Summer Sun Award

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.

One Inspiring Blog Award

The clever and lovely Raewyn Hewitt, who has thus far eluded my not so subtle attempts to conscript her as a Thursday’s Child*, has awarded me this…

I think maybe she’s trying to distract me, or buy me off. What do you think?

Anyway, here are the rules for those I’m about to nominate. I tried to secure advance cooperation from most of you, but if you don’t want to play, I forgive you.

1. Display the award logo on your blog.

2. Link back to the person who nominated you *points at self*

3. State 7 things about yourself.

4. Nominate up to 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them.

Here are Seven Revelations about Me

1. High places make me want to kill myself. Literally. I NEED to jump. Ferris wheels, hotel balconies, the Eiffel Tower, stepladders. Yes, even stepladders. It’s not funny.

2. Following the Cheesecake Incident of 2005, I was banned from making birthday desserts. The cake batter was supposed to be chilled, then baked. I forgot the baking part, removed the springform ring at the table, et voilà – cheesecake soup tidal wave.

3. Monkeys give me the creeps. Anyone who craves my death should bring me to the edge of the Grand Canyon and release a monkey. We’re all friends here, right?

4. A couple of years ago I bumped shopping carts with Barbara and Laura Bush at WalMart. Fortunately, the Secret Service people didn’t perceive it as an act of terrorism.

5. One of the weirdest and yet coolest places I’ve ever experienced is Les Catacombes in Paris. Those things she’s looking at are artistically arranged skulls and other bones. The passageways go on and on…

6. I was sworn at, bitten, scratched, slapped, and kicked at my first post-college job. On a more or less daily basis.

7. When I was 8, a drawing I did of a tiger appeared in Highlights Magazine. I was still getting “fan mail” when I was 15 (yeah, those doctors’ office issues never really die).

Alrighty, enough about me… Here in no particular order are my nominees. Please hold your applause until the end.

1. Laura Oliva

2. Jessie Devine

3. John Krissilas

4. Veronica Park

5. Lena Roy

6. Owyn Cooper

7. J Luis Licea

8. Juliana Brandt

*Thursday’s Children is a weekly Blog Hop open to all writers who want to share their writerly inspirations with other writers. You can join every week, or just once, or whatever you like. Some of my nominees are Thursday’s Children, and the rest of you are always welcome. For more about the blog hop click here.