Letters from Camp: Starlight Blogger Award!

Well, catching up on the awards I had received, here is the second from the wonderful Author Erika Kind!  If you have not been over on her blog, you really should!  Some great reading to be found there.  She was so kind as to gift me with the Starlight Blogger Award!

This Award is created to highlight and promote Inspiring Bloggers.

The rules go like:

1. Thank the giver and link their blog to your post.
2. Answer the 3 questions given to you.
3. Please pass the award on to 6 or more other bloggers of your choice and let them know that they have been nominated by you.
4. Include the logo of the award in a post or on your blog please never alter the logo and never change the rules.

The three questions she left me with and their answers:

1.  What book gave you the greatest insights and what insights were it?

I don’t think I could say any one book gave me the greatest insights!  I learn from every book I read!  There is things I take in and appreciate about all of them.  From the hard work that goes into them, to the ideas the bring me, to even knowing and learning things I don’t want to do!  To prove that point, there are even a few quotes I have written down from Twilight!  Some would say that is terrible I know, but there is always something to be gained from any book we read!

2.  If you could live somewhere else, where would it be and why? If you are happy where you are then what was your second favorite place t live and why?

I want to live in London!  I have never fit in as well as I did over there!  Also, I love the amount of culture, and it is prolly just better because it isn’t where I grew up.

3.  Tell me 3 (or more) things you are grateful for.

1. great friends, I have some amazing people in my life!
2. having a window by my desk!  (yeah I know that sounds strange, but I can look out my window and enjoy nature while thinking about the things I am going to write next, it is a source of peace!)
3. the amazing blogging community I have become a part of!  There is nothing like it, and the sense of community is really wonderful!

My Nominees are!  Again in no particular order:

• WORDSMAIDEN  (I look forward to watching her vlogs every day! They are inspiring me, and I hope to soon start creating a few vlogs of my own!  Who knows, maybe tomorrow!  Or another day.)
• BumblesBooks (here you will find a bit of everything, I always find something interesting!)
• THE PURPLE ROSE BLOG  (I just found this one today, and what I read was really amazing!)
•  Excerpts From Nonexistent Books  (Because seriously, there is nothing more fun than reading bits of books that don’t exist!)

There you have it! A few blogs that inspire me!  Thanks again Erika!  And because I like to share the wealth, if you want the award, take it! I give it freely to any of my readers who would like to have it!  Link back to me, let me know you are doing it, I would love to see who you find inspiring, so that I too may be inspired!  Have a great weekend all!

Advertisement

Letters from Camp: Awards, For Lil’ Ol’ Me?!?

Much thanks are in order!  My little side of the blogosphere received some amazing awards!  I have to say that I love the idea these awards bring, the sharing of the blogs we have come to love and know with others.  The chance to tell other bloggers that you appreciate what they do, that it means something to you.  So it is in this vein that I will share the awards I received and also share with you some amazing blogs that I too have come to love!

First up we have the “Dragon’s Loyalty Award” that I so kindly received from 4 Year Old Adult!  If you have not been over there, you have to check it out!

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the giver and link their blog to your post.
2. Pass the award on to other bloggers of your choice and let them know that they have been nominated.
3. Give 7 facts about yourself.

Let’s see, seven facts about me… boy that is tough!

1. I always write in the first person. For some strange reason, nothing else works for me, no matter how much I try.
2. I love Scooby-Doo!  And kids movies. I have collected Disney movies since I was a kid!
3. I don’t really listen to music much.  I like most any genre and will listen to almost anything except hard rock (I’m talking screamo) and am not really a fan of rap.
4. I am Irish and have a passion for all things to do with my heritage!
5. One of my biggest hobbies is researching!  I have a deep need to always have something for my mind to puzzle out, and live for learning new things.
6. I live on junk food!  I can’t cook (this is a well known secret) and as such, whenever I am single (which is most of the time) I am delegated to fending for myself.  This is a sad state of affairs indeed, leaving me feasting on sugar and chips and the odd meal tossed together in fifteen minutes or less!
7. I love clothes! I have far too many!  I can’t help myself, I use clothes to define events!  It is loads of fun.  Of course, the fact that I am a custom costumer may play a part in that.

