Weirdo Reader Appreciation

Dear Mom,

Claudia of Claudia’s Page was sweet enough to nominate me for this Reader Appreciation Award—this award is given to writers who have supported other writers’ blogs. And the guidelines for accepting the award:

1) Acknowledge the giver of the award and provide a link to his or her blog.

2) Copy and paste the award to your blog.

3) Pass the award on to up to ten bloggers.

4) Notify the selected bloggers of their nominations.

Not one to break the rules, I find myself breaking them for these awards. Ooops. First I’m going to tell you a little bit about Claudia’s blog—she has a variety of things she writes about, from reviews on books she has read, to trips she has taken, things she does with friends, to writing contests—a little bit of everything. Claudia was instrumental in the development of the anthology, Storm Country. It was her idea. Storm Country brought writers together to help the lives of those affected by the EF5 tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri. All proceeds from the book help the Joplin School District libraries. You can still purchase a copy of Storm Country. My story about my friend, Geoffrey (who survived the tornado) is in the book. I met Claudia at the first launching of Storm Country. Claudia’s poem is published in the book.

Next, I’m going to nominate one person. I’ve done several of these before and decided this way, whoever is reading this can focus on the one blog.

Drumroll….

Life’s a Stage by Estrella.

I met Estrella when I was doing A Month of Letters challenge, where you’d hand write a letter a day for a month. I offered to write anyone a letter if they sent me their info. Estrella contacted me and asked if I’d write a letter, not for her, but for someone else. She told me about this program she’s involved in--MoreLoveLetters. I was excited she found me and asked me to participate. Afterwards she asked if anyone was willing to participate in this with her on a quarterly basis, and I agreed. If you’d like to get involved, check out her post for the next love letter. The last letter I wrote for the bundle ended up being posted on the website of MoreLoveLetters. I was a little freaked out, but I feel rather honored now. Estrella also has a photography challenge. You’ll see she is highly creative in all sorts of things.

WEIRDO

After receiving the Reader Appreciation Award, I realized I hadn’t acknowledged receiving the Creative Chaos Award from Linda of Write from the Heart. Linda is a prolific writer, with her many publishing credits. I refer to her as Queen Chick because she’s published in a bazillion Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Our critique group, the WWWPs, are lucky to have her. Linda not only writes from the heart, she has a big heart—evident by all that she does for others.

I don’t exactly know the “guidelines” of this award except to tell three weird things about yourself. I’m breaking the rules again and will only tell one. I could write a book (hey, good idea) about the many weirdo things I’ve done.  So here it is…

I think I’m not wired all the way in one part of my brain. Even as a writer, words trip me up. Some years back, I had my first pedicure. Later, I was with my two sisters and said, “Hey, I got my first pedigree the other day.”

They gave me a weird look. “You got a dog?”

“What?” And I gave them a weird look back. “Uh, no. I got my toe nails painted.”

They rolled over laughing. “It’s a pedicure, Lynn. Not a pedigree.”

I shrugged. “Well, likely mistake since those dogs of mine were barking.”

This is just one of many words I’ve gotten mixed up. It’s not like I don’t know the different meaning of each word that I mix up. My brain just misfires and I blurt out the wrong word with no clue. I’m sure I’ve impressed a boat load of people with some fun, lively conversation and they walk away thinking, WEIRDO!

Rather than nominate, I’ll just put it out there that if you have a weirdo story to tell, share it on your blog… link it with mine. We’ll be weirdos together. Or maybe your story will fit Linda’s call out for a submission to Not Your Mother’s Story – check it out.

Many thanks to all of you…