Category: Awards

My 2nd “Inspiring Blog Award”:-)

Many thanks to Vikki Thompson at the The View Outside, who has nominated me for the “Inspiring Blogger Award. You’re a real star, Vikki, and a most inspiring blogger, too. I just love the informative, honest, gently humourous, and chatty style of your writing blog 🙂

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The rules
1. Display award image on your blog page
2. Link back to the person who nominated you
3. State what inspires you
4. Nominate 5 others for this award
5. Notify said bloggers

The things that inspire me

Sunshine, blue skies, interesting clouds, thunderstorms, moonlight.
Flowers, trees, birds, butterflies, bees.
The dawn chorus.
Energising conversations with other writers.
Meeting someone who has achieved their dream against incredible odds.
Singing a perfect note at the top of my vocal range.
Reading brilliantly crafted novels with unforgettable characters.
Drinking tea and eating homemade cakes.
The loyalty of dogs to their owners.

The blogs I’m nominating for the award

Cindy Knoke
Boneland
thekitchensgarden
TheWhyAboutThis
Poetic Parfait

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When nominated for the “Inspiring Blog Award” in 2012, it had different rules and a different logo. You can read this post at https://sarahpotterwrites.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/inspiring-blog-award/

“Best Moment Award” for a Novel Writing Winter post!

Best Moment Award, web awards, blogging awards, winners, nominations

Awarding the people who live in the moment,
The noble who write and capture the best in life,
The bold who reminded us what really mattered –
Savoring the experience of quality time.

RULES:

Winners re-post this completely with their acceptance speech. This could be written or video recorded.

Winners have the privilege of awarding the next awardees! The re-post should include a NEW set of people/blogs worthy of the award; and winners notify them of the great news.

RESOURCES:

  • What makes a good acceptance speech?
    • Gratitude. Thank the people who helped you along the way
    • Humor. Keep us entertained and smiling
    • Inspiration. Make your story touch our lives
  • Get an idea from the great acceptance speeches, compiled in MomentMatters.com/Speech
  • Display the award’s badge on your blog/website, downloadable in MomentMatters.com/Award

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

I’m overwhelmed. This is my eighth award, including my four stars for Blog of the Year Award, 2012. Before starting my blog in December 2011, I’d never received an award for anything other than one music medal at school for my piano playing, so I’m really touched by my fellow bloggers’ generosity.

This is my first speech ever, other than the ones delivered over the morning tea when my husband is too tired to knock me off my soap box. My areas of shyness are patchy. Yes, I can sing in front of people, but, no, I won’t talk to the audience about the music I’m performing. This is my husband’s job, as he loves giving speeches. In fact, the first time I saw him, he was giving an impromptu speech, and I thought, that man is really eccentric and funny. Little did I know he’d end up capturing my heart!

Although my biggest dream is to find a traditional publisher for my novels — especially my work-in-progress — sending out typescripts these days can be like casting them into a vacuüm. Publishers used to give feedback and encouragement. Nowadays, they send out standard rejections. This is most soul-destroying for a writer who’s had so many near misses in the past, with calls for full typescripts, followed by a 3-6 month wait, ending in rejection.  The wonderful thing about blogging is its community spirit and responsiveness. When you post something, there’s feedback within minutes. Everybody needs encouragement to follow their dream. So I thank all of you for the love, support, and recognition you’ve given me.

I have chosen to break the rules and nominate sixteen bloggers for their exceptional posts, rather than fifteen. Some of these wonderful pieces of writing are fresh off the blogging press, and others are older, but have stuck in my mind.

THE WINNERS OF THE BEST MOMENT AWARD ARE:

  1. Boneland for “Wind Chill“
  2. Charlotte’s Web for “7 Things That Make me Happy on International Women’s Day“
  3. Shannon A Thompson for “To My Mother“
  4. Shifting Shades for “Rest in Peace, Mama.”
  5. allaboutlemon – All Around, In And Out Of My Own Universe for “The Seasons of Love“
  6. Crowing Crone Joss for “Being a Woman“
  7. Lead.Learn.Live for “When it comes, I’ll be fine, calm.“
  8. Rescuing Little L for “my shattered voice mends slowly ….“
  9. the kitchens garden for “So lucky that my work is what I love to do the most!“
  10. TheWhyAboutThis for “Bloggaria – A fairy tale of bloggers! Introduction“
  11. Angel Manna for “The Great Yearning For Meaning“
  12. Call2Read for “Spain – The Land of Intrigue“
  13. Graphite Bunny for “A Girl Not Reading a Book“
  14. Jaycee68 for “Too many things“
  15. alarmingman for “Homeless 18“
  16. Writing between the lines for “Jack Shit: Just Say Yes“

Don’t forget to celebrate with your followers! Tweet your success with hashtag #MomentMatters. Congratulations, winners!

You can read the post that earned me my nomination at https://sarahpotterwrites.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/novel-writing-winter-nww-2013-one-month-to-go/

The Illuminating Blogger Award

Many thanks to fellow UK writer, Vikki Thompson, at The View Outside, who has just nominated me for the Illuminating Blogger Award 🙂

The rules of the award

  1. Thank the person who has nominated you for the award.
  2. Share with your fellow bloggers a random fact about yourself.
  3. Nominate five other bloggers for the award.

