Two New Blogging Awards, and a Very Sincere Thank-You!

When I began The Eye-Dancers website last summer, I really had no idea what would come of it.  I had written The Eye-Dancers the novel, and was hoping to use the website as a way of “getting the word out there.”  I didn’t have that many other plans or ideas for the site at that time.  But as I began to post, at first infrequently, I realized–this is fun!  And as more and more fellow bloggers began to follow and comment on the posts, I also realized–this is very rewarding!

I won’t lie.  I still am hoping this little website will encourage people to read the novel The Eye-Dancers!  Like most writers, I suppose, I want the things I write to be widely read, and, with luck, enjoyed.  But I have learned, over the journey of these past few months, that simply posting on this site, interacting with all of you, exchanging thoughts and ideas, is wonderful in and of itself.

So, first and foremost, thanks so much to all of you.  You’re the reason I’m still here, posting away.  I truly enjoy your feedback and also enjoy checking out your great blogs, too.  I was a blogging neophyte when I started The Eye-Dancers site.  It has been a fabulous and fun journey so far, and I certainly look forward to what lies ahead.  The fun, I hope, has only just begun.

I’ve been very fortunate to have been nominated for two new blogging awards–The Shine On Award, and The Versatile Blogger Award.

I also was nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award recently, as well.  I was lucky enough to have been nominated for that award already, however–late in 2012.  But I wanted to thank The Kat and The Falling Leaves for this most recent nomination for this great award!  I really appreciate it!

In addition, Jae nominated me for The Liebster Award, but I already had received that award, too.  Even so, I wanted to thank Jae here, and I encourage everyone to check out both The Kat’s and Jae’s great sites!

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For The Shine On Award, I would like to thank Tuttacronaca for the nomination.  It is an honor to receive recognition from such a wonderful website.  Thanks so much!

The Shine On Award requires you to nominate 15 other blogs, who in turn can post this award on their own sites and nominate others for the award.  It also requires that you then list a few other blogs that tickle your fancy.  So, without further delay, my 15 nominations for The Shine On Award are . . .

http://scribelifegames.wordpress.com/

http://joseyphina.wordpress.com/

http://lolarugula.com/

http://jenniferpaetsch.com/

http://fiammisday.com/

http://maryamchahine.wordpress.com/

http://readinpleasure.wordpress.com/

http://ramblingsofabipolarwoman.wordpress.com/

http://aboutaddisababa.wordpress.com/

http://wordsfallfrommyeyes.wordpress.com/

http://suedreamwalker.wordpress.com/

http://johnwhowell.com/

http://theseeker57.wordpress.com/

http://stylesalvation.wordpress.com/

http://worldsbeforethedoor.wordpress.com/

I highly recommend brewing a nice warm cup of tea and spending some time in all of the above sites.  They are as intriguing as they are diverse.

And now, here are seven other blogs that, per Shine On Award terminology, “tickle my fancy.”  In other words, I really like them!  And I’m sure you will, too . . .

http://smallpiecesoflife.wordpress.com/

http://worldviastandby.wordpress.com/

http://martaperegrina.wordpress.com/

http://charmsofagypsy.wordpress.com/

http://lovemen.org/

http://foundinfrance.wordpress.com/

http://jasmindamaro.wordpress.com/

Thanks again to Tuttacronaca for the nomination!

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The second award is the Versatile Blogger Award.  I want to thank both Pondering Spawned and Tazein at the Transcending Borders Blog for nominating The Eye-Dancers for this award!

The rules for this award are as follows:

Rules of the Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.
2. Thank and Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. State 7 things about yourself.
4. Nominate 15 bloggers for this award.
5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination by linking to one of their specific posts so that they get notified by ping back.

Here are the seven things about myself! . . .

