will be when God wants it to be, with the story he wants it to be, and with the publisher he wants it to be. Until then, I’m at my leisure.

Indie or Traditional: It varies! For novels, I want try for traditional first, but as far as some short stories/flash fiction collections, those might be self-published.

Wildest Goal: Get False Gods published and into the hands of people like me, who have doubts and struggles like me, who need to hear Asha and Adele’s stories like I have. My best hope and prayer for my writing right now is that God will use False Gods to do in others what he’s used it to do in me.

It’s crazy how much Jesus has changed my desires and goals for writing over the years. At one time (and sometimes still), success was writing and selling lots of books; now success is writing stories with God and seeing what he does with them—in me and in others.

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I hereby tag:

• Katie Grace of A Writer’s Faith
• Moya Tobey of An Existence Transcribed
• Abigayle Claire of The Left-handed Typist
• Alea Harper of Elvish Pens, Fantastical Writings
• Abbiee of Abbiee
• Lisa of Inkwell
  

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Thank you so much for tagging me, Savannah! This was fun!

What about you? What is your childhood book/series? And leave your strangest nickname in the comments too, because I need to know. ;)

With love,

Rosalie

P.S. – another memo of High Command is going out this Friday (not last Friday like I said it would on Instagram because I forgot that last Friday was still in June and that it won’t be the first Friday of July until this Friday. #oops)

P.P.S. – anyone else kind of appalled that it’s July 2 today? Like, where has the first half of the year gone? Riddle me that.