Me, as a Liar

I have a few blog awards to pass on and one of them involves creative lying, which is something I do well.

I think I'm going to have to save a few of these for next week, just so I don't have a crazy long post, but I'll do 3 today.

First up: The Circle Of Friends Award.

This was given to me by a lovely new friend and new blogger Nicole Dulcleroir.

I was thinking about all my blog friends and there are SO MANY. I always talk about my critique group girls, who are my ultimate circle of friends, but I've given them awards already so I thought I'd give this one to a new little circle of friends, my agent buddies Sarah Skilton and Miranda Kenneally. They are both represented by Sara Megibow and they are both super cool girls, so check them out. Miranda is more of a Tweeter than a blogger so you should go see her on Twitter @MirandaKeneally.

Next: The Sunshine Award

BJ Anderson gave me this little beauty. BJ has been a bloggy friend for a long time and she's a great writer to get to know.

I'm going to pass this along to a few new friends: Mariah Irvin, because she is hilarious and Derek Whisman, because he's new to blogging and he's got great taste in books.

And last: The "Creative Writer" Award

This was given to me by the beautiful and talented Erica at Laugh Write Play and sassy sarcastic Matt at Pensive Sarcasm.

Both are encouraging me to tell LIES, and I intend to take them up on their offer. But I'm going to switch up the rules and tell 6 truths and 1 lie instead of the other way around. Here they are:

1. I once threw up all over a fireman

2. I only dated my husband for 4 months before we got married

3. I've never seen an episode of LOST

4. I have several exciting things happening now that I can't share with you yet

5. I didn't like reading when I was kid and I often fudged book reports by reading only the back cover and the last page.

6. The best class I ever took in college was called "Walt Disney's Influence on American Culture." We mostly watched cartoons.

7. I love lima beans and I've never understood why they get such a bad rap.

I'd like to pass this one on to two good honest people who might enjoy a little lying: DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude and Jamie Debree at The Variety Pages.

And there you have it. I'll try to catch up on the rest next Friday. Thank you everyone! And feel free to try to guess the lie. I might tell you what it is... someday.

Award Happiness

Well, it's that time again. I've received a few awards this last month and I need to say thanks and pass them on!

First up is Happy 101 which was given to me by Stephanie Thronton (I'm so excited to read her historical novel about Hatshepsut, the first successful female Pharaoh--it sounds fabulous), Karen Denise (who writes dystopian YA, the genre I WISH I could write) and Marybeth (Poppins) Smith (who is hilarious, really).

I think I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy, so here goes:

1. Snuggling with my kids at bedtime (they are just sweeter at bedtime)

2. Chocolate cake

3. 70 degree weather

4. Hot baths

5. Great books

6. Kisses

7. Sleep

8. A clean house

9. Being with my family

10. Lasagna

I'd like to give this award to three happy people who are new to me and new to the blogging world. So go visit them! It always makes me happy to meet someone new.

Nicole Ducleroir at One Significant Moment

Sandy Shin

Christine Danek at Christine's Journey

And thank you to Kristin at Another Gray Day (she writes and bakes and writes about baking and books) and Roni at Fiction Groupie (who, as I've said before, writes one of my very favorite blogs about writing, it's a must read) for the Over the Top Award.

For this one we're supposed to answer the following questions with just one word.

