Sunshine Blogger Award Nomination

I’m so pleased to have been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award. A big thank you to Susie at susieshy45 for nominating me. Here’s the link to Her Blog, which I know you’ll want to visit, because she epitomizes all that the award stands for.

From my understanding (and with a little help from my friend Google), the Sunshine Blogger Award is for those bloggers who are inspiring and bring sunshine into the lives of their readers and fellow bloggers. In other words, those who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.

Well, I’m flattered to think that Susie thought me worthy! Thank you again, and my apologies for having taken so long to write this post.

The rules of the Sunshine Blogger Award are as follows:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog,
• Answer the 11 questions that were asked,
• Nominate 11 other bloggers and let them know,
• Ask the nominees 11 questions of your own.

The questions Susie asked me:

1. What is your favourite colour? Probably burgundy. I love its dark rich tones, especially when teamed up with dusky pink or salmon, with just a hint of pearl or gold.
2. Does the colour of your clothes reflect your mood for the day? Not really. I’m quite pale so most of my wardrobe consists of muted colours, I wear a lot of deep pink, turquoise, dark green, blue and grey. Not all at once, obviously!
3. What do you do when your mood is off-the-mark? I try to exercise patience, button my lip and pour all my energy into writing instead.
4. Why do you blog? I’m a writer so I express myself better when writing than when speaking. My thoughts arrange themselves into a more manageable order when they’re written down. I also blog because I like to engage with other writers and potential readers of my novels.
5. What sort of blogs do you like to read? Entertaining, amusing, well-written or heartfelt. Not only blogs about writing, but about anything I find that inspires me – travel, life on farms, interesting snippets of history, quirky ways of looking at life.
6. How do you select the blogs you would follow? Sometimes when a blogger I already follow re-blogs another blogger’s work, or if I’m intrigued by a comment on my own or someone else’s blog I will click on their name to see what else they’ve written and if I like them I’ll follow them.
7. Does offensive language on a blog post put you off? I’m not necessarily offended by it when it’s spoken by someone who is angry or upset, in the heat of the moment, but when it comes to the written word I think that writers are more than capable of finding a better way to express themselves. Write when you’re angry by all means, but don’t press “publish” until you’ve calmed down and edited it properly!
8. What would romance mean for you? Ha – there’s a can of worms right there! I’m a romance writer so I see the potential for romance in almost any situation.
9. Write a small poem about yourself: Don’t hold your breath waiting for this; I’m no poet.
10. Do you make New Year Resolutions? I used to, but now I prefer to set realistic goals throughout the year.
11. Do you enjoy changes in your life or do you shy away from them? It depends. I’m not an impulsive person and I don’t like nasty surprises, so I think that change just for the sake of change is crazy and meaningless, but a calculated move towards improvement or a specific goal is good. I do nothing without a lot of careful thought and planning. Last year I moved from South Africa to Australia, so that was a huge change in my life, but it was calculated and worked out to the last detail. I don’t shy away from change if I know it’s something positive that I can plan for and treat as a project.

My 11 nominees for this award are:

1. Brooke E Wayne – A Rom-Com Writer’s Ramblings
2. Sarah Angleton – The Practical Historian
3. TP Hogan – Author TP Hogan’s Blog
4. Cynthia Guenther Richardson – Tales for Life
5. Ana Spoke – Author Ana Spoke’s Blog
6. Tales Around the Ranch – Adventures of a Pet Therapy Team
7. Eric Klingenberg – Eric’s Blog
8. Martha Schaefer – Therapeutic Misadventures
9. B Fostrickson – Quoth the Wordsmith
10. Rachel Mankowitz – The Cricket Pages
11. Georgina Cromarty – The Writing Chimp

My 11 questions for them:

1. Why do you blog?
2. What would be your dream holiday?
3. Your desired job if salary were not an issue?
4. Country or place you would live if you could, other than where you currently live?
5. What is your favourite season and why?
6. Do you prefer indoor or outdoor recreation?
7. What lifts your soul – the mountains or the sea?
8. Is your natural inclination to be a city or country person?
9. Are you a party animal or a curl-up-with-a-book type?
10. Your pet hate?
11. What gives you warm fuzzy feelings?

I know that some of the above-mentioned bloggers might not accept nominations, but since I find all of them positive, creative and inspiring, I’m mentioning them anyway. If they decide not to accept, that’s absolutely fine. My hope is that at least my readers can follow the links to their blogs and enjoy a good read.

Personally, I think the real value of awards is to encourage readers to visit blogs that they might not have visited before. Whichever way you look at it, it’s all part of spreading the love in the blogosphere, and putting a little sunshine into the lives of others.