The Inspiring Blog Award

Today when I woke, frustration with many parts of my life filled my head. Where do I start with my second draft of my new novel? How can I improve the abysmal sales record for my newly released novel? I wondered if anyone ever read my blogs or my posts on all the social media sites I’m supposed to be frequenting to build my platform. Yes, Patti’s pity party was about to go into full swing as my chin scraped the top of my desk. I opened my email and saw someone left a comment on my blog.

“If you go to my blog, there might be a nice surprise for you there,” the comment said. So I went to Lightningpen’s Blog, and sure enough I had one of the nicest and best surprises of my short blogging career. Lightningpen’s Blog nominated me for the Inspiring Blog Award. Thank you!

Someone does read my blog after all. Maybe all the work isn’t lost into the netherworld of the Internet. Today I move forward with renewed faith and hope that what we do always makes a difference. We might as well make it a good difference.

As a part of the rules for being nominated, I am to write seven things about myself. So here goes:

1. Both my grandfathers were Methodist ministers.
2. I played the flute in middle and some of high school. I took lessons in college. And I still own a flute but it mostly sits on a shelf in the spare bedroom.
3. Until I moved to Pennsylvania, I could describe where I lived by using the back of my hand. Upright it is Michigan, the home of my birth. Inverted it is Florida (the thumb is the Panhandle), where I lived for 30 years before moving to the Pittsburgh area. Not sure what to do with my hand now that I live in a rather square/rectangular state.
4. My husband and I first fell in love in Michigan when I was seventeen and a senior in high school. He was twenty-two and ready to start his life. He moved to Pittsburgh, and I eventually moved to Florida. We reconnected in 2009 after a thirty-six year separation, and we discovered we still loved one another. Today, we’re still on our honeymoon.
5. I was once known as the Python Princess when I worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. That’s a story for a blog for sure.
6. My favorite breakfast is cold pizza.
7. I am the baby in my family. My parents were delighted to finally have a daughter. My brothers were upset because the basketball squad they’d envisioned when they discovered there would be a fifth sibling were squashed. Of course, if it was today, I’d be a part of that team!

And now for the most pleasurable part of this nomination for most Inspiring Blog Award. I am honored to nominate fifteen other blogs for the award. These are the fifteen blogs that most inspire me through their writing, experiences and comments. They are all truly worthy for The Inspiring Blog Award.

1. Hazy Shades of Me
2. West Virginia’s Farm to Consumer Connection
3. Nature’s Place
4. katieajennings.wordpress.com
5. The Museum of Forgotten Pickles
6. Everywhere Once
7. kilpatrickkenya.wordpress.com
8. Travels with the Blonde Coyote
9. birdlightwind.com
10. Kana’s Chronicles
11. The Neophyte Writer
12. Clean Tech Solutions
13. The Soulsby Farm
14. countrygirllifeonthefarm.com
15. blessedwithastarontheforehead.wordpress.com

Please visit these blogs. I think you’ll like them all because they all have one thing in common. They are passionate about their subject matter and that always makes the very best writing of all.

To the nominees: Now it’s your turn. Please thank me in your acceptance blog, posting my URL. Also, write seven things about yourself (this is fun but gave me pause!). And then choose fifteen more winners and post their URL’s in your blog. And most of all, continue your excellent work that inspires me to get back up and try again. Thank you.