Aww! I like you, too! Blog Awards

My awesome CP, Amparo Ortiz passed along a really cute award. Thank you, Amparo! 


The question I must answer is this: 

If I had the chance to go back and change one thing in my life, would I, and what would it be?

That's easy. I would be kinder. Yep, even to those nasty girls in seventh and eighth grade who made fun of the jeans I wore everyday and my worn-out shoes. It would be hard, but I think if I'd learned to be kind earlier in life, *I* wouldn't have been as prone to despair and depression, which is what caused most of my problems during my teen years. Yeah. I would definitely be kinder if I could go back and do it all over again. (But plz don't make me go back there. Nobody should have to do that twice!)

My next task is to pass this along to six people:

Lisa and Laura Roecker (who I interviewed over at Operation Awesome today!)

Shannon Messenger (talking about Time Goblins today with an AWESOME pic of one in action)

Beth Revis (for the shiny new design of her blog and her UH-MAY-ZING book coming out soon)

Elana Johnson (who's opening up about sobfests today and letting go of our past selves)

Jamie Harrington (who "trained 22 five-year-olds to accomplish tasks with a dog clicker")

Matthew Rush (who's talking about The Trickster on his blog today)

I Won an Award!! (from BDCWB)

You may not have heard of this award, but you are about to....

BEST #DEARPUBLISHER TWEET

 (My blog post on #dearpublisher is HERE.)

I'd like to thank The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog for gracing me with their mention.

Thank you. *curtsies* The now semi-famous tweet is HERE.

@BDCWB (twitter) is a blog after my own heart. From their "Who We Are" page:

We LOVE (!!!!!!….yes, seriously LOVE) writers and everything that they do.

To be honest, we are just a bunch of college nerds/English majors who have nothing better to do than obsess over writer celebrities. While we won’t spend too much time talking about John Grisham, we will spend an exorbant amount of time highlighting up-and-coming/literary writers who publish in magazines and small presses. We also love poets and creative nonfiction writers because they deserve some recognition too.

Their mission includes acting as a one-stop resource for writers who have no time to scour the webs for relevant industry news/buzz. They bring it all together in a delightfully absurd web site, complete with pictures of random dogs. In their own words:

We started The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog…Period because, quite simply, we feel like writer news, writer issues and writer resources are too spread out over the internet. There are thousands of scam websites, sites that are done for promotion and sites that are just too messy to wade through to ever be truly effective. Looking for a legit contest to enter? Done. Wanna know what your favorite writers and poets are up to? We’ve got you covered. Looking for well written articles about issues like self-publishing, what to read this month and how to improve your writing in general? You’ve come to the right place.

Oh, and...

He is not a random dog. His name is Rokki and he is our editor-in-chief’s Boston Terrier. He is also our mascot. 

In honor of this award, I shall write you all a little poem (if you liked "books have babies", you'll love this):

Rokki the dog
Is rockin the lenses
Chillin on his moo-bag
In the present tenses
Is he lookin at me?
Or is he lookin at you?
Cuz he's a terrier, yo
And he looks serious, too.

Okay, so apparently Boston Terriers wearing sunglasses inspire rap-ish poetry. Take note, dear readers. If you want rap, send me pictures of dogs in summertime eye wear.

Busy weekend ahead (meeting agent Natalie Fischer at the Ventura Book Festival tomorrow, grocery shopping, toddler birthday party, and squeezin some writing time in), so until next time, I shall bid you all adieu.

Adieu. To yu and yu and yu.

Okay, goodnight. *trips on her way out*

Presenting Sandy Shin with The Social Butterfly Award

My amazing blogger friend, Amparo Ortiz, passed this award along to me. I'm going to pass it along in turn to the five bloggers whose posts I have up RIGHT NOW. Yep, they're that compelling that I clicked on them as soon as I saw them. I hope you find something/someone new you like in the mix.

For One Lovely Blog, I award:

Kristin Miller (I find myself back at this blog just about every day!)

QueryTracker.net Blog (seriously useful info on the biz)

Kiersten White (not a comedian, but she may as well be!)
Jill Corcoran (a literary agent who reps MG and YA authors, very useful info on slush and queries)
Jennifer Laughran (not only does she have a last name that makes me think of childhood laughter and running, but she is also a very personable literary agent who keeps it real and answers questions)

And....drumroll for this next part...

Sandy Shin deserves her own special award for being just about the sweetest and most prolific commenter I've seen on the blogosophere:

Sandy, don't worry about keeping up with everybody on the web. I think you do an amazing job, and I hope you enjoy cutting back a little bit, per your last post. You deserve a rest. Those wings of yours must be exhausted!