Irresistibly Sweet, Stylish Blogger awards given forward

It’s always an uplifting surprise to check your e-mail messages at the end of a hectic day and find you’ve been recognized for your work. That’s what happened last night—not once, but twice!—when I learned I’d been selected to receive two blog awards from critique partner, fellow blogger and author extraordinaire Elizabeth Varadan (http://elizabethvaradansfourthwish.blogspot.com/). Elizabeth, whose book The Fourth Wish kicked off my summerlong series of reviews and author interviews, passed along The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award and the Stylish Blogger Award. I am so honored; thank you very much, Elizabeth.

As with other blogging awards, these are meant to be given forward to other bloggers, and there are a handful of general guidelines for accepting and passing them on: 

• Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award. 
• Share seven random tidbits about yourself. 
• Pass the award on to five others and link to their blogs. 
• Let those people know you’ve given them the award.

Well, I’ve just done No. 1. Now let’s see, what will be the first seven random thoughts about myself to pop into my mind …

1. When I was growing up, chickens were my favorite pets, and I loved caring for any that were sick or being picked on. Cinnamon loved to go for rides in the car, perched on his personalized poopy-catching throne held by yours truly. Blue, another invalid, had my family and me so well trained, if he left his recovery nest and ran to the front door, it was our cue to open it up and let him out. And Jennifer Kathleen, with whom I spent several weeks one summer giving her claws physical therapy until she was able to walk again, turned out to be our best broody hen. 
2. I am an only child and an only grandchild, but I swear I’m not spoiled! But it could explain why chickens were my friends … 
3. My middle name, Lee, has been a source of frustration most of my life, because it accidentally got spelled the boy way. I can’t tell you how many teachers in school called me Michael or Mitchell as a result. And don’t you know what a trauma that was for a girly girl? Still, there’s a fascinating explanation for the snafu. At 4:55 p.m. on a Friday, Mom received a call from the adoption agency letting her and Dad know they finally would be parents—but they were typing up the paperwork RIGHT NOW and what did they want my name to be. Sheesh, I’m glad they didn’t call at 4:59 p.m., or there’s no telling what would have gotten put down for the rest of my moniker. Speaking of names, both Dad and my husband, Marcelo, independently selected the same nickname of Bird for me. And even though I’m adopted, Mom and I look and act so much alike, no one would ever guess. It makes me believe in fate. 
4. I can hum and whistle at the same time, but I can’t ride a bike or swim. 
5. It took four years to officially fight the Civil War but almost five for me to research and write my YA The Underground Gift. Luckily I love my day job as an editor with the University of California. By day I edit information about insects, but at night it’s all about the invasive pest Massa Benjamin Michaelson. :) 
6. The front door of our home faces the back of our property, the main floor is on the second floor because the home is built into the side of a baby hill, and our mailing address isn’t the road on which we live. 
7. My writing desk is a wooden drafting table, circa mid-1960s. The computer is an iMac, of course!

For No. 2, I’d like to pass along the awards to the following bloggers, in order of newest to those who’ve been with me since the beginning: 

1. Romantic fantasy author Ebony McKenna (http://ejmckennablog.blogspot.com/), whose blog and Web site are beautiful, informative and witty. Plus Ebony is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in the blogosphere. 
2. Urban fantasy author Alexia Chamberlynn (http://alexiachamberlynn.blogspot.com/), whose blogs and Tweets consistently contain excellent resources for writers. Her Web site embodies elegant simplicity, and she also is one of the nicest writers I’ve ever known. Even though Elizabeth just forwarded these two awards to Alexia, I still wanted to give her a well-deserved shout out. 
3. Fantasy and science fiction author Kimberly (http://meetingswithmymuse.blogspot.com/) has the most beautiful background on her blog, and you can tell by her posts that she is a sweet person indeed. 
4. Romance author J.L. Campbell (http://thecharacterdepot.blogspot.com/ and http://readerssuite.blogspot.com/) has two highly informative and enjoyable blogs as well as an excellent Web site. There must be something about writers, because Joy also has an award-winning personality. 
5. Children’s author Rosi Hollinbeck (http://rosihollinbeckthewritestuff.blogspot.com/) has known me for the better part of my writing career, and anyone who can look at upteem revisions of the same picture book has to be sweet. :) Plus her blog is well designed and an informative pleasure to read.

I’ll be sending an e-mail message to my own version of the Big Five letting you know officially that I think you rock!

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