Award Saturday...Better check for prizes!

100 Mystery Lovers!  That makes me happy!  And in celebration, I am giving Amazon Book gift cards to the FIVE latest followers.  In case you weren't a math major (like me), this is who you are:
Tiffany Neal--fellow writer new blogger
Ruthann
Mee2 (hope this cheers!)
Valentine Merrow (please let us know if you have a blog as well)
Lisa Scherer
Some of you have contact info through your profiles, but if you don't, please send your email address (or physical, if you prefer) to my email at micheleemrath at ymail dot com.  Thank you for joining the discussion at Southern City Mystery!

Some very special people gave me awards recently.  It so happened I was sort of on a blogging hiatus and had guest bloggers covering this site, so I wasn't as on top of it as I should have been.  But today I want to thank each of them...Starting with the one who created an award just for her friends!

Grammar gal Crystal of Crystal Clear Proofing gave me the Blogger Purrfection Award.  I hope this means my grammar is decent and my spelling is alright, but she says she created the award because "I love spreading HAPPY and you all deserve an award!"  Well, Crystal, you have met your goal.

I don't usually pass along awards created by the person from whom I received them.  Something about hording them in their preciousness, I don't know.  It's weird, I know.  But I'm trying to get over this weirdness and I think I know a person who is a good fit for this award.  So I am giving it to Jemi of Just Jemi.  Jemi runs a great blog, though I never get to it as often as I like.  She also guest blogged a highly popular post on here recently: Mysterious Steampunk.  Check her out!  We'll be reading her book soon. :)

Jen Daiker--relatively new Mystery Lover (aka Follower)-- has given this writer a new-to-me award: the Sunshine Award.  She is a fellow writer and keeps the blog Unedited.  She says I keep her "happily intrigued," which is more than I could hope for!  It is a wonderfully sunny award, beautiful in color and low in rules. :)  I pass this along to someone who emits sunshine with every post and every comment: Elizabeth Spann Craig of Mystery Writing is Murder.

Another award that is brand new-to-me from someone who is, thankfully, anything but--the Sugar Doll Award from L. Diane Wolfe.  You probably know her from her guest post here and her own blog, Spunk on a Stick.  She writes the YA series Circle of Friends and still has time to blog with us!  Thank you, Diane, for such a sweet award!

This one comes with requirements...I now have to tell you 10 things about myself, and since this is my birthday weekend and the award makes me think of cake and all things sweet, I decided to go in that direction...
1.  I do not have a sweet tooth.
2.  I love chocolate.  (Think those contradict?  Ask me!)
3.  I love to look at pictures of beautiful confections.
4.  My sister-in-law is a pastry chef in Las Vegas.
5.  My son declard this week that he wants to be a chef.  (He is 4, and he also wants to be a veterinarian.)
6.  The best dessert I make is an Chocolate-Almond Upside Down Cake, and if I ever guest blog on Mystery Lovers' Kitchen, I'll share the recipe.
7.  There are two deer in my backyard right now.  (I find this sweet.)
8.  I do not add sugar to my coffee.  Black, baby, strong & black.  (Any wonder I write mysteries?)
9.  My most recent foray into the baking world was a surprise dessert during our snowstorm lockdown last weekend: M&M cookies using my mother's fantastic chocolate chip cookie recipe.  (I guess I actually have some good recipes...)
10.  My wedding cake was white with raspberry filling, but my best friend's was chocolate with raspberry, and I am still jealous.  Here is a picture of mine:

Sugar Doll goes to Kristi of Random Daily Thoughts, Mason Canyon of Thoughts in Progress, Lorel Clayton of I'm Blogging Drowning Here!, CC Chronicles and Ash of English Major's Junkfood.

And last, but certainly not lowest, DL Hammons of Cruising Altitude has passed on to me the Honest Scrap Award.  Though I continue to wonder why people want to know more about me, I will comply.

In honor of my movie-loving readers, I have decided to make this list of 10 honest things about my movie preferences.  So here they are!

1.  Edward Norton.  Anything.  Everything.  Primal Fear to 25th Hour to The Painted Veil and beyond.
2.  I don't watch chick flicks or any movie with a pink DVD cover, unless it is Barbie or Disney Princess with my children.
3.  My favorite movies at age five were the 1933 version of King Kong and The African Queen.
4.  My favorite actress of all time is Katharine Hepburn.  I wrote her for her autograph in 1997 and I still have it. (One of the only autographs I own, as I am not easily impressed by celebrity.  The others are Ann Miller {whom I saw at Sardie's in New York} and Elizabeth Kostova {from her recent booksigning}.)
5.  The last movie I saw in the theatre was...so long ago I can't even remember!  (Thank you, children!)
6.  I would tell you my favorite romantic movie, but I would give away my vote on the Hollywood Spy's poll!

7.  The best book-to-movie creation is (in my opinion) Atonement. (Here for the book)

8.  My favorite movies now are The Lady Eve with Barbara Stanwyck, still The African Queen and Wanted with James McAvoy.  (The latter is not for its brilliance in storytelling or mastery acting, it is just a darn good way to lose yourself and watch sexy people.  The action is nonstop,  the plot is intriguing and I love James McAvoy!)
9.  I am highly sensitive to any sound in movie theatres.  It has improved some since having kids, but I HATE people talking or making unnecessary noise during the film.
10.  My favorite foreign film is La Vie en Rose, the story of French singer Édith Piaf, and an Academy Award winner for Best Actress and Best Makeup.

This one, appropriately, goes to my movie buff friends:  Univarn of A Life in Equinox, Thistimeitwillbedifferent, and Hollywood Spy you have a choice--you can take this one or The Sunshine Award.  I know I'vea already given this one to you!
I also pass this along to: Kimberly Franklin, Crazy Jane (who's honest no matter what!) and Stephen Tremp of Breakthrough Blogs.

Ok, Mason just told me she has an award for me, but, if you won't take offense, I am spent!  I will save that one for next weekend and someone else special will come to mind.  THANK YOU ALL for these precious signs that you care and are reading.  You mean a lot to me, and the work you do on your blogs is impressive.