I’m Surrounded by Talented People

Yes, I know.  That was a long commercial break between my acceptance speech and my nominations for the next recipients of the Liebster Award.  Let’s think of it as my way of ensuring that you had enough time to get a proper snack from the kitchen before we continued.

Have you ever tried the game where you whisper a short story into someone’s ear and then they repeat it into another person’s ear and so on around a room?  If you have, then you know that if there are more than five or six people involved, the story usually changes beyond recognition from the beginning to the end.  That’s kind of what I found when I tried to research the Liebster rules.  The most consistent version of the rules I’ve been able to find are:

1. Post the Liebster Award graphic on your site.
2. Thank the blogger who nominated your blog.
3. The nominee is asked to write 11 facts about themselves.
4. Answer the 11 questions from the post of the person who nominated them.
5. The nominee will nominate 5-11 other blogs.  The caveat is that the nominated blogs have less than 200 followers.
6. The nominee will advise the new bloggers that they’ve been nominated.
7. The nominee will then create 11 questions of their own for their nominated bloggers to answer in their Liebster post.

I completed items 1-4 in last week’s post.  Before I continue, I want to make one further comment.  The Liebster was originally intended to allow bloggers an avenue to highlight new and interesting blogs.  Along the way, the Leibster and other similar awards have developed a “chain letter” type reputation.  There’s no doubt that accepting and participating in the process is a time consuming effort and many, if not most, nominees elect to pass on the opportunity.  I get that and I want to make sure that none of the good folks I mention feel any obligation to take on a job that they really don’t want to tackle.

To my nominees I say, bask in the knowledge that someone, me, enjoys your work.  If you want to join in the fun, do it.  If you don’t, that’s great too.  Nothing bad is going to happen.  The Earth will continue to rotate, no natural or unnatural cataclysms will occur, there won’t be a zombie apocalypse and, most importantly, no one is going to stop visiting your blog.  I  personally promise to continue stopping by regularly.  Having said that and without further delay, here are my Liebster Nominees:

Daffodil Hill Photography – Jagged Man authors Daffodil Hill Photography and he is a man of few words who has an incredible eye for the little things that make up our world.  Sometimes his photos are poignant, sometimes they are amusing and sometimes they are awe inspiring.  They are always interesting.  I suspect that the Jagged Man may pass on the Liebster experience and that’s fine, but please stop by his blog and treat yourself to some of his creations.  I stop by every day without fail.

Fine Feathers – Heather writes a blog about balancing life, writing and being a parent.  Her blog is interesting, witty and honest.  I enjoy reading her viewpoint on life.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Reviews – Dina is a young lady from Austria who loves books and has done reviews for years.  I visit her site regularly and have read several books based on her recommendations.  While I don’t always agree with every review (personal taste varies), her reviews are always incredibly detailed and interesting.  Lest you think I’m trolling for a good review, please note that she doesn’t review self-published novels so I’m off her radar.

Ayumi’s ESL Blog – Ayumi is from Okinawa and is blogging to perfect her English.  She’s a well traveled young lady who has lived in the United States, France and Great Britain.  She likes good food, good wine, literature and having fun with her friends.  She just moved to Great Britain for graduate work and I can’t wait to read how she and England deal with each other.

Y.I. Washington – Writer and Poet – Yolanda is a published poet and will soon publish her first science fiction novel.  I’ve read her poetry and it’s very good.  I can’t wait to read her novel.  She blogs about all things science fiction which is a subject near and dear to my heart.

Kay Hudson – Kay is a romance writer who has a soft spot for Science Fiction and Fantasy.  That’s an enticing combination.  She blogs about writing, reading, technology and life in general with humor and an occasional twist.

Those are my nominees and you’ll note that there are six.  I read many more blogs regularly, but many of those were either over the 200 follower limit or had already received the Liebster.  Despite that, I can’t pass on giving a few of them a shout out for being the best of the best.

The Verbal Spew Review –  Is written by Vee and it’s one of the blogs I visit first each evening.  Vee writes about gaming, movies, music, television and entertainment of all kinds.  She is witty, often irreverent and always entertaining.  I love stopping by her blog.

Real Talk – Is written by Angelo, Mariam and Carmelia.  Whether it’s a passionate post on politics or current events, an in depth review of a movie or TV show, or a unique perspective on life in general, visiting Real Talk is always interesting and filled with good conversation.  Try it.

Adventures, Aspirations and “Aha” Moments – Cathy is a young lady who writes about her journey through life.  She likes camping, cats, cooking and jumping out of perfectly good airplanes from 5000 feet.  Somewhere in and amongst that she finds time to write irresistible posts on surviving to find the next adventure.

Ink By Nancy – Nancy is a Australian mom who write about nearly everything.  One of the things that I like best about her blog is the humor that she weaves in, often with the help of amusing memes.

No Wasted Ink – Wendy is a reader, writer and entrepreneur.  I especially appreciate the writer’s links that she posts every Monday.  They’ve helped me many times.

Now it’s time for the fun part.  My questions to each of the nominees are:

1. If you could live anywhere on earth (and take whomever you wanted along), where would it be and why?
2. What is your best childhood memory?
3. What’s your pet peeve?
4. Who is your favorite author?
5. If you had to live in an era other than the current one, which would you choose?
6. What is your favorite line from a movie and why?
7. For your vacation, would you prefer a cabana at the beach or a cabin in the mountains?
8. What is the biggest obstacle you have faced in your life?
9. What will be the title of the story of your life?
10. What’s the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?
11. What’s the number one thing on your bucket list?

So that’s it for my adventures with the Liebster award.  Thanks for stopping by folks.

See ya