Awards and Awwww-wards

This is ending up another week of blogging every day!  Amazing how what looked so hard at the beginning of April is now apparently hard to avoid!  But I have some business to take care of.
I've kind of let this slip, but during the A to Z I was tapped three times for the Liebster Award.  Now M. L. Swift has awarded me another award, and it's past time I responded.  I know that once before I declined to participate in the Liebster, but three times. . . in any case, I have to thank my nominators!  And I think I mentioned in response to them that I do like to talk about myself,  so answering the questions is kind of fun.


First, childrensbookstore.com selected me for an award, not so much for one particular review (even though that's what the badge says), as for general contributions.  I'll just quote from their notification to me:  "We feel that your reviews on children's books deserves recognition as a contribution to childhood literacy."  I do feel honored, and thank Jake Ball at childrensbookstore.com.  No quiz questions to go with this.



Next, The Super-Sweet Blogger Award, thanks to M. L. Swift.  This one is trickier--instead of a permanent badge, I have to find my own picture and set up a link, I think.  So here's a sweet birthday cake:

And there are 5 Diabolically Sweet Questions to answer (will those suffice as random facts?):
Cookies or cake?  First one, then the other.  Both home-made or skip it.
Chocolate or vanilla?  Chocolate, preferably with chocolate on it and a bit of extra chocolate.  Did I mention I like chocolate?
Favorite Sweet Treat?  Well, there's the cake and cookies we just mentioned.  But if I need just a bit of something sweet, I opt for dark chocolate.  At least 75%, better if it's 80 or 85%.
When do you crave sweets the most?  Typically after dinner, because I grew up with dessert every night.  Coffee breaks whimper for sweets, too, since coffee goes so well with pastry.
Sweet nickname?  I don't really have one.  But it was a key moment in our courtship when my (now) husband called me "Sweetheart."

Jemima Pett, you and your Princelings get this one, because what could be sweeter than a bunch of guinea pigs with their own books?


Finally, the Leibster Award:

Thanks to Heidi Mannan at The Enchanted Pen, Sherri Lackey at Sherri's Graphomania, and Sarah Chafin at Simply Sarah for all nominating me for the Liebster, an award for bloggers with under 200 followers (someday I hope to no longer be eligible for this one!).  Since I don't want to answer 33 questions (11 each!) I am going to select a few from each for a total of 11.
1.  Why did you start your blog?   Because everyone said an author needs a blog.  I had no idea what I was doing.
2. What book are you currently reading?  About 4, as usual.  Bless the Bride, by Rhys Bowen; Command a King's Ship, by Alexander Kent (I was listening to that one, but I messed up transferring from CD to my MP3 and ended up just getting the book so I could sort out the story); Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery, and a memoir called No Life for a Lady,  the name of whose author escapes me.  And I'm listening to a Flavia DuLuce novel (not sure of the spelling--I'm listening to it, okay?) by, uh (runs off to look it up) Alan Bradley.
3.  Its raining, not just a drizzle, but a full downpour, you have nothing planned for the day.  What do you do?  Go for a run.  Seriously, I love to run in a downpour.  Then a hot shower, a cup of cocoa, and a book.
4. Do you prefer to call or text?  haven't learned how to text.  I prefer email to both most of the time.
5. Do you listen to music when you clean?  What type?  I used to more than now.  Now I usually listen to books while I clean--much more thorough distraction!  But sometimes I want music, and then it's usually the rowdier end of the folk music I listen to all the time. 
6. What is your relationship to your mother like?  We have always gotten along well.  This is probably partly because I was such a late bloomer that I did all that love stuff after I was out of the house.  I love my Mom and wish we lived closer
7. What is your guilty pleasure?  Reading Louis L'Amour.  He couldn't write for beans, but his stories sure are good exciting fun.
8. Do you outline or are you a seat-of-the-pants writer?  I have always been a pantser, but I am beginning to think a little more organization would be good.
9. Do you write aspects of your personality into your characters?  I don't think it would be possible not to.
10. Do you have pets?  No, I have allergies and long vacations.
11. Are you weird?  I'm pretty sure most people who know me would say I am.  I was seriously weird in high school, but as one ages, one's peers become less uniform and weirdness stands out less.

I think I'm supposed to add 11 random facts about myself, but I can't think of any.  The sweet facts above will have to do.

Instead of nominating 11 bloggers, I will nominate one: Julie Leuk at A Thought Grows.  Julie, I'm going to assign you to answer the same 11 questions, because. . . I don't want the world to run out of questions!



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Blog Awards

I have, at last, entered the world of blog awards.  At least, I've been nominated for one.  Curious as to how this works with the official-looking widget and all, who's behind it, and who decided that I was worthy of an award, I did a little research.  After all, it seems like most of the bloggers I follow are being nominated for awards every week or two.  There are an awful lot of awards out there, and at some point it seems to me to start losing validity.  So, I started researching the Leibster Award (the one I'm tagged on.

Conclusions:
A blog award is a chain letter.  Just like the blog hop self-interview I did late last year, "The Next Big Thing," there is a set of questions to answer, and an obligation to "nominate" other bloggers.  Now, the idea of a blog hop doesn't bother me.  It gives you something to write about and maybe encourages some people (from the blogs before and after you) to look in and maybe they'll like what they see and follow you.

But calling it an award?  I'm not there.  To me, an award is earned and adjudicated.  The Leibster Award only has one criterion: have less than 200 followers.  Since it also obliges you to nominate 11 more people, you can see where this could easily result in nominating darn near everyone you know.  For that reason--and because I'm not really a big fan of chain letters--while I thank Karen's Different Corners for the nomination, I won't be biting on this one.

Unless, of course, I really need a blog topic and want to use that interview.  Because ultimately, we all like to talk about ourselves.  And an official-looking badge is kind of nice.  But I'll wait to win one for something more meaningful than being small, something that says that at least one person thought my blog was special in some meaningful way (and yes, I know I may wait a long time for that).  Even better: the Pulitzer Committee comes for me.  Yeah, I know.  Look, up in the sky!  It's a bird. .  . it's Superman!   No, it's a flying pig!!