As for my nominees, they are as follows and in no particular order:

• Herminia Chow  

• Wide Awake But Dreaming  

• Maggie Madly Writing

• barsetshirediaries

• Paula Acton

• The Blog of Tony Burgess

• The Blog of Christine B

The Second Award I was granted was granted will come at you tomorrow!  Thanks for tuning in to another day from camp!  What about you? Do you like the awards that float around the blogosphere? Do you enjoy finding new blogs from those you follow?  Do you enjoy sharing some of your favorites when you receive an award?  Or would you rather not ever receive them?

Awards, Oh My!

So I have to thank Rachel over on Spilled Ink for the two award nominations!  She nominated me for both the Beautiful Blogger Award and the Howler Award!

 
 
 
 
 
 Here are the rules:

1.Copy the Beautiful Blogger Award logo
2. Thank the person who nominated you and create a link back.
3. Nominate seven other bloggers and say a little something about them.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 and The Howler

 

 

Here are the rules for The Howler Award:

1. Display the award on your blog. This can be in your sidebar or on a special award page
2. Thank the person who gave you the award and link to their blog
3. Give 3 examples of things you would like to see changed in the world
4. Nominate (in your own time) at least 5 bloggers that deserve the award
5. Donate the equivalent of $10 to a charity of your choice (optional)

 
 
 Things I would like to see changed in the world:

1. awareness raised for all types of cancer, it’s not just pink! (not to mention the funds actually going to what they should be, oh the scandal behind the komen foundation!)
2. People need to be better to the earth and each other and if I could find a way to make that happen… oh yeah!
3. I think lastly I would have to say for governments to be more concerned for their own countries, instead of others!

 

 

Blogs I nominate:

• Legends of Windemere – Charles is a fun writer, and author who supports fellow writers, if you have not checked out his blog, you should totally head over there and take a look around!
• Wide Awake but Dreaming – Cassidy has a great way of sharing her writing journey and is always a fun and often encouraging read.
• Winter Bayne  – Winter is a fellow Camp NaNoer with a great sense of humor and fun way of writing about life, reading and writing!
• Lagrandil – Bruce has some great reviews and essays, and is always ready with a bit of support for a fellow writer.
• Maggie Madly Writing – Maggie has great thoughts on more than just a writing journey, but a life journey.  As writers we are all on a journey, and sometimes we forget that life is what writing is all about!

 

Well, that is my nominations this time around, thanks so much again, Rachel!  I always love to know when people appreciate my thoughts and writing!

Leibster Award

Thanks so much to A Journal of Impossible Things for the nomination!  When I stumbled across his blog I knew instantly that it was one I just had to read!  If you have not taken the time to head his way be sure that you do!  I am sure that you will find it as interesting as I do!

Now for the award stuffs…

1. Each nominee must link back the person who nominated them.
2. Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.
3. Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers.
4. Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
5. Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them.

As my readers know I live for breaking the “rules” *grins* so we will see what all I manage to get done on this list shall we?  Let’s see, I already put in the link back… now for the 10 questions I suppose

Questions:

01. How lit the fire for your writing? When did your passion for the written word start?

I have always had a passion for reading, and my uncle was a writer, and in high school he got me interested in poetry.  When I had an incredible English teacher who I to this day believe was the turning point in getting me interested in writing, ironically when he had us translating Shakespeare… I have a talent for Olde English.

02. Do you listen to music when you write? If you do, do you play a playlist or just one song on repeat?

For the most part I do not listen to music when I am writing, mostly because I find it too distracting.  For instance, when there is words, I end up singing along.  That said, I do however create playlists for my books.  They are playlists that inspire, remind me of the characters, of the tone of the book, of the ideas in the book, all sorts of little things that can get or even keep me in the headspace for the story.  I have gotten to the point where I can play the playlist very quietly while writing, but I have to be really in the right headspace for that to work.

03. What’s your favorite place in the world? That magical place that you always feel at home in and dream about when you haven’t visited in years?

