All About You... And Me... And A to Z - writercize #171 #AtoZChallenge

Good morning, and welcome to writercize and the annual A to Z Challenge, brainchild of Arlee Bird of Tossing It Out. Posts this month will follow take you along the alphabet from A through Z with six posts a week, with the usual writercize twist.

If you are here looking for the #WeekendWritercize, gaze down one more post. Entries accepted until midnight Pacific time. #WeekendWritercizes will be incorporated in the A to Z Challenge, so keep an eye open for g, m, s and y prompts the month of April!

For this inaugural A to Z post, I am touching on a few A words, including accepting and awards and phrases A to Z and all about me. 

I should also throw achy in, unfortunately, as yesterday I went to the doctor with a very swollen throat and got a strep diagnosis. Got some antibiotics to clear it up, so I hope to be back to normal by Monday afternoon. In the meantime, I am doing my best to only speak on paper and not share my illness and my girls are enjoying a rare TV marathon and acting unusually nice to each other while I bunker down.

Now, onto the point of the post. Over the past several months I have been given some really awesome awards from my blogger friends, including the Overlord Award thanks to Nicole of Madlab Post and Beth of Word Nerd Speaks and the Kreatif and Sunshine Award thanks to PB Author Clar Bowman-Jahn. I want to THANK THEM (visit their sites!!) and pass the awards along. I know I received another lovely one in the past month from an A to Z host and I can't find it at the moment, but will update when I do!

The rules for the awards are all pretty similar. Share seven things about yourself, or answer a few questions about yourself, and pass the award along. So, if you have always wanted one of these awards, today is your chance! Follow the writercize, and get an award! I am really excited about this because I love these glimpses into your lives. I loved the 25 Things notes that circulated Facebook a couple of years back and hung on to all the random bits of people's lives they chose to share.

writercize: Share ten interesting facts about yourself in the comment section and provide a link to your blog. I will visit and pick one of the awards to share with you!

This is where I would generally say "click read more for writercizer sample response" but this time only I will include it in the body of the post, since I believe that is the proper awards procedure.

Ten facts about Alana

• My friends think I am a good cook. I am always surprised to hear it. I was not a good cook until a class in Italy that taught me cooking is an art and allows for creativity. Before that I cooked with boxes or books. Now I use neither, but I can never duplicate a recipe since it is always by taste or intuition!
• I once camped on several feet of snow to have enough money to ski and go to concerts instead. One of the greatest vacations ever. Whistler, a couple of friends, skiing, pubs. When the blankets were soaked through and I woke up in a hole formed by body heat the last morning, we knew it was time to go!
• My dream vacation is to take a camera and a couple of years and drive route one from Alaska to the tip of Chile.
• I have always been a cat person. I love independence. For a while in college I wondered if it was better to be a dog person since dogs are loyal and that is generally regarded as a very positive trait, but couldn't switch. That said, everyone in my family is allergic so we have no animals.
• I love to drive small cars with manual transmission. My current car is a Golf, which looks awfully tiny in the preschool parking lot next to all the SUVs!
• I am constantly trying to figure out if it is better to be a stellar writer or storyteller. I am afraid it is the latter, which is much more difficult for me.
• I want to learn how to sew. I can make curtains and pillows, but that's it.
• I am addicted to reality shows that showcase talent with a purpose, like Project Runway and The Voice.
• I wish there were more hours in each day. I would like to spend those hours reading, working in the garden, making mosaics, walking and learning to surf.
• I am a night owl, which punishes me every morning!

What will your ten facts say about you? And which award will be yours? Leave your ten facts, a link to your blog, and a link to any other blog you'd like to nominate for an award!

PS - Upon further investigation, the Overlord Award requires you to say three things you would change about the world, so I will go ahead and put those in the "Read More" section. Go on and click if you want to see how I would change the world, and if that is the award you most want, tell me the three ways you will change the world instead of ten things about you!

Blogs with Heart - writercize #57

Blogs With Heart.  Sounds like a modern Native American moniker.  Dances with Wolves.  Sitting Bull.  Little Wolf.  Blogs with Heart.

Today, "Blogs With Heart" is the name and award I am bestowing on a friend, Christina.  She is a fashionista, handbag designer, blogger, entrepreneur, mom, traveler and all around pretty amazing individual.  This week, inspired by her travels to Egypt and her commitment to raising awareness for women and children, she launched a fundraising campaign in partnership with the Young Mother's Shelter of Hope Village Society in Egypt.  She is modeling 140 outfits daily during the second half of her pregnancy over at her blog, Christina Elaine, to raise awareness and link to the campaign website. Her goal is to raise $2,000 in 105 days for this great cause.  The first post on the project includes an overview of the project and photos of Christina in a cute combo of jeans, floral blouse, sweater and belt, and the second post is of a long flowing dress in a field of flowers.  She's a beautiful model and stylist!

I wanted to recognize her for using her blog to make a charitable difference in the lives of others, real people who need help out in the "real world" (read: offline).  I searched around the web for a blog award that fit the purpose but couldn't find one, so I decided to create one.  I am by no means a designer and have no clue what I am doing with computer artwork, so it's pretty rudimentary, but I think it serves its purpose.  

writing exercise:  You have two options for today's writing exercise!

