So I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award by my fellow blogger at Amateur Airplanes.  This is an unofficial recognition passed between bloggers to acknowledge favorite sites with small readership.  So it is an honor indeed to be recognized by fellow writers for doing something they can appreciate.

The way this deal works is; I have to answer ten questions from Amateur Airplanes, then recommend a few sites for the next round of Liebster Awards.  Sort of an Internet Chain Letter, but this is all about networking and it is a good chance to promote myself (!)

So my ten questions and answers are:
1. What is your favorite city?  Well, I grew up in the Chicago area so I guess that’s always home and my first choice.  Between pizza and the Chicago Bears nowhere else can really compete!

2. If you were a vlogger what would you vlog about?  An odd question!  Plane Dave embodies so much of what is most important to me.  I think switching to a video format would only change my format a little, not my content.

3. Who is your favorite artist?  You know my wife is quite a fine artist, its pretty hard to compete with that. Be sure to check out “Art by Jodie Kay” for a look.  As an inspiration I would have to go with the late Shepherd Paine, but I think that’s true for most modelers of my generation.

4. Who is your favorite inspirational blogger and why?  I’m not sure how to answer this. “Favorites” aren’t quite the same as inspirational.  My inspiration comes more from what I’m reading, and that means history books.

5. Who is your favorite poet?  I am terribly prosaic.  I really don’t do poetry.

6. What is the most embarrassing characteristic in a person?  An excess of pride.  Makes me cringe every time.

7. What is the top priority on your bucket list for this year? For this year visiting family is my top priority.  My passions involve my wife (!), history and modeling; so it will be a year well spent if I can find enough time for those.

8. What is your favorite movies, music and author?
Shouldn’t this be three different questions?
For movies my favorites would be Thin Man, Star Wars, James Bond, Marvel’s Avengers and a few other series.  Single standouts could be Schindler’s List, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Groundhog Day, Stargate.  I value “fun” over “important”, but not always…
Music is pretty complicated.  I have around 1300 albums in my library.  I love everything from Beethoven to Glenn Miller to Beatles to Gaelic Storm to Michelle Tumes.  Its easier to just say I’m not really into rap or opera.
Author is also fairly complicated.  For years I would say John Toland.  He’s an outstanding narrative historian best known his work on World War II.  But as the years have passed I’ve come to really enjoy a lot of more involved writing, especially the sort that really tears into the details and the how and why of things.  Currently I would list John Lundstrom, Ian Toll and James D. Hornfischer as favorites.  I don’t read as much fiction, but I would say Stephen R. Lawhead and Quistie64 get top billing.

9. What is the advice you would give new bloggers?  Write about what you love.  Don’t chase “likes” or site traffic; just do what is most important to you.

10. What is your favorite dish? Pizza

Now for the really hard part, recommending some favorite sites as “Liebster Award” nominees.  As I understand these are supposed to be sites with less than 3000 followers; which I imagine translates as amateur and very narrow focused.  Even tougher, I’m sort of at the end of these nominations that went through most of the smaller sites I read!  So let’s see what I can come up with…

Plastic Models… by CharleyGnarly is mostly an armor modeling site.  Its loaded with excellent “how to” videos.

The Historical Diaries is an entertaining collection of essays covering from the ancient world through 20th century.  It is highly multi-media in presentation and makes good use of many guest writers.

Chuck vs The Sound of Music is a very odd thing.  Its an accompaniment to a piece of amateur fiction that includes pictures and back story on how things look and how the story came to be. I wish more writers did things like this, tons of fun.