Awards Round-Up and Overdue Thanks

This week I've managed to miss the first challenge of the Platform-Building Campaign, and the first meeting of the Insecure Writers Support Group. Since August, I seem to be stuck in some kind of fog where I can't accomplish anything I intend to do. But, I feel like I might be coming out of that fog, as I managed to finally make some progress on my WIP, and write 2500 words yesterday. It wasn't a pretty sight, but I was totally doing the happy dance around my condo yesterday. :D

So, in the spirit of continuing that progress and getting out of my slump, I want to send out some LONG overdue thanks to blogger friends who were kind enough to share awards with me back in August. I also want to pass the awards on to some wonderful bloggers, some of whom I have known for a while, and others that I have just had the good fortune to meet thanks to the Campaign.

First up, L.G. Smith at Bards and Prophets shared the 7 x 7 Link Award with me at the end of August.

I think this is a great idea for an award, as it asks recipients to share seven of their own blog posts. I've really enjoyed reading the responses to this award around the blogosphere, as it's fun to read older posts I may never have seen otherwise. So, here are my own choices in the seven categories:

Most Beautiful: I chose my first A-Z in April post, A is for Aquinnah, as I think Aquinnah, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, is a beautiful place. And, I love the photos of the beach and cliffs.

Most Helpful: This was a hard one for me, as I don't feel I have any helpful advice to offer anyone when it comes to writing, and I'm much more likely to be seeking out advice myself. But, I was surprised at the response I received to my Weekend Inspiration post, where I shared a quote from Shel Silverstein. The quote seemed to strike a chord with others who were needing inspiration just as I was, so I think it was a helpful post, and hope it will continue to be.

Most Popular: In terms of page views, my most popular post is another one from the A-Z Challenge, U is for U2. I think perhaps U2 fans have stumbled across the link to this page while searching on Google, as it has considerably more views than any other post I've done. That's fine with me though, as it is one of my favorite posts that I've written. Although I was bummed to see that the Red Rocks video has since been removed from youtube. :(

Most Controversial: I don't really write about controversial topics on here, so I had trouble thinking of a post for this category. But, since Michael Vick is an extremely controversial figure, I decided to go with a post I wrote way back in my first month of blogging called  The "Vicktory Dogs." I wrote this post after seeing an article in Best Friends Magazine about the dogs Best Friends had rescued from Vick's dog fighting ring.

Most Surprisingly Successful: This was an easy one, and another A-Z post, V is for Von Count. I consistently get a laugh whenever I look at the top page views for any particular week, as I'm pretty sure The Count has been in the top 5 every week since April. It's also funny to look at the Google searches that bring traffic to my blog, as I always find searches like "Sesame Street Vampire," "Von Count," and "Vampire Count." I never realized The Count was such a popular figure, but there's no doubt he is an enduring star.

Most Under-Rated: I chose another post from back when I was still quite new to blogging for this category, not because I think it is under-rated, but just because I hardly had any readers at that time, so I thought it would be worth sharing again. The post is called Too Late?, and is about my ongoing fears that I am too old, and too late to the party, to ever get this writing goal off the ground. I found the article I linked to in the post to be very inspiring, and I think others will too.

Most Prideworthy: I chose my recent flash fiction post, Miss Mary's House, for this category, because I am proud of the fact that I actually shared a story I wrote. Putting my work out there for anyone to see has been a big fear of mine, so this post was a way for me to start overcoming that fear. I lived through it, so it didn't turn out to be nearly as scary as I had always thought it would be. ;)

Now that I've blabbered on far too long, I want to pass this award on to seven fabulous bloggers:

Shannon at The Warrior Muse
Rebecca at Life In Clarity
E.J. at The Open Vein
Tim at Life of Riles
Hilary at Positive Letters...inspirational stories
Yvonne at Welcome to My World of Poetry
Stephen at Breakthrough Blogs

Thanks again to LG Smith for this fun award!

Up next, Rebecca at the above-mentioned Life in Clarity shared the Liebster Blog award with me back in mid-August.

This is a super-sweet award designed for new, or at least relatively new, bloggers, and the rules are as follows:

The Liebster Award (meaning “friend” in German) is meant to connect us even more and spotlight new bloggers who have less than 200 followers – but hopefully not for long. The rules are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the Internet – other writers.
5. And best of all – have fun and spread the karma! 


So, here are my five picks for this great award:


Julie at Empty Nest Insider
Abby at Something to Write About
Amalie at Waxing Lackadaisical
Lynn Marie at Life Through Bifocals
Mark at Mark Noce Stories


Thank you again to Rebecca! 


Finally, my most overdue thanks go to Julie at Empty Nest Insider, who shared the Seriously Cute Blogger award with me way back at the beginning of August. The picture for this award is so precious, it's fun just to be able to share it on the blog.

In addition to passing on the award to five other bloggers, the rules for this award require me to list a recent book that I would recommend. That's an easy one, as I am happy to recommend Samantha Sotto's Before Ever After, which was released in August. I'd encourage everyone to pick up a copy if you haven't already! 

And now for my seriously cute bloggers:


Misha at My First Book
Nutschell at The Writing Nut
LG at Bards and Prophets
Carol at Under the Tiki Hut
Jules at Trying to Get Over the Rainbow


Thank you again to Julie! 


My apologies to LG, Rebecca, and Julie for my tardiness in accepting these awards. I hope I really am out of my fog now! 


Happy weekend to all! :)