Your Cell Phone? Tracfone

Your Hair? Brown

Your Mother: Artist

Your Father? Smart

Your Favorite Food? Chocolate

Your Dream Last Night? Weird

Your Favorite Drink? Water

Your Dream/Goal? Author

What Room Are You In? Office

Your Hobby? Writing

Your Fear? Rejection

Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? Published

Where Were You Last Night? Home

Something You Aren't? Mathematician

Muffins? Yes

Wish List Item? Motivation

Where Did You Grow Up? West

Last Thing You Did? Breakfast

What Are You Wearing? Sweatshirt

Your TV? PBS

Your Pets? Dog

Friends? Many

Your Life? Lovely

Your Mood? Happy

Missing Someone? Always

Vehicle? Van

What You Aren't Wearing? Makeup

Your Favorite Store? Target

Your Favorite Color? Yellow

When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Today

Last Time You Cried? Yesterday

Your Best Friend? Husband

One Place You Go Over And Over Again? Refrigerator

Facebook? Confusing

Favorite Place To Eat? Italian

I'd like to give this award to Frankie at Frankie Writes, because I met her in person last weekend, and she is the first writer/extrovert I've ever come across. She's absolutely darling and her blog is Over The Top. And also to Elana Johnson (even though she probably doesn't do awards anymore because she's practically a professional blogger). Her posts are so helpful to me. If you aren't reading them, you should be.

Whew, that was quite the blog. If you skimmed to the end for the question of the day I won't leave you hanging! Today's question is:

What makes you happy?

Appreciation

I'm going to pass along the last two awards today and get back to real blogging later this week. I've been giving out awards for the past couple weeks, so If you've been following this blog for a while, chances are you got one! Scroll on down to see what you've won! (I'm sorry, I didn't notify everyone like I was supposed to). And remember these are no pressure awards. You don't need to accept them, pass them on, or post them unless you want to.

The first award for today is the Best Blog award. Thank you Jemi (mystery/ romance author, thoughtful commenter and blogger) and Roni (who blogs like a professional--seriously, she's always got something interesting to say)

The Best Blog recipients are:

Shelli at Market My Words

Weronika Janczuk

Amy Tate at The Virginia Scribe

Matt at Pensive Sarcasm

Kristi Faith at Random Acts of Writing

L.T. Elliot at Dreams of Quill and Ink

Sande at So to Speak

Also, From Me to You, given to me by the beautiful and talented Bethany Mattingly. She blogs about her two loves, agriculture and writing.

This award goes out to all those people who have most of the other awards. What do you give to the person who has everything? Flowers. Everyone loves flowers. Please accept these flowers of appreciation from me to you.

The recipients are:

Karen Amanda Hooper

Linda Kage

Wendy at All in a Day's Thought

Abby Annis

Jessica Nelson at Booking It

Jill Kemerer

Sherinda at A Writer Wannabe

Tamika at The Write Workshop

Suzyhayze at Tales of Extraordinary Ordinariness

T. Anne at White Platonic Dreams

If you didn't get an award and you'd like one, just choose one from the sidebar. You deserve it! If I gave you one you already have, feel free to take a different one. I have really enjoyed getting to know you all over the last few months and I look forward to getting to know you better in 2010!

Humane Writing

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, or a Happy Hanukkah, or a nice other holiday. Mine was wonderful. We have family in town, so my blogging will be sporadic for the next week or so.

I still have several awards to give out, so I'm going to do two today.

The first is the Humane Award which I received from a lovely friend and YA writer, Dawn Simon. I'm not sure why I deserve this award since I don't feel like I do much for humanity (or dogs). But we did get my dog from a rescue organization, and I clean up after him when he pees on the floor, so I guess that's pretty humane.

I'm going to pass it on to 5 blogs that I think make the world a little brighter place. They are:

Eileen Astels at A Christian Romance Writer's Journey

Roxane Salonen at Peace Garden Mama

Teressa at The Chocolate Chip Waffle

Bethany Wiggins and Suzette Saxton at Shooting Stars

Shannon O'Donnell at Book Dreaming

The other award for today is the Superior Scribbler Award. I got this award from Thomas (author/illustrator extraordinare) and Kelly (YA sci-fi/fantasy/romance writer). I'm passing it along to 5 blogs that I always enjoy reading. They are:

Jemi Fraser at Just Jemi

Paul Greci at Northwriter

Stephenie at Hapshepsut: The Writing of a Novel

Tricia at Talespinning

Diane Estrella

Thanks to all of you for your excellent blogs and comments!

