I Love Your Blog awards

Here's a big thanks to fellow Oregonian writer, Lisa Schroeder, for awarding me an "I love your blog" award over at her group author blog, author 2 author. Thank you! I've been wanting to make special mention of some favorite blogs, so here's a great opportunity!


Here's how this works:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog.

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you (as shown above).

3) Nominate at least seven other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on your blog.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

So, I get to pass on the love to some of my favorite blogs. In no particular order, here are some that I read the most, along with a few new discoveries.

Category I -- Glimpse of the World
Maryam in Marrakesh -- an American living in Morocco and building a dreamhouse and guesthouse with her architect husband -- and it is so fabulous. She also travels all over Africa and the Middle East and even Central Asia for work, so you get glimpses into amazing exotic places. Oh yes, and she has a book in the works, to be filled with her gorgeous photos.[photo by Maryam]

Zen and the Art of Peacekeeping -- the amazing "Frida" has begun a new blog, in which she is posting stories from her two years spent as a human rights worker in Afghanistan. She is home now in New Zealand, and these stories are her way of easing into writing a book about her experiences. It's still new, so you can just scroll down and start reading from the bottom up. [photo by Frida]

Granny Smith -- I discovered Granny Smith's blog because she is a regular contributor to Sunday Scribblings, and whenever I see her name listed, it's the first one I click. You just never know what fabulous life experience she is going to reveal next -- the most recent one was that she and her husband owned a coffee farm in Paraguay in the 1950s! As I recall, among many other things, she also helped run a crisis line in Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love, helping young people who'd come to San Francisco. Oh yeah, and she plays the guitar, and her father explored the Amazon in the 1910's!

Category II -- Authors
There are just too many to list, but here are a few:

Shannon Hale -- brilliant writer and very cool person, her blog Squeetus is a great peek into her writing life, her growing success, and her thoughts on all manner of things, mostly writing/reading related.

Sarah Rees Brennan -- an Irish author whose first book is coming next year; you may have heard of her as the Harry Potter fanfic author who landed a cauldron o' gold type deal for her first YA series. Hey, she's got a big following, and though I haven't read her fanfic, her blog is both really really funny and a great insight into the publishing process of a first-time author.

Two author blogs I've just recently discovered that have been highly entertaining belong to:

Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind, a big fat fantasy tome that is perched upon my nightstand.

Carrie Harris, whose first novel is in the process of being sold or shopped by her fabulous agent Kate Schafer, aka Daphne Unfeasible. A recent debate on Carrie's blog went beyond the usual vampire/werewolf-lover question to ask something much more important: Are you a Legolas person, or an Aragorn person? (The secret is that Aragorn people -- like me -- tend to fall in the werewolf camp, while Legolas lovers are more likely to be vampire groupies. Funny, noh?) Let's just take a moment here. . .



Okay, enough of that. Where were we?

Oh yes, two author blogs I always check up on are:

the Disco Mermaids, home to Jay, Robin, and Eve, whose tight-knit critique group and close friendship I envy (not to mention their costumes!)

Justine Larbalestier, author of the 'Magic or Madness' trilogy. With the recent discovery that Justine despises not only coffee but also chocolate, I shall have to reconsider the regularity of my visits there. Just kidding. Sort of.

And lastly among author blogs are two writers at work at novels I cannot wait to read:

Steph, who has a habit of illustrating her posts with photos of "hot British men" (though she is apparently right now copying me and using cute baby animals instead).

Tone at Lille Fnugg -- I don't know what that means but I like the way it sounds; she's in Norway, but writes in English, and her posts are full of such magic, and her teasing mentions of her books sound so sparkly and delightful, I can't wait to read it! But alas, I fear that the novel is in Norwegian. Blast.