My Listening Months

Happy 2013! I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and end-of-year celebrations. My crew is back to the structures of normalcy; or our family’s definition of normal. That normalcy is back to work, school, home work, and waiting for spring.

Another normalcy calling for some attention is blogging. While my brain and fingers collaborated to author a few posts here-and-there, I have strayed from blogging. During my free hours I have opted to read fictional stories from others rather writing. I call this hiatus from writing, my listening months. These months away compare to pauses I take while in the midst of live conversations with family or friends. Instead of talking, I seal my lips and listen.

The pause from writing enabled me to be a better study of writing and storytelling styles. I now have a better foundation for selecting authors and genres to spend free hours with. Further, I believe the authors who encourage me to miss sleep to read their stories also help me in the development of my own writing style.

 

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Versatile Monday Morning Buzz

It began like any other weekday morning. Monday arrived with an alarming blare. The coffee buzz I sought had yet to kick in. But, as I  scanned my unread e-mails, I noticed a message from a new, WordPress, blogging buddy, Leonie Lucas.

Leonie, honored me with my second Versatile Blogger Award. The buzz from receiving such an honor turned my ho-hum morning into one I’ll remember forever. So, I truly thank Leonie for reading and recognizing my blog. Her blog — Writing, One Page at A Time — touched me the other day because while enjoying time with her six-month-old, Leonie began submitting her work for publication and to writing contests. Those are both goals of mine as well.

Upon accepting the Versatile Blogger Award, there are three rules.

Rule 1: Reveal seven things you probably don’t know about me

1. The New York Giants are my favorite for Superbowl Sunday.
2. I need to eat tacos at least once a week. Crunchy shells rule.
3. When I get pissed off I clean my house.
4. Nutella should be promoted as the next super food. Just kidding.
5. When I can’t sleep I read online tabloid comments.
6. Cheech and Chong movies still make me laugh so hard I cry.
7. I read Lucky Magazine every month and go sticker crazy.

Rule 2: Select and award 15 bloggers with the Versatile Blogger Award. The following list links you with blogs I have not plugged in previous award posts.

1. Kelly at Dances With Chaos. She is the writer I want to be when I grow up. Her posts are always superb and touch so many at various levels on such a broad stroke of topics. Always a great read.

2. The next six are blogs that push and inspire me to become a better, more consistent, dedicated writer.

Limebird Writers

Victoria-writes

Talinorfali

Kate Policani

My Name is Not Bob

Six Sentences

3. There are blogs I am becoming better acquainted with that make me pause and stay awhile. They all weave the right combination of words and/or pictures to make each visit memorable.

Indulge — Travel, Adventure, & New Experiences

Thypolar’s Life Uncensored

Cosy Travels of the Viking and his Kitten

The Better Man Project

Aspire.Motivate.Succeed

VeehCirra

MoonLightened Way

AJ Poetry, Poetry with purpose

Rule 3: Notify honorees.

Thursday at 10:43: The Liebster Award

On Tuesday morning I shuffled into my home office with my venti coffee in hand. I stood at my desktop, scrolling through my list of unread e-mails. There, in the midst of the boring pitches to click-and-read I spied an e-mail from blogging friend and mentor, Linda Cassidy Lewis.

Upon opening the e-mail, I felt myself smile. She had awarded my blog the Liebster Award. Linda says Liebster is German for dearest, beloved or favorite.

Thank you so much Linda. I am truly honored to receive this award from her. She is a new author I discovered upon introducing my blog at WordPress. Her book, Brevity of Roses, as well as her blog, Out of My Mind, inspired me to take a stab at NaNoWriMo in November.

Like other blog awards, the Liebster Award rules say to pass it along to five favorite blogs. But, here’s the catch. They need to have less than 200 followers. Like Linda, most of the blogs I read don’t publicly track the number of followers they have. So, just like following her lead in living to write, I’m adapting her rules to better fit my situation.

I am going to pass the Liebster Award to two I have mentioned previously and to three I have not.  Two previous mentions that I have an addiction to are:

Tickling My Fancy because I can’t resist reading MB’s movie and book reviews, her fictional pieces, or her posts about transitioning from Southeastern Michigan to Sacramento. Besides, we’ve been friends since childhood; and long-time friends stick together.

The Laughing Mom because she always makes me giggle. Today, she challenged visitors to come up with a birthday rap. I’m still working on mine. That’s why she writes what she does so incredibly well. Check her out. BTW, someone should sign this lady to a writing deal; pronto!

Three blogs I love, but haven’t promoted, yet, are

Mama’s Empty Nest because her words are powerful and she inspires me. Also, she gave all of us moms a “pep” talk the other night about losing our minds, parenting and surviving those “not-about-me-decades.”

Anna C. Shade Jewelry and Metalwork because Anna is a tremendous creative force who is achieving much-deserved success making and selling her art. Plus, she’s my cousin and a member of my Big Beautiful Family.

The Big Sheep Blog because the posts are timely and humorous.