My favorite place in the world would have to be Stonehenge, and I have only been there once.  To this day, without the pictures, and even with them I can’t believe that I have actually been there!

04. If you could only watch 5 movies for the rest of your life, what movies would they be? Care, not favorites. What movies do you think you could watch forever?

I am really not a big movie fan.  I watch a lot more of them now, mostly because it is fun to do so with my partner.  I would say that if I could only watch certain ones, Avatar would have to be in that list… 10th Kingdom would be another.  Dinotopia I think would make the list… not really sure if there would be any others, but to me those are all must see movies that I have and do tend to watch a bit more frequently.  I love the stories they have to tell and share.

05. Name a moment in your life that was out of a Hollywood movie. Action moment, romantic.

I think I would have to say my movie is totally more like a Soap Opera… I have said that Twilight reminds me of my life by far way too much *grins* but those who know me well totally laugh as they know exactly what I am saying…

06. What was the last dream you remember?

I remember many of my dreams and in fact use them most often in my writing.  The last one was strange *smiles* who knows, it might be making its way into my writing very soon…

07. What fictional character would you like to pick the brain of, if you could meet them?

Oh man alive… that is prolly the most difficult question.  There are so many I would love to have a chat with for so many different reasons.  I don’t think I could ever just pick one!  That is like trying to pick a favorite author, it just isn’t possible!

08. What book are you most looking forward to reading in the next year?

I actually just read the one I had been waiting for longest!  It was Dark Wolf by Christine Feehan.  I loved it and I hated it.  *grins* usually true for the books we have the highest expectations of.

09. What’s something you really love doing and occasionally think you could have made it a living but realized if you did, you’d hate it forever?

Anything of a crafting nature.  I know that I could sell almost everything I make, buuut… then it becomes a job and it is no longer fun.

10. What animal would you love to keep as a pet, no matter if it’s extinct or not really a pet type of creature?

Probably one of the big cats, Lynx, Jaguar, Siberian Tiger… any of those would be top of my list as amazing animals to have.  I also would really love a Puffin!  They are just the coolest looking bird!

 

Well, there I answered my questions… now for nominations and their questions… Let the fun begin! *grins*

Nominees:

1.  Writing Pieces of Me ~  I enjoy the beautiful words found on her blog, along with the honesty that shines through in her writing!

2. The Writer Backblogger ~  She has a fun and inspiring blog with a fun outlook on writing and herself that to me makes her incredibly fun to read!

3.  Butterflies and Dragons ~  She has a wonderful outlook and looks at the world in a way similar to me, I love reading the ideas she shares!

4.  fallingdownthecreativewell ~  She shares thoughts with a humor that makes me laugh all the time!  Who doesn’t want to read a blog of humor and fun?!?

5. Raven Pierce ~  I love reading her blog, sharing in her journey, is like being on the path with someone who totally understands where I am coming from in my own!

6. Writer Block ~  Great posts about writerly topics that I often find myself looking into.  Inspiring and well written, encouraging in its own light!

 

There you have the six blogs that come to the front of my mind at the moment.  I am sure there are many more that I love and are more than deserving of this award!  Because of the nature of these awards, if you are here reading this post, then you too are nominated if you so desire the nomination!  I feel that it is through these silly and yet fun awards that we find other bloggers and writers and places that we belong.  It is how we form bigger communities!

Questions:

1) What got you interested in blogging?

2) Who is your favorite author or book series?

3) What is your most prized possession?  Why?

4) What is your favorite quote?

5) What is the best blog post you have ever written?

6) What is the best blog post you have ever read?  Why?

7) If you could meet anyone, who would it be? (This can be real or fictional, dead or alive)

8) What single quality do you most appreciate in others?

9)Describe yourself in three words:

a)

b)

c)

And there you have it everyone!  Please, as always share your thoughts… do you like the blogs I have nominated?  Did you choose the nomination for yourself, to join in the fun?  Would you have picked someone I didn’t add?  Please share links here!  I love to hear from you!

