Rewarding Award

Sometimes life hands you a beautiful award. Today is one of those days. ;-)

I've known Jo Murphy for years. We met at the Books and Writers Forum when I joined in late 2008. Jo became a fast friend and trusted critiquer. I followed a link to her blog and I've been an avid reader ever since. After Jo's stroke, I realized that there was more than just friendship here. Jo makes me try harder, accept challenges with greater grace, and makes me laugh! I can't imagine my experience of the blogosphere without Jo's presence. Check out Jo's blog, The Murphy Saga for all of the above and some fabulous ideas about how to adapt to whatever comes your way.

On Sunday, Jo nominated me for the Butterfly Light Award for being her biggest cheerleader. As always, I'm floored by such nominations, but this one is really tops to me. Spreading light and grace is something I try to do. Finding out that someone I admire thinks I'm accomplishing this goal is wonderful and gives me the light to see by so I can continue to strive.

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As always, there's rules with these awards. ;-)

Here are the conditions for accepting the award :

1. You must write an acceptance post, making sure you link back to the blogger who awarded you and thank them. You MAY NOT lump this award in with a batch of other awards.

2. You must individually name and re-award to a minimum of 1 blogger. You must let them know either personally with a comment on their blog OR a pingback.

3. You must link back to Belinda’s blog either to http://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/i-love-charismatic-geeks/ OR http://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/about/

4. You must write a short paragraph entitled either “How I’m Spreading Light” OR “How I’m A Positive Influence”

5. Display Belinda’s lovely “Butterfly Light Award” badge on your blog.

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 How I'm a positive influence:

I'm constantly seeking out ways to encourage other writers. I'm the "Goals Girl" at the Books and Writers Forum where I set up a theme for each month and be sure that all those who set goals get some encouragement at mid-month and end of month check ins. And remind them that the only time they'll ever get a "teacher face" from me is when they denigrate the  progress they're making as being too little or not good enough. When the Woman's Fiction Writers Association was looking for a program coordinator for the annual Write-A-Thin goal push, I volunteered. That added another official "cheerleader" title to my resume. 

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I'd like to nominate S. P. Bowers for the award for being my encourager. She had given me the encouragement to continue with my WIP and it's theme of abuse and the story of an adoption that makes a new and unconventional family possible. Thanks, S. P. I can't thank you enough!

Awards Season

I saw the Prime Time Emmy Nominations last Thursday morning little knowing that I was in Award Season myself. ; ) Both Deniz at The Girdle of Melian and Lara at Romance with an Edge have awarded me lately. Thanks to both of them for thinking of me. ; )

First up is the The Booker Award for blogs that talk about books, reading, or writing at least 50% of the time. The recipient must share their five favorite books, and pass the award along to five other awesome blogs!

• The Outlander series (Yes, all of them) by Diana Gabaldon
• The Vorkosigan series (Yes, again, all of them) by Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Challion series (You know the drill by now) by Lois McMaster Bujold
• On Folly Beach by Karen White
• The Skolian Empire series by Catherine Asaro

So sue me, there's more than five books in the list. ; )

Next, is the Be Inspired award. This award comes with 10 questions

1. What is the name of your book? FRIENDLY FIRE

2. Where did the idea for your book come from? A dream--I'm not kidding! I woke from a nap with the first scene fully laid out in my mind.

3. In what genre would you classify your book? That's a hard one. It's either mainstream or women's fiction. I'll have to fine tune it later.

4. If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose? Laura Grace is Kathy Bates and her romantic interest at the end of the book is Paulo Szot.

5. Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book. Those closest to us inflict our deepest wounds, and none are so obvious as the ones of Samantha Smith, an abused foster child, or so hidden as those of Laura Grace Chandler, the retired widow, who will help her adopted daughter heal, finding healing for her own wounds as well. (I've been told that the first clause should get lost!)

6. Is your book already published or represented? No, I've got to finish it first--that and the three other books that follow it in the Cherry Hill series.

7. How long did it take you to write your book? Can I get back to you on that one? So far, four years and counting.

8. What other books in your genre do you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy reading yours? Some of Jodi Picoult's books or The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

9. Which authors inspired you to write this book? That's hard to narrow down. For the short list, I have to include Diana Gabaldon.

