I had the double honour of being nominated for two awards in two days by the lovely people of the blogging world (or should I say, blogosphere?)

As someone who has learned in my month of blogging how essential the element of reading and supporting other blogs is, these awards come as a very special honour.  I have elected to post on both awards in one blog (a tactic I learned form another blogger this month) in order to keep from putting one before the other or to repeat myself in any way.

I was nominated for the One Lovely Blog award by The Runaway Palate and I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks for the nomination.  I was attracted to her blog from near the beginning of my journey into blogging due in no small part to her obvious experience in writing, but also a love of food and interesting travel stories.  Being a fellow occupant of the Asian continent myself I saw some common ground and I felt that her experience as a journalist was something I could learn from and appreciate.  I can say that from the time I clicked ‘follow’ on her blog, I have not been disappointed.

Dutch Goes the Photo! nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award and I am flattered to be recognised by a blogger with such a keen eye with the camera.  As a creative mind I find myself more and more drawn to other artists who blog.  I like to see what other creative minds are creating and the pictures and stories that go along with them I find on this site are very inspiring.  The whole work on the Yoga Tree on this site is wonderful.  I may have to use that tree in my writing someday.

One Lovely Blog rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated your blog
2. Say something about that person or blog, and include a link to the lovely blog on your post.
3. Display the award on your post
4. Tell the world seven things about yourself
5. Nominate another seven blogs for the award

So, seven things about myself.  Here we go:

1. I am fluent in Japanese, my wife is Japanese, and my daughter (who is 4) only speaks Japanese with any real efficiency (although she can say, “No thank you!” in perfect English.  I am the embodiment of the 80’s song, “I think I’m turning Japanese”
2. Every novel I have begun to write was based off of a character created from a friend or close acquaintance.  People I love or admire are the inspiration behind my writing.
3. The story I wish I had written the most is Alice in Wonderland.  The idea of everything being what it isn’t is just so perfect.  It encompasses the essence of childhood imagination perfectly.
4. I am a sucker for anything crunchy.  That is why I love apples.  It isn’t the taste, it’s the crunch.
5. I grew up in Southern California but I have lived in Colorado, and Texas.  I lived in more houses than I had years in my life by the time I was 20.  No, my dad wasn’t in the military, he was in sports marketing.
6. I am a preschool teacher.
7. I majored in history and wrote an 100+ page honours thesis for which I won a cash award and highest honours from UCLA.  It was about the Japanese emperor and his status as a divinity after WWII.

Blogger Recognition Award rules:

Rule 1: Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog
Rule 2: Provide a link to the award creator
Rule 3: Attach the award to your post
Rule 4: Nominate fifteen other bloggers, excluding yourself and the person who nominated you
Rule 5: Write a brief story of how you started your blog
Rule 6: A piece or two of advice to new bloggers
Rule 7: Comment on the blogs you have named here to let them know you have nominated them

A brief story of how I started blogging?

Well, I started my blog one month ago (about mid-December) to expand my writing platform.  That sounds really selfish and business like but it’s true.  I am a novelist who is working on polishing my first completed work to submit to agents and have been told that having a platform would aid in that battle.

That being said, engaging in the process changed what my blog has become.  I learned through the engagement and community aspect of blogging that this blog and the entire essence of blogging is to give back.  The more you give the more you grow, and the more you grow the more you find that blogging is about inspiring other creative people to create and this in turn adds fuel to your own creative fire.

Blogging is reciprocal and it has been a great experience for me.

All I have ever wanted was to have people read the things that I wrote so I could feel like all the strange things bouncing around in my head had a purpose.  All it took was for one person to say they enjoyed my writing for me to want to write more.  If this blog achieves nothing else, it has served its purpose in that one interaction.  Thank you all for your input and feedback over the last month!  It has encouraged me to keep typing, and maybe someday it will lead to me finally achieving my dream.

My one piece of advice to other bloggers:

If you have read my post on blogging you will know what is coming next.  My advice is to read other blogs.  Comment on other blogs.  Find blogs similar to yours, especially successful ones, and try to learn how they became so.  Successful blogging is about interacting.  If you have a blog it’s because you want someone to read or look at what you are creating.  If you want that to happen you have to be willing and able to read and look at what others are creating.  If you want people to comment on your work, comment on theirs.  If you want more, give more.  Blogging is a community and you have to engage in the community aspect if you want to be successful and grow your blog.

One award asked for 7 nominations and other other asked for 15.  I am going to shoot for the middle and go with 10.  These ten blogs are blogs I read often and appreciate the work that they make.  I will link back to one of their posts that I genuinely enjoyed so you can see what about them I liked so much.

1. Vasa and Ypres – as a fellow creative writer I really appreciate her literary style.  The story is very engaging and her prose is wonderful.
2. leet_g33k – As a fellow lover of scifi/fantasy, I really enjoy his sarcastic wit.  Reminds me of Adams a bit.
3. Beilin Ye – Again, another fellow creative writer with great sarcastic wit.  Still waiting for the follow up to this one 🙂
4. Girlygeekgirl – One of my favourite bloggers.  We see eye to eye on a lot of things… just not our favourite NFL teams.
5. The Caffeinated Writer – Another fellow writer who muses in a way that I like, which is rare indeed.  Sorry, just gave you a heap more awards to deal with 🙂
6. The Dog Rules – A fellow animal lover and a person who knows how to tie life lessons into the love of animals and the interaction us humans have with  our pets.
7. Elan Mudrow – I don’t like poetry.  That I rush to read every post by this blog is a testament, in my eyes, to how good it is.  It’s mainly long poems and they are fantastic!
8. Only 100 Words – The stories are very compact and the punch this writer manages to get in with so few words is amazing.  Love your work.
9. A Narcissist Writes Letters, To Himself – If you ever need a good laugh, this is the place to find one.  I am still smiling after reading this post again.
10. Girl at a Desk – Another writer who has a great sarcastic wit.

Thank you again to both The Runaway Palate and Dutch Goes the Photo! for your nominations.  Recognition from two great blogs such as yours is a real honour and I am truly flattered!

*I will get to commenting on your blogs this week but I can’t get to you all right now.  I hope the pingbacks show up so you know I love you 🙂 *