Awards and Seven Things

I am blessed by the many bloggers and writers that I have met through twitter, Friday flash, and blogs. I am flattered that over the last couple of months I have won several awards. It started the last day of May when Mari awarded me the one lovely blogger award. Mari is an indefatigable writer with an outrageous imagination and a willingness to accept any challenge (even to go so far as to write about zombie angels) who recently ran the #zombieluv contest. If you're not familiar with her, check out her blog, Mari's Randomities.

The contest rules were:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.

3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I don't follow rules well -- if you really want me to follow a rule, you should explain why the rule exists -- and tend not to participate in memes. However, I decided to accept the award and write a flash fiction in response to fifteen other bloggers. I don't think I realized how difficult this task would become. However, two months later and I have completed my variant of the contest.

In that time, I have been awarded additional one lovely blog awards and versatile blogger awards. These have come from:

Catherine Russell who blogs at Ganymeder and posts a variety of interesting fiction. Her stories tend to have humor and a love for life that I enjoy.

Gracie Motley who blogs at Crone's Cauldron Publications. Her stories tend to have a fantastical element to them and she is talented at writing serials and creating complex plots that end abruptly and always leave you wanting more.

T.S. Bazelli who blogs at Ink Stained. I first ran across one of Tessa's stories posted to Friday flash and she does a stellar job of creating worlds, characters, and plots. She also writes and author aerobic's challenge every Monday and has been a great incentive to work on a specific part of the writer's craft.

Stephen Watkins who blogs at the Undiscovered Author. Stephen has three full-time jobs (I'm counting the writing as one of his jobs) and writes epic fantasy, however recently he wrote a fantastic science-fiction story as well.

The rules of the awards have morphed as I've received different versions and so I'm going to modify them again as if I'm playing a game of telephone. In addition to listing my fifteen recipients of the awards, I will tell you seven things about me. However, stealing from one of the other awards that circulate I will include six truths and one lie to keep things interesting.

1. I've held a vast number of job titles over the years. Job titles for jobs that I've been paid for include: Bagger, Sodder, Monitor, Keeper, Dancer, Professor, Baker, Director, Muso, and Architect. I hope to add Writer to that list, but I haven't yet and will persist in working towards that goal.

2. I have swum effectively the distance from New York City to San Francisco, although not in a single swim.

3. I have been deemed an honorary Swede and have been working at learning the language. I read at approximately a ten-year-old capacity while speaking at a two-year-old level. Mostly my vocabulary is based on politics: murder (mord), war (krig), and prostitution (köpa sex).

4. I have white-water rafted on two continents and rock-climbed in three states; however, I have never rock-climbed in a climbing gym.

5. I am paler than my brother, I have hated garlic bread, and I slept in what could be called a coffin for a summer.

6. I have won an Emmy, or a better description is that I contributed to the team whose efforts won an Emmy.

7. I have never completed nanowrimo.

Award recipients:

1. Adam Keeper, a flash fiction writer who writes humorous science fiction and fantasy stories.

2. Deb Markanton, one of the talented woman who post writing prompts to the Flashy Fiction blog. She's written parts of serials to her blog and is currently working on her novel.

3. Nathaniel Lee, who posts one hundred word drabbles to his blog six times a week. He has an awesome creativity and I love the unique viewpoint with which he looks at the world.

4. T.S. Bazelli, who I've introduced above since she nominated me for an award.

5. Oliver Fluck, a photographer who takes beautiful pictures. His pictures of Iceland make me want to go there some day.

6. Leila writes at "Stretching My Brain". Her stories are imaginative and you should check them out.

7. Viktor Bijlenga is a Swedish blogger who I met when Anders Frick twitted about him and some of the ideas he had regarding social networks. He is also a budding photographer so even if you don't read Swedish, you could view his images.

8. Jörgen photo-blogs at "Intryck, uttryck, avtryck" (Impressions & Expressions). I first found his blog when I researched mörkt älvor and found his gorgeous -- sometimes abstract -- pictures with their hilarious captions.

9. P. Chand whose conversations sparked a story for me, and unfortunately lately I haven't been on twitter frequently enough to have more conversations.

10. Elijah Toten is a writer who participates in the Friday flash community (he posts his friday flash here) and has an interesting perspective in his writing that I enjoy.

11. Laura Eno writes at "A Shift in Dimensions" and often writes about Death and Chronos, however her other writing is also outstanding.

12. J.P. Cabit who writes at the "House of Happy" and has just begun a serial story. He enjoys a good puzzle and also will hide things in his writing.

13. Stephen Watkins was also introduced above.

14. Isabel Joely Black writes at "AMNAR: Isabel Joely Black" and has several serials that she is writing as well as participating in the Friday flash community.

15. I'm cheating and awarding a doubleheader to Tiffany Saxton and Annie Syed. Tiffany Saxton participates in the Friday flash community and has a proper respect for the fae. Annie Syed was awarded a one lovely blog by Mari and I hadn't intended to include her, however, I've broken enough rules and I really enjoy her Tuesday photo series stories as well as her slices of life called Still Sundays and enjoy my chats with her those rare times when I'm on twitter.

As far as accepting your awards, feel free to choose whatever rules you would like.

I must thank Mari for originally awarding the award to me because it has led me to discover many of the writers above who I met as I searched for new writers.