10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book. FRIENDLY FIRE is set in a small Georgia town, but the problems its citizens face are universal--abuse in all it's many forms. That healing is available is the real lesson.

Last, but not least is the Fabulous Blog Ribbon. There are 3 sets of 5 questions for this one: 5 of your most fabulous moments, 5 things you love, and 5 things you hate.

5 most fabulous moments:

-my wedding day 35 years ago

-meeting one my all-time favorite author

-holding my two devotional books in my hands for the first time

-snuggling with kitties and puppies

-retiring so I could write

5 things I love:

-my husband

-my mother

-books

-tea

-writing

5 things I hate:

-migraines

-fatigue

-bugs

-weak wrists

-that there are only 24 hours in a day

Finally, here are the blogs I'm tagging for all these awards:

Women's Fiction Writers

The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment

Dispatches After Midnight

Past Perfect

S. P. Bowers



Awarded...Again!?!

There's a lot of ground to cover in this post:
     Awards
     Catch Me catch up
     Where to go for critiques

~~Imagine my surprise when I came to the Shade this morning and found out I had won not one, but two awards from Kristina at KayKay's Corner. This is my third Stylish Blogger, but now I have a nifty One Lovely Blog to go with it. Amazing! I'll do all the requirements below. ; )

~~I really meant to get to all the lovely people in Kristina's Catch Me If You Can blogfest, but a virus caught me first. Add a migraine and I didn't get to any yesterday. At least I had visited around thirty on Monday. There is some seriously good writing going on around here!

~~My opening scene is slated for some detailed rewrites. All the lovely comments have really helped me look at it again. Hopefully all you Catch Me bloggers has got some good feedback as well. When I get that done, I just might consider sharing it again. Also if you'd like excellent critiques, you can do no better than the Books and Writers Forum at CompuServe. Try this link HERE. Believe me, I write much better because of the family of lovely writers who share their WIPs there.

~~Now without further delay here's the requirements that go along with my two awards:
     1. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award. (See above for a link to KayKay's Corner.)
     2. I have to tell you seven facts about me you might not know.
     3. Pass the awards along to as many as fifteen blogs you have found recently.
     4. Notify the bloggers of their awards.

~~Seven things you might not know about me and I didn't tell you the last time I won an award:
     1. I much prefer digging out a litter box than walking the pups in 14 degrees or a driving rainstorm complete with thunder like today.
     2. I won't make choir practice tonight due to the virus and lingering effects of the migraine. I don't think even my MC, Laura Grace, would fuss at me.
     3. I sing soprano, but have filled in for at times on high tenor and alto over the years.
     4. If you wondered why I use a wink ; ) instead of the traditional smiley : ), it's because I like the look of the wink much better than the smiley in my favorite font--Georgian.
     5. I hate san serif fonts that don't have the little lines on top and bottom of the letters. I confuse capital I's, little i's and little l's in san serif fonts.
     6. I've been known to use a cat emoticon =^..^= in my signature line for years because I have shared my life and love with seven purrfectly lovely cats over the decades. Now we have two toy poodles and I still don't have a clue what makes doggies do what they do.
     7. We still call Max and Casey the puppy poodles and always will because we like alliteration. They'll be two on April 7.

~~Now some bloggers you should check out. You won't be sorry. Many of these folks are in my groups at the Crusade. Hi, Groupies!
1. Lola at SharpPen/Dull Sword
2. Ann at Inkpots n' Quills
3. Lauri at Lauri's Blog
4. Linda at Scheherazade's Journal
5. Rusty at The Blutonian Death Egg
6. Alberta at Alberta's Sefuty Chronicles
7. Dan at Sanguine Musings
8. Sylvia at Play with your Writing
9. Deborah at Deborah Walker's Bibliography
10. Lynda at W.I.P. It
11. Dominic at Writes of Passage 
12. Marie at The Flying Cheetah
13. Sully at Sully's Scribbles
14. Myne at Myne Whitman Writes
15. Rose at East for Green Eyes

Have a blessed Ash Wednesday. Lent's here and Easter's coming. ; )