The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Once again, I am reminded how fortunate I was when I decided to create a WordPress site for The Eye-Dancers.  When I started this site, my knowledge of blogging and website-making was about as close to zero as one can get in this information/technology age.  I’ve been learning as I go, and have really enjoyed the process.

More than anything, I’ve enjoyed the wonderful interactions with fellow writers and bloggers.  This has been fun, and, hopefully, things are just getting started.

Thanks so much to Sheri Bessi and her great site, The Other Side of Ugly, for nominating me for this award.  It is very much appreciated!  If you haven’t visited Sheri’s site, please do.  It is full of inspirational and thought-provoking posts that stay with you long after you read them.

The rules for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award are:

To thank and link the blogger that has nominated you.

Then post the award logo to your blog.

Write a post on the nomination and nominate 15 other very inspiring bloggers.

Notify them and then tell 7 things about yourself.

Here the 7 things about myself:

1.  I have long been a big fan of old, collectible comic books.  I started collecting them at a young age, and still enjoy opening an old comic, looking over the decades-old mail-order advertisements, and reading the often-corny, but always-entertaining stories.  I have individual comic book issues dating back to the 1940s, and that old thrill still hits me when I pull a comic out of its Mylar sleeve and dig in.  Favorite titles include:  The Fantastic Four, Action Comics, Superman, The Amazing Spider-Man, Strange Adventures (a charming sci-fi title from the ’50s and ’60s), and Mystery in Space (likewise, a sci-fi title from the ’50s and ’60s).

2.  Back in the eighth grade, my English teacher instilled in me two lasting things:  One was an appreciation for grammar. (Her pet-peeve was when people say, “Just between you and I,” or, “That’s for you and I  . . .”  “Never, ever, use a subject as the object of a preposition,” she would say, fire in her eyes.  “Take out the ‘you.’  Would you then say, ‘That’s for I?'”  I think–conservative estimate here–she must have gone over this two-dozen times that year.)  She also introduced me to the world of Anne of Green Gables.  For a long time, I was the only male I knew who admitted to liking the book!  But I’m sure there are many others who do.  It’s a timeless classic.  Because of my enjoyment of the Anne books in particular and L.M. Montgomery’s writing in general, I’ve had the privilege of visiting Prince Edward Island, Canada.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.  It is, in short, the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.

3.  Even though I grew up in upstate western New York, just outside of Rochester, and now live in northern New England, I am not a Buffalo Bills nor a New England Patriots fan.  I’m a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan.  I started liking them at the age of eight, and haven’t stopped since . . .

4.  I have been a vegetarian since 1994.

5.  When I was growing up, one of my very best friends in the world was a cocker spaniel named Poopsie.  He was my forever friend–and always will be.  But don’t blame me for the name!  He was actually Poopsie IV.  It was a family tradition that had started before I was even born–all dogs in the family were to be named “Poopsie.”  My nickname for him was “Bubba,” which, come to think of it, may not have been much better . . .

6.  When I was a kid, I was remarkably shy.  One day, in first grade, my teacher, surely recognizing this, decided it would be good for me to go into one of the sixth-grade classrooms, stand in front of the “big kids,” and read to them.  Dutifully, I trudged to their room, knocked, and entered, with my back to the class.  I sidestepped over to the sixth-grade teacher’s desk, my back still to the class, as I looked at the black board in front of me.  Then I began to read whatever it was my teacher had assigned me to read aloud–I don’t remember what it was.  I do remember reading the entire text, and then, finished, sidestepping my way out of the room.  I never once looked at the class.

7.  I tend to be very nostalgic and sentimental.  It sometimes comes out in my writing–and I always need to guard against it.  Sentiment is fine.  Feeling, heart . . .  But overly sentimental usually is a problem when it comes to storytelling.  It’s a fine line between the two, as it is with so many aspects of good vs. bad writing.

And now, to pass the baton!  Here are 15 wonderful websites, listed here in no particular order.  Each offers something different, and all offer something great.  I strongly recommend that you click on each of these links and visit these wonderful websites . . .

http://jenniferpaetsch.com/

http://kelihasablog.wordpress.com/

http://evilnymphstuff.wordpress.com/

http://howevernever.wordpress.com/

http://yourejustadumbass.wordpress.com/

http://reshumalhotra.com/

http://seyisandradavid.org/

http://tammysalyer.wordpress.com/

http://bringmorebooks.wordpress.com/

http://zendictive.wordpress.com/

http://wideawakebutdreaming.wordpress.com/

http://shannonathompson.com/

http://deannaswriting.wordpress.com/

http://talesofbooksandbands.com/

http://patspublishing.wordpress.com/

Thanks so much, as always, for reading!

— Mike