 

300 Follows!!!

Well, I can’t believe it!  I have hit 300 followers as of this last weekend!  I can’t thank you all enough, the encouragement it gives me, to have you all as readers.  The wonderful thoughts and ideas that have come up in the comments.  The sharing of lives has been a marvelous experience!

Here is to keeping up with a marvelous bunch of people!  Thanks for being on the journey with me!

Weekly Goals & Achievements: Fallin’ Short

I apologize for the length of this post, but with three awards there is just a bit of ground to cover and then I will get right into my goals and how well I did last week.  Well first things first this week, I have two people to thank for some awards!!!

A big  thank you to Steve over on Imagineer-ing for the Liebster Blog Award!!!

A big thank you to L. Marie over on El Space for the Versatile Blogger Award!!!

Another big thank you to L. Marie over on El Space for the Wonderful Team Member Award!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shine On Award

I have the ever wonderful L. Marie over on El Space – The Blog of L. Marie to thank for my Shine On Award, and I am so honored and thrilled! This time around I even decided I would toss in the random seven facts about myself… so be ready for it! **grins**

My Birthday ~ 3/5/2013

1. I love to dress in wildly outrageous outfits (that I can even pull off, yes people wait to see what I will be coming up with next!)
2. I make custom costuming. (Making my patterns from scratch or heavily modifying clothes.)

   

   The outfits I created for my wife’s Steampunk themed 30th Golden Birthday Party! (I put all the pieces together, and modified her jacket)

3. I don’t really like chocolate all that much, sure a little here and there is alright, but I do not seek it out special.
4. I can’t read pictures! Ya know, graphic novels, comics, ect. I know, some people find this deeply troubling or even sad, but… while I am good with art, the skill of reading pictures eludes me.
5. I got married on 11/11/11 *grins* and I DID choose the date on purpose and had a Renaissance wedding! (my wife would prolly wanna get remarried now that it is going to be officially legal in MN!)
6. I am the oldest of 8 and the youngest of 4 siblings (I am adopted, was adopted at age 7, so yes people it is possible. *grins* Not to mention we were a blended family!)
7. I can read extremely fast (upwards of 100 pages an hour) and so devour books faster than I can buy them, and as such I reread the many books in my home library (of which I have well over 700!)

   

   Our Wedding outfits (mostly I bought them, didn’t have time to sew and do the rest of the wedding!)

8. BONUS FACT: I HAVE been to Europe. I got to see Stonehenge (a lifelong dream) and many other places around London, Windsor Castle, Bath (the Roman Baths) and then Munich Germany, Dachau (which was a terribly hard place to visit), along with Neuschwanstein Castle (which I thought my legs were going to fall off and I was going to die, by the time I reached the TOP!!! and I am IN SHAPE!!! This is the castle that inspired the Disney Castle)

   

   Yes, that is me in front of Stonehenge!!!

 

 

 

The amazing blogs I nominate are:

• Amber Forbes ~ for her inspiring posts and marvelous way of writing.
• Creative Mysteries ~ creative and wonderful blog and thoughtful comments.
• Excerpts From Nonexistent Books ~ just for all the fun I have reading here most days!
• Aspiringwriter22 ~ creative, fun and a bit snarky, just the way I like it!!!  Her posts are always great!
• The Read Room ~ for the funny and helpful posts!
• Dreamland’s Insurgents ~ my incredible, witty and sometimes pain-in-the-butt writing partner in crime!!! **falls over giggling** (yeah, yeah, Dreamland, I know, I will pay for that in our weekly letters! **grins** but I have to say it is worth it!!!)
• El Space ~ you don’t have to share it again, but your comments are always thoughtful and encouraging!  So you deserve it!!!!
• There are prolly a bunch more I am missing, as I follow many INCREDIBLE blogs!!!  Each and every one has inspired me in some way or another!!!  These are just a few of my favorites.

 

 

Please do go and check out these other great blogs!!!

Weekly Inspiration: Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I saved this post for today as it goes hand in hand for my start of the week theme of Inspiration.  I have to say, I like to think that I could inspire others in my own little way and so this award is a particular honor to me!

