Valentine’s Day approaches. I don’t have a love interest at the moment, but I do have some great awards to give out!

Today I’ll accept the Booker Award:

Thank You:

• On 9/28/12 I was nominated for this award by Michele Seminara, a poet, English instructor, and overall mystical chick living in Sydney, Australia with her children and a “fiery Italian husband.” I like this description because it’s not often that you seen either men or Italians described as “fiery.” At least in the states, you most often see the word ”fiery” connected to “Latina” (inappropriately so, as this article makes clear). Down with the double-standards, I say! Let men and Italians both be “fiery” if they want!

• On 1/27/13 I was nominated by Anna, a.k.a. lcarslibrarian, a “sassy and smirky” librarian who hails from my home state of Massachusetts and has a great-looking Star-Trek-themed (TNG of course) header for her blog. Continuing with the whole stereotypes thing, all the female librarians I know are pretty bad ass and have tattoos and sing in rock bands and stuff; I’m assuming that Anna is guilty until proven innocent here, too.

Five Facts:

• In kindergarten, my penmanship was so bad that my teacher made me use a green pencil grip that slid onto the end of the pencil just above the tip. I don’t know if it helped, but I remember the strong resistance offered by the curved, plastic sleeve as I copied out letters.

• The first story I remember writing was a fan fiction piece featuring Scooby Doo. I wrote it in first grade in one of those thin, blue notebooks that teachers often use for pop quizzes. My teacher asked me to read it for the class.

• Later, in junior high school, I wrote a short science fiction story. I got the highest grade, but my English teacher wrote “Are these your words?” on the top of the first page. I think this experience had a very negative impact on me, as suddenly I froze up and worried that writing well would lead to suspected plagiarism.

• Fortunately, a later English teacher in high school somewhat reversed this effect by reading another short story I wrote and telling me that I was a good writer. She said that I should pursue writing.

• For years I begged my dad to buy me a computer so that I could write on it. He refused, claiming that I would just play video games on it. Eventually he relented, but by this time it was almost too late: my life was consumed with video games already, and instead of writing on the computer I would just play my favorite games upstairs in front of the television I mentioned in my prior post.

Nominations:

And now, on to the nominations. Thanks, all of you, for your continued commitment to great blogging and for occasionally stopping by and leaving a comment:

(1) First, Seyi Sandra David, a Nigerian writer who faithfully stops by my blog to “like” many of my posts. Recently, Ms. David posted this hilarious story of Valentine’s-Day Revenge on her blog—you’ve got to check it out!

(2) Trisha Pearson, a Seattle-area wife and mother who covers a wide range of topics in her “little corner of the universe” including writing, pets (she’s a cat lover), and fibromyalgia. Her posts are clean and well-written—something that’s becoming harder to find these days!

(3) B. Carrowlyn at Now Write Now Right Now, a writer who immediately gets brownie points with me for having a subcategory on her blog called “Writing and Reading: The Craft and the Tools” where she points out that great writers are also great readers. Removing the Excuses, Just Write is the motto that appears on her page. More power to B. and to everyone who adopts this as their motto!

(4) Not that I’m complaining, but it seems that I have a lot of women stopping by my blog; that’s why I’m excited to get comments from Sean, a St. Louis Blues fan and a man who—if I do say so myself, judging from the books he’s reading—has excellent taste. Sean also posts some pretty funny haikus about his favorite hockey team; I don’t think he’ll mind me quoting from one recent haiku here: ”Finally starting. / Abbreviated season. / I am still a fan.”

(5) Doug Oldfield, a small-town Ohio writer who recently picked up Scrivener, definitely deserves a shout-out. Though Doug notes that Scrivener has a somewhat steep learning curve, he’s sticking with it. With four grandchildren, a different variety of jobs in his background, and the Midwestern ethos at his back, I’m thinking that the Doug isn’t short on material for when it comes time to write his next book.

Thanks to everyone for following, reading, liking, and commenting!

Tomorrow there will be even more nominees as I take on the Liebster Award!

P.S. - If this the first time you’ve gotten an award and you want to play along, the rules are: (1) thank the person who gave you the award (i.e., ME), (2) say some facts about yourself, and (3) nominate other people for the award. Though I’ve chosen five facts and five nominations, I’ve seen other people do seven nominations or even twelve nominations. It’s up to you…