Very Inspiring Blogger Award

very-inspiring-award

Many thanks to Blondeusk at Blondewritemore for this nomination. Everyone, do check out her writing blog (after you’ve read my post, of course!) and say “hi” to her. I love reading her posts, which are concise, relevant, and gently humorous. She’s also an extremely good writer and is my guest storyteller for August, so watch out for her post scheduled for next Saturday on my blog.

The Rules:

Thank and link the person who nominated you.

  • List the rules and display the award
  • Share 7 facts about yourself
  • Nominate 15 other amazing blogs and comment on their posts to let them know you have nominated them
  • Proudly display the badge

The 7 Facts:

Well, this is a difficult one as I’ve been awarded the “Inspiring Blogger Award” twice before. So if my fellow bloggers don’t mind, on this occasion I’ll share some up-to-the-moment trivia about me and, if you’re interested, you can visit my “Blogging Awards” page afterwards, where you can link to my earlier posts.

  1. I spent two hours in the local town centre the other day and only bought a recipe book that cost £4.99, 6 postage stamps, and a bargain packet of AA batteries (5+3 free). The sales were on in the clothes shops, but I thought that everything was rubbish, much of it unethically produced in sweat shops, and I couldn’t wait to get home.
  2. My granddaughter just had her 12th birthday and dyed her hair bright pink to celebrate! I couldn’t help wishing they’d had fun colours like that around when I was that age; although, thinking back, I was more interested in climbing trees and making stink bombs than bothering about how I looked.
  3. At the moment, I’m only watching two programmes a week on the telly: the exceedingly quirky conspiracy theory Utopia (Series 2), and an atmospheric but perplexing thriller, The Honourable Woman. On my computer, I’m doing a catch up of Game of Thrones (Series 4) — the brilliant epic fantasy series based on the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin.
  4. I’ve given up taking all nutritional supplements other than Krill Oil (sustainably sourced, of course). As a result, my former food intolerances have disappeared, including that of chocolate. Yay 🙂
  5. The most gripping novel I’ve read this year is 11.22.63 by Stephen King. It’s a time travel novel first published in 2011 that asks the question “What if you could go back in time and prevent the JFK assassination?”. I wasn’t sure if I’d like the novel, but am now grateful that it was part of a 3-for-the-price-of-2 offer in the bookstore or I might never have read it! Thanks W. H. Smith.
  6. Sometimes I wish that the first person I submitted my first novel to had told me it was rubbish and that I should give up writing. Instead he used the word “promising”, thus condemning me to many years of chasing a dream when the odds of success are only a little higher than winning the lottery. Even so, I have a consuming passion for writing, the flip-side of passion being pain.
  7. Last night I dreamt that zombies had taken over my home town, although they only came out after sunset (vampire-zombies?). This meant that everybody had to rush home and barricade themselves in their houses with blackout blinds at the windows, and stay silent. In my dream, I was walking across the recreation ground just a moment after sunset, trying to get home before the zombies saw me. But then a bass from the church choir (it’s always a bass) started to sing and drew attention to us. One of the zombies, whose name was Valerie and who looked normal (apart from her glazed blue eyes), took a liking to me and taught me how I could hoodwink zombies into believing I was one of them.

My Nomination(s):

I’m going to break the rule here about 15 nominations, as I’ve already showered awards on certain bloggers and don’t wish to drown them in a sea of the things. Thus, I’m nominating just one blogger who I’ve started following recently. Ajaytao Botanical Photography shares my love of flowers and delights me daily with his photographs accompanied by a few well-chosen words.

I’ve won the Man Booker Prize…only joking;-)

Image

Back to reality, the truth…

Fellow blogger, David Kanigan, who is a great inspiration to me and a huge number of others, has kindly nominated me for THE BOOKER AWARD. After you’ve read this post, please do check out  http://davidkanigan.com/2012/09/01/books-books-books/#respond 

The Rules of this award are as follows:

1. Nominate other blogs, as many as you want but 5-10 is always a good suggestion. Don’t forget to let your recipients know.

2. Post the Booker Award picture.

3. Share your top 5 books of all time.

As a bookworm who reads at least thirty novels a year, I found choosing my five top books extremely challenging, so I cheated and threw in two trilogies as extras–my literary equivalents of after-dinner chocolates. I’ve based my choices upon which books I’ve loved so much that I didn’t want them to end.

Top Five Novels

  1. Far from the Madding CrowdThomas Hardy (classic fiction)
  2. The Stand – Stephen King (horror)
  3. No Name – Wilkie Collins (Victorian Sensation Novel – precursor to Detective genre)
  4. Advent – James Treadwell (fantasy)
  5. Dances with Wolves – Michael Blake (general fiction) *

Top Two Trilogies

  1. Millennium Trilogy – Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked over the Hornet’s Nest)
  2. His Dark Materials TrilogyPhilip Pullman (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) (Fantasy)

* Poor old Michael Blake never gets a mention, but, for those who don’t know, the film “Dances with Wolves” is based on a beautiful novel written by one of Kevin Costner‘s friends.

My Nominees for the Booker Award

http://graphitebunny.wordpress.com

http://fglaval.wordpress.com

http://boneland.net

http://naomibultuck.wordpress.com

http://auroramorealist.wordpress.com