Much thanks goes out to Wordsmithing Ain’t Easy for nominating me for this award!  If you haven’t yet checked out her blog you really should!  She shares all kinds of book reviews, odds and ends of what is up and coming in the book world and her own dabblings in this journey we call writing!

 

Well, true to form we all know I wont follow the rules of a “bunch of work” but I truly love the spirit of sharing other bloggers, so here are some who inspire me!

 

I can’t post about anyone who inspires me more without mentioning Dreamland’s Insurgents.  Not only is he a great writing companion, he always inspires me to think and often look at something just a little differently!

A Writer’s Touch hits my list, because of the very thoughtful posts.  She has inspired me to “dig a little deeper” on my own blog.

Amber Skye Forbes for the personal way she approaches her writing and the thought and consideration she puts into her responses!

Black Coffee Poet who has totally changed and shaped how I look at writing and for which I am eternally grateful!

Book Reviews & Poetry which has some amazingly inspiring poetry!

Creative Mysteries for an open and honest approach that always gets me thinking.

Maggie Madly Writing whose blog I come back to day after day!

Saphir Drachen’s Writer’s Blog is another that I come back to day after day, enjoying the humor!

 

I am sure there are many more out there, and many more to come who will inspire me in this writing journey!  I can’t thank my readers enough!  So I hope that you find these blogs as wonderful as I have.  What are some of your favorite blogs on the interwebs?  I would love to read them for myself… please share them!  Who has inspired you the most on your blogging journey?

An Award?!? For Me?!? Aww, Shucks…

Imagine my great surprise and delight to find that my little space on the net is nominated for this… Liebster Award.  Well, me being the inquiring type, away I go to research this fun little award.  Usually being the antisocial and nonparticipating type, I actually shocked myself in deciding to take great delight in this little gem of an award.  Why you may ask?  It is simple really… in the back tracing of my award I found many new blogs that I was enjoying reading.  So my conclusion is that while it is a crazy little award that doesn’t truly mean anything, it is at the same time a great honor that others like your blog enough to share!

So, in keeping with my research I wanted to share a little about where I found this comes from.  Unable to actually find a specific originator, I did find another blogger who also wanted to know.  Sopphey Says looked all the way back to 2010 and could not find an original posting of this award, only that some of the earliest finds were from Germany.  On the post she found it said this about the Liebster Award  (I used a translator as it was originally in German)

“Dear Bloggerinen: The goal , this action is that we bring unknown, gutte blogs to light, so I would ask you not to blog items that already have been 3,000 readers, but talented beginners and people, although blogging has been a while, but still not as are known.”

And the original instructions were something along these lines:

“Once tagged, if you want to participate, create a post in which you will share the instructions, link back to the blog who nominated you, and nominate your own set of 3-5 nominees, keeping in mind the goal of the award!  Then be sure to let them know on their blog that you have nominated them.”

So in keeping with what it was (yeah I am a history kinda girl) thank you so much Rachel & Janis from writeinseattle, I am honoured that you would pick my blog as one of your nominees!  I have had great fun in researching this little award, and finding some fun new blogs along the way!

My nominees include:

• Black Coffee Poet – Inspired and changed my whole way of looking at writing!
• Cue Ball and Eight Ball – Always inspires me to think.  To dig deeper and often outside the box.
• Jill Weatherholt – Inspirational thoughts
• R. B. Holbrook – After reading through her blog, I had to purchase her books… her writing style reminds me so much of myself, I have really enjoyed her blog!
• Writing as Will and Representation – has a great way of putting things out there!
• Saphir Drachen’s Writer’s Blog – great way of putting thoughts together, I always enjoy reading this blog!
• Maggie Madly Writing – a blog I go back to again and again!

No I am not listing a bunch of questions, and I will consider a post on some of those questions… but as of right now, I enjoy reading the blogs of others and posting my own thoughts.

*Note: There is no actual group that gives this award out, it is more of a special notice from one blogger to another that they found your blog to be an inspiration or fun to read.  

**Extra Note: It is not a “real” award, but instead something given as an honor. (That is my personal view)  There are no judges, no special rules to follow, so you can really take it how you would like.  Share it, pass it on or not as you will.