That random thing 

I’m in the habit of wanting to learn vocal music that verges on being too difficult for me, and then getting really cross/stressed with myself when I don’t master a piece in five minutes. Various statement of anguish float out of my practice room, such as “this is far too difficult”, “I’m not up to this”, “I’ll have to sit this out in the concert”, “my voice isn’t as it used to be,” and “someone else will have to sing this”. Normally, I end up mastering the piece and wondering what all the fuss was about. Occasionally, I sort-of learn it, but not quite, so the singing of it in concert feels most precarious, which is okay when it’s a solo piece because I can bluff, but too much of a responsibility when part-singing.

My five nominees for the award

jaycee68

Lead.Learn.Live.

Teacher as Transformer

The Why About This

Anansi the Poet

Pirate’s Appreciation: an award in disguise!

piratesadmiration

He who doesn’t accept awards, ye pirate, has just said a very lovely thank you to fourteen of his blogging friends (me included). What we have in common is that we’ve ignored his warning shots, and, hearing not a shout of “shiver me timbers”, we’ve earned ourselves a pirate’s admiration 🙂

To find out who else has been spared his cutlass, you can cross the choppy waves to http://managuagunntoday.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/a-pirates-appreciation/

And in the words of ye pirate: “The rules are simple – put on something frilly, and tell a blogger you desire to admire that a Pirate admires ya, and yer passing that admiration to him or her to be plundered, if you so desire…”

S'ConcertGear

I think men are spared the dressing in frills, unless they possess an early eighteenth century white shirt, but a bow tie should do! Below is a rare sight of me wearing something with frills — albeit subtle. This was taken after the Christmas concert of medieval and renaissance carols performed by the early music choir to which I belong. I’ve had to crop the picture not to include the others, as I haven’t yet had a chance to ask their permission to post them on a public blog. Hoping to put a music page up in the future, so will post the whole picture then.

So now I offer my appreciation to those who’ve offered me awards that I’ve accepted, like gold from a galleon, and hope to see you in your frills (or, for one, a fancy collar!) You can find these fine folk at …

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http://davidkanigan.com/   (3 awards!)
http://auroramorealist.wordpress.com/ (2 awards!)
http://naomibultuck.wordpress.com/ (2 awards!)
http://baileyboatcat.com/
http://poeticparfait.com/
http://allaboutlemon.com

Blog of the Year Award 2012

Blog of the Year Award 4 star jpeg

My heartfelt thanks to David Kanigan at http://davidkanigan.com/2012/12/08/blog-of-the-year/#more-13084  for honouring me with the ‘Blog of the Year Award 2012’. David has already earned for himself stars too numerous to count, but my admiration for his blog is such that I’m going to award him yet another star — a bit like blowing him a kiss in return! What comes over from his blog is his understanding of human nature and his gentle humour. He is not afraid to laugh at himself, which, in turn, encourages others not to take themselves too seriously. His posts are truly perceptive, informative, and entertaining 🙂

Also, love, hugs, and many thanks to Aurora HSP (Janice) at http://auroramorealist.wordpress.com/, who also has honoured me with this award (although she forgot to tell me she’d done so!)  Janice  is a writer with a huge heart, a huge smile, and resembles a beauty in a Pre-Raphaelite painting. As a victim of physical and emotional abuse, she is now rebuilding her life with a fortitude and honesty that I greatly admire. …And, of course, she’s due a nomination kiss in return, too 🙂

[As a later addition to this post, I would like to offer a big thanks to bailey boat cat at http://baileyboatcat.com/2012/12/16/seeing-stars/comment-page-1/#comment-828 for my third nomination. Having only recently started following each other’s blog, I’m sure we’ll be communicating a great deal in the new year, during Novel Writing Winter, as we both create our first drafts of new works https://sarahpotterwrites.wordpress.com/novel-writing-winter-nww-2013/ http://rescuinglittlel.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/what-a-novel-idea-novel-writing-winter/  🙂 ]

[And yet another addition — thanks and hugs to dear Naomi Baltuck, whose lovely blog, Writing Between the Lines, is always a source of great inspiration to me with its warmth of words and beautiful photography. http://naomibaltuck.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/2012-blog-of-the-year-awards/  🙂 ]

The rules for this award:

1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award.

2 Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.

3 Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award – http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/our-awards/blog-of-the-year-2012-award/ and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!).

4 Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them.

5 You can now also join our Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience.

6 As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…!

And the blogs I’m nominating:

Dave at http://davidkanigan.com/ who I’ve already told you all about.

Aurora HSP (Justine) at http://auroramorealist.wordpress.com/ ditto.

Dave at http://davefarmersblog.wordpress.com/ is a NaNoWriMo 2011 and 2012 winner, who writes most splendidly about zombies, his dogs, and, quite recently, his excruciating backache from spending too many hours sitting in a decrepid chair in front of his PC, doubtless, battling zombies.

adollyciousirony (dolly) at http://allaboutlemon.com/ spreads her love across the blogosphere by involving her multitudinous followers in all sorts of fun challenges — haiku, photography, music, and many more.

Naomi at http://naomibaltuck.wordpress.com/ — visiting her blog, “Writing Between the Lines”, is such a warming experience. As a professional storyteller, Naomi can say so much in only a few well-chosen and the most awe-inspiring photographs.