We've been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award

Virginia S Grenier, over at The Writing Mama has awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award.  As an award recipient, I'm supposed to do the following things:

1. Thank the one who gave you this award (thanks Virginia - I'm honored that you thought my blog worthy!)
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Present this honor to 7 bloggers (it's supposed to be 15, but I've got a deadline to meet, so I'm sticking with lucky 7).
4. Drop by and let the 7 bloggers you've honored know how they have touched you.

So here we go - seven things about myself:

1.  I'm a Writing Mama myself - I've got three children, and I'd better not get started otherwise I'd do a full blog on how wonderful and inspirational (and sometimes challenging!) my children are.

2.  I was once (formally) accused of using too many metaphors in my academic writing (still love the metaphor).

3.  I've been married for 21 years to the same person.

4.  I wanted to be an actress when I was younger, and had many years of drama tuition with Michael Blinderman, until a relatively uncomfortable audition for a film (Times Square) when I was around 14 made me rethink my career choice over an eggcream at Chock full o'Nuts.  As a writer, I find the skill of being able to get into a character's head very useful.

5.  My mother lives 15,507 kms from me (9,635 miles - a distance I couldn't walk, even with the Proclaimers song stuck in my head), but we are still very close and talk once a week. 

6.  I'm partial to almonds (no thanks - once I start I really can't stop)

7. My eyes are green (jealousy...)

There!   Those are a few facts that stray a bit from my usual bio.  

Now for the fun (and hard) part.  I've got to choose 7 bloggers who deserve this award.  All bloggers who take the time to pull together an informative and beautiful blog deserve this award and there are lots out there!  So I've ignored the huge ones that everyone subscribes to, and tried to choose a varied and eclectic mix of blogs that I frequent nearly all the time but that you yourself might not have visited.  They're like my local online hangouts and I'm pathetically grateful to their authors who keep me entertained and procrastinating. 

I'm  anti-chain mail, and this memey award has a semblance of it, but having said that, handing out kudos is something we can never do enough of, so I'll say upfront to those who I've cited below, feel free to ignore the rules and just enjoy my gratitude. 

http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
My writing partner Carolyn Howard-Johnson - one of those writer's writers who is always willing to share and help others

http://eggbeater.typepad.com/ Shuna Lydon, my cousin, is a writer as much as she is a chef, and her food musings tend to the poetical - if she ever writes about almonds I'm sunk.
http://ncurnow.blogspot.com/ Nathan Curnow's Blog Eats Poet - superb poetry - always either erudite or funny and often both simultaneously.
http://heyjude.wordpress.com/ At heart, I'm a librarian, and a geeky one at that. Judy O'Connell's blog covers all elements of librarianship from both a librarian and a reader's perspecitve - it's educational and who doesn't need more education?  It's fun ("") and it's just a tiny bit geeky.  I'm there.
http://quietfurybooks.com/blog/ A Word Please - Darcia Helle's Quiet Fury blog - author focused, generous, insightful interviews. What more could you want?
http://howapoemhappens.blogspot.com/ Brian Brodeur's blog is endlessly interesting and one I subscribe to in RSS - he takes a macro-perspective on how each individual featured poem is created, delving deep into the creative process. 
http://grahamnunn.wordpress.com/ Graham Nunn's Another Lost Shark is a sumptuous mix of aesthetics - from music, to photography, to (always at the edges) poetry.  It's eclectic, informative, and fun.  I subscribe to this one by email and when they come, and they come frequently, I always stop what I'm doing to read and sometimes participate.  That's my excuse for not finishing my second novel yet...

Reflections on Motherhood a Prizewinner

I'm pleased to announce that She Wore Emerald Then, my collaboration with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, has just been announced as a finalist in the 2009 USA Book News Awards.

Jeff Keen, President and CEO of USABookNews.com, said this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries. USABookNews.com is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community.

A complete list of the winners and finalists of the USABookNews.com National “Best Books” 2009 Awards are available online at http://www.USABookNews.com.

She Wore Emerald Then was originally conceived as an alternative to the cloying greeting cards usually available for mother's birthdays, mother's day, and other holidays in card shops for about the same price as a card (with much more punch). This is the second in a poetry chapbook series designed to serve as themed giftbooks. Other books in the series include Cherished Pulse, celebrating 'love' in all its unconventional guises, and the upcoming Imagining the Future, celebrating fathers, fatherhood, and men in all guises. For more information about She Wore Emerald Then, just click on the book cover.