A Blog Awards Ceremony

Gracie Crone of Crone's Cauldron Publications has presented me with two awards: the Versatile Blogger and the One Lovely Blog award. If you haven't read any of her fiction yet, I highly recommend her weekly serial: Fire & Water, a tale about a young man's destiny featuring dragons, selkies, shape-shifting cats and other fantastical beasties. The lovely Miss Gracie's not only a writer of myths and legends but of science fiction and horror as well. If you love a good ghost story, I also recommend her 6-part story: "The Back Yard" which was the first story of hers that I read.

Thank you so much Gracie! I always look forward to your new stories.


--

Versatile Blogger Award Rules:
1.) Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2.) Share seven things about yourself.

3.) Pass the award to fifteen bloggers you think deserve it.
4.) Contact each of the bloggers you chose.

One Lovely Blog Award Rules:
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.

--

As part of the Versatile Blogger Award (see rules below) I'm supposed to list 7 things you may not know about me. Here they are in no particular order:

1.) I'm afraid of jellyfish. I had a close encounter at 12. Surprisingly, there's no term for this phobia.
2.) I've graduated college twice. Once for Creative Writing, and again for Classical 2D Animation.
3.) I hate sauerkraut. (But at least I didn't have it as bad as Weird Al in Alberquerque!)
4.) My favorite video game is Earthbound (SNES). Even though I'm a devoted Sonic the Hedgehog fan.
5.) I love knitting. I have to say that video game sprites make easy knitting patterns!
6.) I was born in Las Vegas. But it wasn't on a poker table or anything like that. :)
7.) I'm skilled at crane machines. I can win anything from them, given enough quarters.

Tradition states that when you receive a Blog Award, you should spread the love in return. Blog awards are a great way to show your appreciation to the blogs you enjoy and to introduce your readers to other blogs that they might enjoy as well. That being said, here's ten of my most recent blog finds that I think you will enjoy as much as I have! Because 30 awards is more than a little daunting, I'm going to settle for 10, so that way I can give some spotlight to each person, including why you should check them out.

Without further ado...


The Lovely Blog Award goes to:

1.) Catherine Russell, author of "Ganymeder"
What could be lovelier than a mother encouraging her child to write? Not only does Catherine write amazing stories, but she even helps her son, Monsterbat, with his blog.

2.) Ziggy Kinsella, author of "The Feckless Goblin"
Ziggy writes horror fiction, assists other authors with insightful articles and interesting guest blogs and reviews, but did you know Ziggy is collecting donations to assist local writers and poets who want to expose their work? Lovely indeed!

3.) J. Timothy King, author of "Stories That Expand Your Life"
You've seen his stories on #FridayFlash, but did you know that he's one of the biggest reviewers in the community? Every week he puts out a list of #FridayFlash favorites, but not only that, he talks about why each of them is working so well. Taking time to analyze a good piece of writing? That's lovely.

4.) Suzanne H. Patton, author of "The Ink Ribbon Writer"
You know what else is lovely? Seeing a young person so fired up about writing! This brand new blogger has a lot to say and is currently taking on her first novel armed only with a typewriter. Lovely and classy!

5.) Moxie Baker, author of "The Spellbound Cafe"
A great example of why you should write what you know, Moxie's novel isn't just about reading, it's about eating too! She includes recipes and makes the world of her book come alive in her blog. Lovely as a wedding cake!



The Versatile Blog Award goes to:

1.) Leila Vandiver, author of "Stretching My Brain"
I have assaulted this woman with every possible writing prompt I could find and every time she writes a spectacular story to fulfill my requirements. If that's not versatile, I don't know what is! Check out her Mother Goose Rhyme and you'll see what I mean.

2.) Monica Marier, author of "Attack of The Muses!"
It takes a special kind of person to be a writer or an artist, but it takes an even rarer kind of person to be both! Monica not only updates with stories (including an awesome steampunk serial!) but also with comics as she runs Tangent Artists.

3.) John Wiswell, author of "The Bathroom Monologues"
Talk about variety! It's hard to describe what goes on in his blog just because he's always trying something new and pushing the envelope for what fiction can be. Updated daily, you have to check it out to see what I mean.

4.) Marci Sischo, author of "Urban Fantasy & Fiction"
What's better than writing a novel in your genre? Having a broad knowledge of everything in it and being willing to put it all out there. Marci has conquered her genre with her wide array of articles and reviews, so it's not surprising her "Black Alice" novel is going so well.

5.) Al Bruno III, author of "The Wit and Weirdness of Al Bruno III"
Five-Second Fiction? He's done hundreds of them. Short Stories? I don't think he's missed a #FridayFlash yet. What about a novella? Yep! A novel? It's a serial novel and he updates it weekly! Is there any size of fiction Al hasn't tackled yet? Probably not, but if you check in I'm sure he'll surprise you!

Congratulations to everyone and enjoy the awards! Remember everyone, you don't need to get an award to give one out to someone who's blog you admire! Maybe you can even write up an article about them or interview them.

Who knows? You might just make someone's day.