Kreativ Blogger Award

Kissing Day was awesome! I really enjoyed reading everyone's scenes. I didn't get to every one, because there were so many, but I think I read most of them. It turned out to be an awesome way to meet new people too. Thank you Sherrinda for hosting the day. You should check out some of the posts if you haven't already.

The award I want to share today is the Kreativ Blogger. I've received this one a few times so thank you to:

Thomas Taylor- A picture book writer and illustrator living in France and working on his first MG novel.

V.R. Barkowski- A lovely blogger who focuses her posts on her writing journey.

Melissa-A busy mom of 2 who writes YA sci-fi and fantasy.

Erica- A YA Paranormal writer who is also a major Twitterer (follow her at @EricaWrites).

This award has rules that I'm going to try to follow... sort of.

-Thank the person (or people) who gave you the award.

-Write 7 things about yourself we do not know

-Choose 7 other bloggers to award and link to their blogs

7 Things:

1. I'm horribly allergic to cats (my face gets all puffy, my eyes start to swell shut, and any part of me that comes in contact with cat hair breaks out in hives), but I'm not allergic to dogs.

2. I got my degrees in Print Journalism and American Studies. It's been 7 years since I graduated and I don't really remember anything. (Why did I go to college?)

3. I've moved 6 times in the last 6 years.

4. I read about 20 times more picture books and MG and YA novels than books meant for adults. I guess I never grew up.

5. I am an art mom for my daughter's kindergarten class, even though I can't even draw a decent stick figure.

6. I love cookies, especially Christmas cookies.

7. My favorite book ever is probably Charles Dickens' A TALE OF TWO CITIES.

Since I've received this award a few times I'm going to give it to more than 7 people. I've selected 20 bloggers who all have kreativ blogs (or spelling). Most of these blogs have a little different format than regular writing blogs and they are all fun reads. They are:

Mary at Writer's Butt Does Not Apply to Me

Cammie at My Mental Marathon

Catherine Denton at Winged Writer

Dawn Simon at Plotting and Scheming

Devon Ellington at Ink in My Coffee

The Girl with One Eye at A Squirrel Among Lions

Kelly Lyman at Kelly's Compositions

Bethany Mattingly at Aspirations

Jeannie Campbell at The Character Therapist

Voidwalker at Into the Void

Wendy at On Words and Upwards

Jessie Oliveros at Louder than Noise

Tracy at A Blissful Life

Aubrie at Author, Flutist, Teacher

Belle at Ms. Bookish

Beth at Writing it out

Victoria S.

Chelle Sandell

Judith Coughlin

Kathryn Jankowski

Once again, these are NO PRESSURE awards! Don't feel like you need to pass them on, accept them, or post them (unless you want to of course). Just know that I appreciate you.

I think this will be my last post until after Christmas. Happy Holidays to all of you! More awards next week.

Something Lovely

This is probably the last awards post I'll do this week. Monday is kissing day blogfest so get ready for some kissing (or almost kissing)! Then I'll finish up the rest of the awards over the Christmas break.

Up today is the One Lovely Blog Award. This was given to me by three bloggy friends:

Mary at Writers Butt Does Not Apply to Me. Mary chronicles her quest to write a novel and lose weight. Her honesty and humor keep me coming back for more.

Stephanie at Hatshepsut gave it to me too. The thing I love about Stephanie is that she's done a great job of making me WANT to read her novel. She doesn't post teasers or give stats on her progress, she just writes about her research about ancient Egypt and her MC, Hatshepsut, who was one of only a few female Pharaohs.

The I got it from Voidwalker at Into The Void. He's pretty new to blogging (so go follow him!) He's a funny guy. You'll like him.

