The Versatile Blogger Award

For me, the good news today was that I wrote 4,700 words, I haven't done that in a while! The bad news, though, was that none of those words went into a blog post. That's okay, I decided, I did what writers do, namely write, but I still wondered what I was going to post about.

With these thoughts running around in my head like a gerbil on a wheel I opened my digital mailbox and found a note from Melanie Marttila over at Writerly Goodness breaking the good news that she had awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award.

Looking at Melanie's email, it felt as though the universe had smiled on me. What a lovely thing to be given and what a marvelous topic for a blog post. I'm honored, thank you Melanie!

So, from Melanie's blog post, here are the rules (Oh my! And, yes, I have recently read 50 Shades of Grey ;):

a) Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
b) Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.
c) Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
d) Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
e) Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

So, first, thank you Melanie! I'm honored that you thought of me when you were giving out the award. :-) I've put a link to Melanie's blog, Writerly Goodness, above, but I thought I'd include it here as well.

My fifteen nominees, in no particular order:

- Elizabeth Span Craig: Mystery Writing Is Murder
Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin/Berkley (as Riley Adams), the Southern Quilting mysteries (2012) for Penguin/NAL, and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink. She blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010, 2011, and 2012.

- Seth Godin's Blog
 The man needs no introduction and I would be hard pressed to winnow his interests down to just a few areas. Here are a couple of articles about him:
Seth Godin: How To Change Your Luck
Seth Godin: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread (includes a link to his TED talk.)

- Dead Houseplants.
I am a mother of three with an English degree and an obsession with children's and YA literature. I edit children's books part-time for a small, independent publisher. I love teaching and wish I could do more of it. I have a love/hate relationship with writing and think I ought to do more of it.

- Kim Nevile: Faith, trust, pixie dust
I write stories, most of which contain a fairy or two. On this blog I write about the things that matter to me. When I'm not making stuff up I also love taking photographs. All the photos here are my own. If you're still curious, find out more on my About page.

- The Land of Deborah. Singer, songwriter, composer.
Deborah isn't a writer, but she is definitely a fellow creative. Here's her YouTube channel [link].

- Failure Ahoy! Adventures in Digital Publishing
I'm a sci-fi/fantasy author, freelancer, and movie critic, which as far as jobs go is among them. I enjoy kung fu, which I'm all right at, and my aquarium, which kills more fish than StarKist. I'm not too happy about that.
(Ed Robertson has a terrific blog that is, among other things, filled with statistics on different strategies for selling books on Amazon. A must read for indie authors.)

- Ghostwriter Dad: Helping good writers make a great living online
His tagline says it all. Great writer, great advice.

I'm going to have to split this post into two, it's getting so long! 7 today, 8 tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

btw, I tried to avoid overlap with the links I gave out in a recent post, Great Writing Blogs, but Elizabeth's blog and books are just too good not to mention again!