You May Not Know This About Me But...

You may not know this about me but...

1. I have a very dark bent to my writing. Think YA Horror with a Paranormal flavor, lots of visual imagery and build-up of suspense (oh, and murders, nasty psychopaths, skeletons in the closet, and ghosts – not for the faint-hearted!)
2. I'm a member of The Voice, a fabulous YA critique group which grew from WriteOnCon 2010. I love working with my critique partners, and I get so much value from their input, and lots of laughs as well. I’ve also made some really great friends, some of whom are Crusaders too (*waves to Marieke, Tessa, Christy, Lisa, and Rachel*)
3. I have an awfully sweet tooth, though more for chocolate than cakes or ice-cream. Choc-coated honeycomb is my number one addiction
4. Those who’ve seen me around the blogosphere will know I love exclamation marks and emoticons (*bounce*), though I make sure I don’t bring those over into my manuscripts, of course
5. I started out writing picture books (of the quirky and humorous kind), though I’m really concentrating on my YA writing at the moment. The whole “dark bent thingy” doesn’t really work in picture books, you see
6. I survived WriteOnCon 2010 in the picture book forum, and I'm counting down the days to WriteOnCon 2011, where I’ll be braving the YA forum. I hope to see you all there! 
7. I wish I could take part in NaNoWriMo, but self-preservation has whispered in my ear and I’ve reluctantly paid attention. I can’t promise not to grumble a little, though...
8. I love blogging, meeting my fellow bloggers, commenting along, taking part in blogfests and contests, and generally supporting other peoples’ platform-building. I remember my first few months, you see, where I only had a few followers. It wasn’t very long ago, believe it or not
9. Perhaps because of #8 above, I’m particularly proud of my Writers’ Platform-Building Crusade, which has far exceeded my expectations – we reached 45 Crusaders today, woot!!!
10. I also enjoy tweeting (@RachaelHarrie) and meeting my fellow Tweeterers (is that a word? Tweeters? Twitters? Twitterers? Twits? Tee hee)
11. I have a wonderful husband and two gorgeous girls who brighten my every day. My eldest girl loves eating kartofflepuffer (sometimes) and is happiest when she’s playing with my umbrella (true story, I always worry about the whole opening-up-an-umbrella-inside-the-house thing, though more for the sake of my ornaments than bad luck – I’m not superstitious luckily). 
12. Needless to say, I don’t get much sleep, with the youngest only 5 months old and the eldest waking at 5am (or earlier) every morning... 
13. I’m still negotiating with myself for more time to spend doing the things I love (yep, writing’s pretty high up on that list). If only there were 36 hours in every day...48 hours? 72 hours?

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed finding out a little more about me. This post was brought to you courtesy of my Second Crusader Challenge. Check out my Writers’ Platform-Building Crusade if you haven’t already, it’s a great way for aspiring writers and beginner bloggers to connect, network together, build up their followers, and pay it forward to others.

Did you pick the three random words we had to include as part of the challenge? Oh, ok, I’ll spill. They were “kartofflepuffer,” “skeleton,” and “umbrella.” Sneaky huh? What sort of cruel challenge-writer puts “kartofflepuffer” as one of the words??? Oh wait, that was me (*smirks*).

Anyway, I thought I’d combine two posts together – I’ve recently been awarded The Versatile Blogger Award by the lovely Tessa Quin (check out her sites: The Quest for a Literary Agent if you haven’t already) and the fabulous Miles McG (pay him a visit at An Author's Quest).

As part of the “rules” for this award, I had to share seven things about myself. Hmm, I’ve done thirteen, so that should more than satisfy the requirements...

And that’s all, really. For now, anyway :)