I am supposed to pass this on to 15 blogger friends who have lovely blogs. I chose people who not only have lovely blogs, but also seem like lovely people. Here they are:

Anissa at Anissa Off the Record

Anita at Anita's Edge

Yaya at Yaya's Changing World

Valery Geary at Something to Write About

CKHB at Heim Binas Fiction

Candice at Suffering From Writer's Blog

Storyqueen at Storyqueen's Storycastle

Georgina at Olive Juice

Roni at Fiction Groupie

Renee at Midnight Meditations

Melissa at Chasing the Dream

LT Host at Quest: Published

Julie at The Climb

BJ Anderson

Terry Lynn Johnson

Thanks for sharing your lovely blogs with us!

Honest Scrap

This passing on awards thing is more difficult than I imagined! Most of you already have some of the awards, so it's been like a giant puzzle trying to determine which awards I can give to who. While searching for award rules today I discovered there is an award I'd missed, so I had to shuffle everything again. I know I'm going to accidently leave someone out or give them an award they already have. So PLEASE forgive me if I do (and take whichever one you want-- you all deserve one!) A little grace is always a good thing.

Today I'll be passing on the Honest Scrap award. It was given to me by Victoria S. Victoria is a dreamer (and I mean that in a good way). She writes paranormal/romantic YA and her blog posts are always lovely.

This is one of the awards with a lot of rules and since I don't feel like following rules today I hope you won't mind if I disregard them and do my own thing. (I'm such a rebel).

Instead of sharing 10 honest things about myself I'm just going to tell you one story about how honesty pays off.

I know I've mentioned that I met my husband in college. He and I were good friends for several months before we started dating, and we may never have started dating if it weren't for his philosophy teacher.

This teacher gave his class an assignment to be 100% honest for one weekend (no lying period--not even white lies or avoidance). My husband made the mistake of telling me and my roommates about this assignment. One of my roomies decided to take advantage of his perfect honesty to see exactly what he thought of us, so she asked, "do you have a crush on me?"

He replied (honestly), "No Em. I like you as a friend."

Then she asked about a few of our other roommates and the answer was the same.

Then she asked about me. I was sure he'd say no (and break my little heart because I kind of liked him).

But instead he blushed, looked right at me, and said, "Yes Nat. I think you're hot." He said other nice things after that (just so you know he wasn't totally shallow).

We started dating soon after and now we've been married for 7 years (with no itch in sight). Honesty is a good thing folks.

Now, without further ado, I give you 10 Honest Scrap bloggers. They write very different blogs, but all are sincere, great reads.

Beth at This Mommy's Life

Corey Schwartz at Thing 1 and Thing 2

Erica at Laugh. Write. Play.

Bane of Anubis at Bane's Blogging Blues

Jade at Jade Hears Voices

Janna Qualman at Something She Wrote

Lisa and Laura at Lisa and Laura Write

Stacy J Warner at Stacey's Respite

Thomas Taylor at That Elusive Line

Sarah Skilton

Thanks to all of you for your honest posts! You are wonderful.

Stay tuned for more awards.

(And don't forget about kissing day blogfest! You know you want to share one of your kissing scenes with the world!)

Blog Award Extravaganza

I'm going to be giving out blog awards for the next week so check back to see what you are awarded!

First up we have my personal favorite, the Loyal Friend and Visitor Award. This little beauty was given to me by Tricia O'Brien who writes an excellent blog called Talespinning, (which is such a clever name), and she almost always includes beautiful pictures. She's been a blog friend since the very beginning of this blog and I'm so grateful for all of her support. Thank you Tricia!

I'd like to pass it on to 15 bloggers who have been loyal friends since I started this blog. Since there weren't any rules about how to award it I'm just going to tell you a bit about their wonderful blogs so you can check them out. The people who've been around since the beginning and aren't bored of me yet, or continue to visit despite boredom are:

Susan R. Mills at A Walk in My Shoes-- I'm pretty sure most of you already follow Susan. She writes excellent posts (all relating writing to shoes), and leaves thoughtful comments even though I'm sure her bloglist is astronomical.

Laura Martone at Laura's Simple Pleasures-- Laura's blog almost always makes me hungry. She lives a crazy life where she moves every couple of months for film festivals. Her blog focuses on travel and FOOD.