1.  As a kid growing up in the 1980s, my first-ever home computer was a Commodore 64.  Compared to the digital world we’re in now, this thing was, well, ancient!  But I have to say, of all the PCs I’ve used in my life, this one was the most fun.  It’s true, I used it back then mostly to play video games–old classics like Jumpman and Pitfall, with simple, and by today’s standards, laughable graphics.  But they were addictive!  I don’t remember what became of that old Commodore.  But it was a part of my childhood, and I’ll never forget it.

 

2.  If I had to choose my favorite sci-fi movie of all time, well–it isn’t easy.  There have been some great ones over the decades.  But, to me, the one that stands out above all others is Aliens.  This 1986 tour de force features Sigourney Weaver in the magnificent role of Ellen Ripley, and, despite the film’s length, it speeds along like a runaway train.

 

Great characters and unforgettable action mark this sci-fi triumph.  And it has one of my favorite dialogue exchanges in movie history.

When the crew learns they’re stranded for at least seventeen days on the world infiltrated by the aliens, Private Hudson replies:  “Seventeen days?  Hey, man, I don’t wanna rain on your parade, but we’re not gonna last seventeen hours!”   And when Ripley informs him that the little girl they rescued has been surviving much longer than that without any weapons or any training, Hudson says, in a whiny voice,  “Why don’t you put her in charge?”

Classic.

 

3.  Vermont, where I live, actually has five seasons.  No, really.  Winter, spring, summer, and fall, of course.  But March really stands alone as its own season.  Mud Season we call it around here.  This picture of the dirt road I live on tells it all . . .

 

4.  Dolls scare me.  Puppets, too.  Anything inanimate like that, I find creepy.  The stories and movies that give me the worst nightmares tend to involve killer dolls and the like.  Perhaps this stems from an experience I had when I was about twelve.  I went into the basement.  For some reason, there was a doll hanging from the clothesline my mother used in the basement to dry clothes in winter.  I don’t recall whose doll it was, or why it was even there that day.  The doll had blonde hair, blue eyes, and wore a long, white dress.  I can visualize her perfectly to this day.  I felt oddly unsettled as I approached her.  And when I did, she . . . blinked at me!  Was it a trick of the light?  My overactive imagination?  Maybe.  But I turned around, and ran up the stairs at Gold Medal speed just the same.

5.  For me, the three funniest characters in television history are, in order:

A. Ed Norton from The Honeymooners

Cliff Clavin from Cheers

And Coach Cutlip from The Wonder Years

 

6. While Mitchell Brant is the character from The Eye-Dancers I can relate to the most, Marc Kuslanski may have been the most fun to write about.  I have always had a soft spot for science geeks and know-it-alls.  Joe Marma, who sarcastically calls Marc “Einstein” throughout the novel, would say otherwise, I’m sure.

 

7.  As readers of this blog probably know by now, I am a lifelong comic book collector.  And, like any comic collecting geek, I have a list of my all-time favorite covers in my collection.  Here are a few of them.

 

 

 

 

 

Now I’d like to pass this award on to the following bloggers:

http://carmenisabelgonzalez.wordpress.com/

http://maxadaland.wordpress.com/

http://2embracethelight.wordpress.com/

http://honeydidyouseethat.wordpress.com/

http://booksboozeandbeauty.wordpress.com/

http://acflory.wordpress.com/

http://idealisticrebel.wordpress.com/

http://roryta.wordpress.com/

http://iamawriterdangit.wordpress.com/

http://readinginterrupted.com/

http://1800ukillme.wordpress.com/

http://garapentrudoi.wordpress.com/

http://nancyloderick.com/

http://sandibentonvengeance.wordpress.com/

http://geminigirlinarandomworld.com/

All fifteen of the blogs above are highly recommended.  Another cup of tea, perhaps, as you browse through and enjoy?

Thanks again to Pondering Spawned and Tazein for this great nomination!

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And thank you very much to all of you, everyone who stops in to The Eye-Dancers site from time to time to pay a visit.  You’re the ones who make this so enjoyable and worthwhile for me.

I thank you very warmly for reading!

–Mike