Happy time

Jai Joshi has given me another award: Happy 101. You can read her list of happy things here. I'd have to say she is one of the people who make me happy. A bright cheerful person in person and online, but then that's why I gave her the Sunshine Award a couple days ago.

Isn't that butterfly so pretty?

The rules are that I have to list ten things that make me happy and pass the award to five other bloggers.

1. My family--my hubby helps keep me motivated, and my son is adorable and is pretty good about letting me write.

2. Good music--among my current favorites: Trace Adkins, Corvus Corax, Tartan Terrors, Tom Smith, Arrogant Worms, and the soundtrack for Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog.

3. Musicals--a sampling of favorites: 1776, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog (yes, I mentioned it again, tough), Mamma Mia (it's great for doing housework to, even got the kid singing the songs, which makes it even funnier), Quest for Camelot, The Aristocats, Mulan, and Avenue Q.

4. Comedies-- (a tiny listing) Lion King 1 1/2, Down Periscope, McHale's Navy (with Tom Arnold), Hoodwinked, Bill Cosby Himself, Kung Phooey, Evolution, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spaceballs, and Men In Tights (well, just about every Mel Brooks movie for that matter). Not sure Princess Bride is technically a comedy, but it also makes me very happy.

5. Science Fiction and Fantasy! (which is why I created this blog)

6. Funny blogs like The Rejectionist and Hyperbole and a Half.

7. Good artwork--Larry Elmore, J "NeonDragon" Peffer, and Jessica Galbreth. Yes, they're all fantasy artists. What about it? My dragons like them.

8. Snagging a new reader/listener/viewer for one of my favorites. Seriously. You should go check out some of the movies/groups/artists I mentioned above. Not to mention the books and movies I've already reviewed on here.

9. My writing and gaming friends. You all are wonderful!

10. Sunshine and a productive day. Especially when they occur together.

Okay, for my five awardees. I'm sure the first one is no surprise. I'd give Allie the Happy Award, too, but I just gave her the Sunshine Award on Monday. Nothing wrong with spreading out the happy.

Le R at The Rejectionist (gives my abs a workout with every new post)
Ashley at The Ashley Atkins (mom and writer, with lots of humor)
Kaycee at The Musings of a Looneywriter (with sites of the week and links to series lists)
Wendy at Writes in the City (cracked me up last week with sharing the "Telephone" remake)
Moonrat at Editorial Ass (my favorite industry blog-humor and good advice, plus random randomness)

Update: Emily at Stepping Into Fantasy just gave me yet another award: Blogger Buddy Award. I don't know yet who I'm going to give it to. More of you need to start commenting, so I'm not always giving stuff to the same people. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean.

More Awards

Emily White over at Stepping Into Fantasy gave me the Love Award a few months ago. She had some sweet things to say about my blog, though her mention of my new post every week makes me feel guilty for not keeping up. After all, that is my goal. I'll try to do better.

I've been taking the time to think of who I want to honor with this award. In many ways, awards tend to become popularity contests or just passed to the same people each time by default. I don't want anyone to get one from me and wonder if I meant it. And awards are to honor someone or highlight someone that the other readers may not know yet. Most of you are pretty well cross-linked to each other, so that aspect makes it more difficult to choose.

Why not go discover a new favorite for one of my awardees?

Since most of the blogs I follow are writing-related, I decided to go hunting for some blogs on a different theme: crafting, one of my many hobbies. Craft Test Dummies is now on my list to follow. This blog reviews craft products, offers crafting ideas, and was named one of the top ten crafting blogs to follow by Barb Webb from AssociatedContent.com. From what I've seen so far, it certainly is worth checking out. From tricking out boring bike helmets to a review of Eco Green Crafts acrylic paint (something I may have to see if I can get) to a myriad of ways to craft greener, this blog deserves a bit of Love from my writing and parenting friends. You never know where your next idea may come from.

Another new favorite is a blog I discovered thanks to a couple other bloggers: Hyperbole and a Half. This blog always makes me laugh--out loud and often. So much that my son comes over and asks why I'm laughing so hard. Allie's stories are accompanied by the most hilarious stick drawings I've seen since The Order of the Stick. If you aren't already following this blog, you should. It'll brighten your day.

Another blog award Emily has given me is You Are My Sunshine award for supportive commenters. This one is a little harder to figure out who to pass it on to. I'm building up a readership, but few are commenting yet. *sad face* But in looking over the last half dozen posts, one name does crop up. Well two actually, but since Emily is the one who handed me this award, I'm not doing a tag-back. The other person who has most often commented is Jai Joshi at Jai Joshi's Tulsi Tree. She is a sunshiney person with a lovely blog. Thanks so much for reading.