Megan Rebekah at Megan Rebekah Blogs---And Writes-- I love Megan's blog. I love it so much in fact that I read it before I ever started blogging myself. She always has something interesting to say about writing, agent hunting, and publishing and she's often hilarious (which is always a good thing).

Caroline Starr Rose at Caroline by line-- Caroline is a former teacher and a VERY GOOD MG writer. I had the opportunity to read her novel in verse May B. I hope I can write as well as she does someday.

Heather Sunseri at Balance with Purpose-- Heather always writes thoughtful, meaningful posts about life, faith, and writing. I love visiting her blog because I always come away feeling inspired. Plus, Heather leaves the sweetest comments.

Marybeth Smith at Desperately Searching for my Inner Mary Poppins-- Marybeth's blog is hilarious and probably the cutest themed blog ever. And I have no doubt she will soon be as awesome as Mary Poppins herself.

Jennifer Shirk at Me, My Muse, and I-- Jennifer is a seasoned blogger, and by that I mean, she knows what she's doing. Her posts are always interesting and fun to read.

Marie Devers at Booknapped-- Marie takes quotes from songs, books, movies, poems etc. and relates them to her own life. She told me blogging for her is like a scrapbook of things she loves. The quotes she shares are often inspirational and ALWAYS thought-provoking.

Matt Delman at Free the Princess-- Matt is an expert in steampunk. Before I started reading his blog I'd never heard of steampunk. Thanks to Matt's excellent posts I feel like I know quite a bit about the genre. If you have ever wanted to write steampunk (or read it) Matt's blog is a must.

Tabitha Bird at Through My Eyes-- Tabitha's writing is always beautiful and honest. Several of her posts have moved me to tears.

Vonna Carter-- The thing I love most about Vonna is that she's able to dissect writing and books and make sense of the way things are done. In one of my favorite posts, she busts publishing myths (like the myth that agents and editors hate prologues).

Patti Nelson-- Patti's blog is full of great things. She's a mom of 3 (like me!) and she shares a bit of everything in a very fun and informative way.

Jody Hedlund-- I imaging most of you read Jody's blog too. If you don't, this is one you need to add to your list. Jody shares EVERYTHING about her road to publication. I learn something new almost every time I visit. Jody is also a great Twitterer, so you should follow her there too.

Terri Tiffany-- Terri is an inspirational writer and her posts really are inspirational. I love visiting there and I often come away feeling encouraged to do better.

Karen Amanda Hooper-- Karen already has this award (I'll have to give her another one that she doesn't have), but I couldn't not give this one to her. Her blog is honest, sweet, and magical (just like her).

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful blogs and all the comments and encouragement these past 3 months. I appreciate you more than I can say.

If you didn't get this award NEVER FEAR! There are many more to come.

(Oh and have you heard about Kissing Day Blogfest? I will be participating. You should too.)

From Me to You

I love getting blog awards. They are fun, and pretty, and getting one means someone out there (at least kind of) likes my blog. But, I've wondered how (or if) I should pass them along or put them on my blog.

I've heard some criticism of blog awards including:

-They always get passed out to the same people, thus going in circles until everyone in a clique has them all.

-It's painfully difficult to pick and choose who should get the awards (I like all my blogging buddies)

-They clutter up your blog and make it look less professional

-They don't really mean anything

I've come up with a few ideas to combat these negatives. Do you want to hear them?

Yes!

Okay then.

Over the past few months I've received 7 awards, so I figure that is more than enough to go around. I won't have to exclude people! I'm going to try to give you all an award that you don't already have and I'm going to try to be thoughtful about it so the awards actually mean something (at least to me).

So, starting tomorrow and going until Christmas there will be some major blog award giving happening here. Don't feel like you need to post or pass along the awards I give you (unless you want to of course), just know that I appreciate all of you!

How do you feel about blog awards? Do you ever discover a great new blog because someone you knew gave it an award?