1 - Bestow the "Blogs with Heart" award on another blogger (or two or more) who have used their blogs to make a difference in the world and WRITE about why they deserve it!  This could be by raising awareness for a particular issue, fundraising, organizing and soliciting volunteers for a project or event - interpret the award as you wish.  To pass it on, feel free to grab the image out of this message, but please also include comment with a link to the recipient's page and description of the reason for passing on the award so that we can all learn about their blog!

2 - If you aren't a regular blogger, make your own award on paper for a friend or family member to recognize them for something they do that you think is pretty special! 

Kudos - writercize #27 (A to Z 11)

Recognition feels grand.

I absolutely love brainstorming the writercizes for this blog, but even more than that, I love seeing the comments and responses people leave under the exercises, especially those who give the exercise a try.  I recognize some writercizes are more intense than others, and for those of you participating in the A to Z Challenge, it can be A LOT to take the extra time to write a thoughtful post, but you are fabulous for doing so.  It is fascinating to me how many different responses can come from one idea, and proof positive how creative the blogging community is.

So, thank you for your participation and Kudos to you for making the time to do so!

Now, onto the interactive writercizing bit ...

Just over a week ago, Nutschell at The Writing Nut mentioned my writercize blog in a post and gave me the One Lovely Blog Award, with the instructions to 

1- Accept the award on your blog with a link back to the original post.

2 - Pass if on to 15 other blogs you have newly discovered.

3 - Contact those 15 bloggers to let them know that you have chosen them.

As this blog focuses on writing exercises, I would like to graciously accept the award (thank you Nutschell!) and change up the instructions just a tad. 

Rather than posting a list with links to blogs, I'd like to describe the blog I received the award from and describe a few blogs I've stumbled across over the past few weeks, along with their links.  If I mention you, you've received the award and may choose to accept per the original instructions or my altered instructions!  I will add comments as time progresses and I discover fabulous new writers and blogs.

writing exercise:  Leave a comment on this post with the name, URL and a short description of a blog you think the world should know about! 

Since this is a Kudos post, you are welcome to link to describe your own blog, but please be sure to write about another person's blog.  After you've written the description, send them a comment with the link to this page to pick up the following award pictured below.

(In lieu of my normal "click read more for writercizer response" I am recognizing some blogs within this post.  I'm giving a shout-out back to Nutschell, along with a summary of five other bloggers.  This list is by no means exhaustive of talent I see, so be on the lookout for more recommendations via comment or in the future.)

Thank you to:

The Writing Nut:  Nutschell, author of The Writing Nut blog is an amazing resource for writers, especially MG and YA writers, within the Los Angeles area and around the world via her blog.  She has researched the writing arena, from genres to inspiration to editing, agents and publishing, and she generously posts her findings for anyone to see.  She also posts the occasional book review and personal reflection.  If you have any interest in getting published, check out her blog.

Kudos to: 

Pocketful of Playdough:  Brianna, the author, started her blog just around the same time as I started mine and she was the first person to click "follow" that I didn't know personally, which was thrilling, so a special thank you also!  Brianna blogs about running, parenting and writing in a manner that is always engaging and vulnerable (which, lest you misunderstand, is by no means naive - for she is published and quite wise - rather to say charming and raw).  You feel instantly like a long-lost friend who is privileged to know her thought processes and emotions, especially as they pertain to the very self-aware task of writing.  Brianna is blogging her way A through Z creating blogs for biblical characters and her knowledge will be impressive to religious and secular readers alike, but what really stands out is her fresh, humorous voice.

Jaydee Morgan:  A self-entitled blog (to the best of my knowledge!), this is a refreshing read offering very short posts that are insightful and thought-provoking about writers and the craft.  If you're looking for three paragraphs that will leave you with a smile and affirmation, check out her blog!

Life in Retrospect:  NiaRaie, the author, offers a fresh, young voice on breaking into the world of writing.  She reads and writes a lot, and references interesting little tidbits from mainstream culture.  What I really love about her blog is that after analyzing an idea, she asks her readers a specific, pointed question as it pertains to the topic, and it's a great way to read a wide array of perspectives.  (i.e. "Any tips to add on developing emotion in your stories?"  "Any recent discoveries?  What are your invaluable writing resources?")

The Alliterative Allomorph:  Jessica Bell has partnered with her friend Nicole Ducleroir during the A to Z Challenge to write a daily post inspired by a one word emotion.  Followers are encouraged to guess the emotional word prompt and post a comment with their guess.  Fun, fun, fun.  Jessica's posts can get a little raunchy, so if you're a parent of a student looking through writercize, beware, but otherwise, check her out. 

Quilts Seam Just Right:  The author, "umbrellalady," posts about cooking and quilting.  I'm not a quilter and can hardly sew a seam to save my life, but I really do like to cook and especially love to eat.  For the month of April, umbrellalady is posting homemade recipes along with pictures that she took of the food and it makes my mouth water every time.