Even though comments have been sparse at times, I am picking up some new readers. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right. I'm thinking of doing something fun when I reach 50 followers. Most people wait for 100, but since I'm an unsteady poster and still manage to pick up some new folks, I'm too excited to wait that long. Stay tuned to find out what I'm going to do.

Two awards already!

Not sure I deserve any awards just yet. I haven't settled into any posting schedule yet, and I'm mostly a lurker on my friends blogs. But I'm honored all the same.

The Honest Scrap Award came from Emily at Stepping Into Fantasy and the Sugar Doll Award just a day later from Jai at Jai Joshi's Tulsi Tree. Hmm, similar type lists: ten things about myself that might be considered unusual, a bit hard when "unusual" depends on the viewer, and ten things about myself. How about one detailed list of ten?

10. I love to dance, but I'm self-conscious in front of other people, except in a class setting when we're all equally goofy looking.

9. I'm serious about that self-conscious thing with my dancing. I'm embarrassed to let even my hubby watch. Maybe I need more classes.

8. Styles of dancing I especially want to learn: belly dance, bollywood style dancing, American pop dance, hip hop, Asian pop... I guess I just like to groove it, groove it; I like to move it, move it--when nobody's watching. Except my son, but then I dance goofy on purpose to get him dancing with me. I love to see that little boy dance.

7. I love roleplaying games. Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and Savage Worlds for table-top games. For MMORPGS, I did Guild Wars for awhile, until I got sucked into World of Warcraft. (Yes, I still play.) And can't forget the live-action variety, mainly Circle of Swords (only went once, but I loved it) and NERO.

6. I met my husband at my first NERO event, though we didn't start dating until over a year later. I was a gypsy, a rather quiet one, as I didn't know what to do or say yet, and didn't know anyone but my roommate who was on the plot team. He was a seelie fae lord getting married to his human-turned-fae bride. Two years after that event, almost to the day, I was the one who married him, for real that time. Several of our friends skipped part of an event to come, still dressed in their costuming. It was great.

5. Roleplaying games sparked my drive to write. It all started with making one character, then another, and another. Figuring out different personalities, their backgrounds, their motivations. Put them into a setting with other characters, and stories will form around them. It's the writing them down that is the hard part. That and deciding which path of what-ifs to take the characters.

4. I love my in-laws. I am a lucky, lucky girl.

3. I am not a J. D. Salinger fan. Sorry. Catcher In the Rye bored me. So did John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. And I can't stand Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I had to read all three in high school, yet we never covered any of Louisa May Alcott's books. Or those of Madeleine L'Engle, Cynthia Voigt, or Lucy Maud Montgomery. (Can you guess what I was reading on my own time back then?)

2. Textiles thrill me. I have at least four totes of fabric waiting to be turned into clothing, costuming, and miscellaneous craft projects. My husband gets annoyed when I buy even more. I made my own wedding dress and have a standing offer to my sister to make her wedding dress when the time comes, if she wants a handmade dress. I also crochet and embroider, and have started to learn tablet weaving. If I ever have the space and money, I would buy a loom and try my hand with that kind of weaving as well. Spinning, however, is an arcane art that fumbles my fingers. I'll leave that part to those with better coordination. I still have to fit in writing time, you know.

1. I am a one-woman campaign to spread awareness of the awesomeness that is filk music. What is that, you say? The simplest answer is that it is SF folk music, but that barely scratches the surface of the diversity found in this category of music. It encompasses many styles of music and many topics. Not all filk is based on stories. Some stories derived from the songs. Some songs are about writing, science, and filk fandom in general.

Oh yes, there is a fandom. People get together for filk-sings. Some of these are so well known and done so regularly, they have practically become annual conferences. I haven't been to one yet, but it's on my list of things I want to do. For more information on filk in general, check out Filk.com. You can also check out the filk radio station from there. Now some songs can be so-so, but the gems mixed in make it well worth the listening time. There are some amazing filkers out there.

And personally, I think all spec fic writers should take note of how they can utilize filk music. It's advertising! Write a song about your story or have a musical acquaintance write one for you. Then share it at a filk sing, post it on Youtube, Facebook, your social network of choice, and it will build awareness. I have tracked down a number of stories from filk songs I've heard since I first discovered this musical subset. Stories I might still have never heard of. Filk music is also a great way to enrich the worlds of spec fic creations. Mercedes Lackey wrote a number of songs that her characters refer to in her books, songs such as "Sun and Shadow" and "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night." My favored choice for purchasing filk is at Firebirds Arts. Wonderful stuff there, and not just music either.

Nomination Time!
I pass on the Honest Scrap Award to Brad at Bradley's Brain. He may be even newer to blogging than I am, but I like his humorous take on parenting. Funny, yet insightful at the same time. And the Sugar Doll Award goes to Juliette Wade at TalkToYoUniverse and Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story for their wonderful insights into writing. Juliette's specialty is linguistics, and Janice covers story composition.