R is for Recognition and S is for Soo Grateful

By Mary Hill

Thanks so much.  I feel so honored. I have been nominated for my first award. It is called the Liebster Award.  It is an honor where other bloggers find your blog and nominate you because they feel your blog is special.  I Googled the award and found some background information on Sopphey Says by Sopphey Vance that the award orginated in Germany in 2010.  It is a way for bloggers to help starting bloggers grow their audience. I think it is great that these established bloggers help out new bloggers this way and give them encouragement.  Here are the rules for receiving and accepting the award:

• Thank the person (or people) who nominated you, and post links to their blogs. So thank you +Rebeccah Giltrow of Rebecca Writes.

• Post 11 random facts about yourself.

1. I was born in 1967.
2. I am the mother of one child and three children from my husband’s first marriage.  Their names:  Eric, Megan, Stephanie, and Katie Rose.
3. I am a “Meme” to three grands:  Madi, Jamie, and Seth.
4. I love poetry and writing, nonfiction and fiction.
5. I am a published anthology editor with Greenhaven Press of two books :  Social Issues Firsthand: Environment and Social Issues Firsthand: Prisons.
6. I have worked as school librarian from 1999 to 2010.
7. I worked as a newspaper reporter for the Georgetown Times in Georgetown, SC from 1990 to 1995. I won numerous awards for my writing and photography.
8. I received my MLIS in 1998 from the University of South Carolina.
9. My bucket list includes traveling to the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon.
10. The people I admire most are my husband, my mom, and an old friend from Georgetown, Kelly. She is the comedian I always wanted to be.
11. This time next year, I hope to be a published poet and novelist.

• Answer 11 questions set by the person who nominated you. 

1. Where in the world are you right now? I am in South Carolina in a small town where the Civil War is supposed to have begun.
2. What has been your best gift? My grands and all my children.
3. Can you play a musical instrument? I used to play a viola in 1980 when I was in eigth grade in middle school.
4. If you could time-travel to any period in the past, where would you go? To Bethelem for the birth of Jesus
5. What’s your favourite dessert? Chocolate cake, pie, brownies, cookies
6. Who was your favourite teacher at school? Mrs. Johnston, ninth grade English teacher.
7. Do you have any pets? I have a menagerie: one cat named Perry; four dogs, Dobber, Cocoa, Zyma and Lily; seven birds we haven’t named including four parrots, two button quails, and one society finch; two rabbits, Pebbles and a new little boy, Sandy.
8. Where did you go on your last holiday/vacation? I went to Madison, Ga this weekend for my eleventh anniversary.
9. What languages can you speak? English and very little Spanish
10. What’s your favourite word? Love
11. If you could exchange lives with anyone, who would you choose? Mary, mother of Jesus

Nominate 11 bloggers with fewer than 200 followers to be nominated for the award.

1. “Skipping Stone” MemoriesRecorded Memories by Bea Sempere (Denise Baer) She writes so lyrically and we both share a love of poetry.
2. Elizabeth C at http://mybutterflyhaus.blogspot.com (She is great and I love her beautiful writing and prose.
3. Rebecca Green Gasper http://rebeccagreengasper.blogspot.com/  Another YA author and blogger. Plus, I am inspired about how she cares about issues and her community.
4. Amanda Fanger:  http://amandafanger.blogspot.com/  Another up and coming YA writer.
5. Penny, the vertebrate paleontologist/isotope geochemist/geologist