A few months ago Thursday’s Child and tweep Shanah Wooldrage nominated me for this flashy award. At the time I was in the middle of moving from Maine to North Carolina, so I “packed” it. Figured I’d better unearth it before summer’s completely gone.
The intent of this award is to present it to someone who brightens your day either in blog format or in general and to have a little fun with giving up some summer secrets.
1. Favorite song with summer in the title or the lyrics (give the line): “Summertime” (George Gerschwin) – an amazing mashup of “steam” and lullaby, almost no matter who’s singing it…as long as it’s not me. Lena Horne and Sam Cooke are my two top picks for renditions.
2. Favorite book about summer: Hmm, maybe INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE – all that languid New Orleans swelter combined with suspense and violence…
Favorite hot summer film: “A Room With A View”, which features everything wonderful about summer – getting in touch with one’s earthy, sensual side in the Garden of Eden (or Florence in this case), skinny dipping, sunshine…and it has Maggie Smith, so what more could you want?
3. Favorite summer memory: slow dancing with hubs to “Wicked Game” (Chris Isaac) one hot summer night in our first house
4. Favorite summer holiday destination: Maine
5. What books will be in your suitcase this summer? All my books came along this summer (see mention of moving above).
6. What’s your likely destination this summer? North Carolina
7. What hottie would you most like to be sharing the hot days and long nights with this summer? Well, my hubs OF COURSE, but if he wasn’t available Johnny Depp would do. Or Robert Downey Jr., hubs has been told he looks like RDJ so it would hardly even be cheating… Right?
Here are the rules:
1. Display the Summer Sun Award logo and link back to the blog of the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the questions listed above.
3. Nominate a further eight lucky recipients (one for each sun-ray).
I nominate the following people:
1. Denise Falvo – one of the sunshiniest people EVER
2. Veronica Park – because she’s my Dark & Twisty Sister slash CP along with Kristina Perez. (I’d nominate her too, but she doesn’t have time for blog awards at the moment)
3. Kate Michael – because she’s imaginative, clever, and has teenagers (we’ve got to stick together)
4. Vaughn Roycroft – because he’s thoughtful, supportive and has awesome taste in music
5. S. P. McConnell – this is a thinly disguised ploy to get him to tell me his BIG SECRET. Also, the thought of Ballatore Academy winning a Sunshine Award makes me giggle,
6. Paula Harvey – because she’s funny and sweet and says kind things to my kid on Twitter
7. Tabitha Martin – because she and I are going to “fix” Twitter, and then Facebook
8. J. Luis Licea – because he’s a fun tweeter and can belly dance, or so he claims
Dear Nominees, I will absolutely NOT be offended if you don’t play, but I wanted you all to know you’re rays of sunshine in my cyber-universe.
Rhiann Wynn-Nolet 
My goodness, once again I’ve learned you’re a woman with amazingly good taste in everything. Maybe that’s because I totally agree with all your choices 🙂
Haha! Thanks for visiting, here’s that iced caramel latte I owe you 😀
Aww! I love this!! Thanks so much for including me Rhiann! And I like those summer music choices too : )
You’re very welcome 🙂
Cool, thanks for the nomination and for your kind words. Since I am smack in the middle of line-editing a manuscript, and the chances of actually pulling together a blog post in the near future seem slim, I hope you don’t mind if I list my choices here.
1. I can only pick one? I’m going to pick two, since my first pick will probably be too obscure for most. My top pick would have to be Summerhead, by the Cocteau Twins. Less obscure–Rain in the Summertime, by The Alarm.
2. Hmmm, I’m going with two again. Since I’m a fantasy fan, I have a soft spot in my heart for The Summer Tree (book one of the Fionavar Tapestry) by Guy Gavriel Kay. I read it years ago, and it opened by view of what fantasy could be (from LoTR derivatives). But I recently read Evenfall, by my friend Liz Michalski, and I thought it was the so summery. Summer is actually one of the most important characters.
3. The first time my wife agreed to go ANYWHERE with me alone (not really a date, but without her friends or mine in tow), it was to one of my favorite beaches. We worked at the mall together during college in the center of the state of Michigan (MSU). She was from the east side of the state, and I was from the west coast. She’d never seen a Lake Michigan beach (at age 20!). I took her to South Haven, and she was blown away–and badly sunburned, turns out. Poor thing. But we listened to Talk Talk all the way back to E. Lansing. That album still reminds me of that day.
4. Northern Michigan–Little Traverse Bay area (Harbor Springs/Petoskey).
5. Desperately trying to finish Robin Hobb’s Tawny Man series (between editing sessions) while I can still read on the screen porch (so comforting! – Hobbs and porch-reading).
6. We already went–for my birthday, in July–to Lake Ann, in Northern MI. Rented a quaint little place right on the lake. Awesome!
7. Yes, have to agree–can’t think of any better (or hotter) companion than my soul mate (who, luckily for me, agreed to be my wife).
Thanks again, Rhiann! Happy waning summer! 🙂
Too funny – more musical coincidences…I met The Alarm in Boston after a show, even gave Eddy M a kiss (on the cheek), got them to autograph my Welsh flag. “Tried” to see Talk Talk, but they had problems getting through immigration. Good luck with your editing and tx for playing 😀
Rhiann, you old soul! I love your choices, and Summertime would be my first pick, too. Sultry Jazz heats up summer (and the other seasons) like no other genre 😀
I laughed out loud re: *all the books, and fell in love with your recounted memory re: dancing with hubby.
Thank you, my friend–your humorous wit, boundless energy, and big heart brighten my world, but I also like the part where we both enjoy the edgy, dark stuff too. ❤
I can’t wait to read your edgy darkness because it will be a side of you I’ve never seen before!
Super fun and LOL at #7 (I love me some Johnny Depp too)!
Is there anyone alive, with eyes, who doesn’t love Johnny? I think not…
Oohhh! I like this.
Thank you! 😉
Yay, I’m glad! 🙂
Um, WHAT? Your hubs looks like RDJ? Pictures. Pictures NOW, please.
(If you know how I feel about RDJ, you’ll know the depths of my current jealousy know no bounds.)
PS – Please don’t tell my husband, the Ben Affleck lookalike.
I had no idea Sam Cooke had recorded Summertime.
Dee is certainly one of the sunshiniest people I’ve met, and axcellent choice for a Sunshine award.
xxxs
I think I mean excellent, but the MAC keyboard insisted on typing axcellent. (Now of course it auto corrected and I had to “incorrect” it; or I would have ended up with excellent …. excellent.)
If you HAD meant axcellent, what would that have meant? *tries to picture willowy, charming Denise as axe-wielding warrior queen or as Joan Jett wannabe wielding “that” kind of axe* *fails*
Fun!!! My note is a bit past due, but I found your blog which led me to critiki lounge! I couldn’t remember the name of it after coming across it weeks ago and pretty much gave up on ever finding it again…et voila! So in a roundabout way- thank you and for sharing your “call story” hoping for one of my own…and no, I’m not in college…and yes, I’ve been at this for years. Plural. Cheers!
Yay, glad you found CriTiki Lounge 🙂