
Good Morning World!
I hope you’ve all had a fabulous week. For my part, it was intense but a lot better than I thought it would be when I was sitting back there contemplating it last Monday.
This promises to be a slower week, with more reading time…for alas, when it came time to choose between writing posts or reading other’s, I chose the former last week. I found too, that I could cut out a 10 minute blitz from time to time to read some of my mail and look at the reader. It’s wonderful the things you can get done in 24 hours if you organize, came to my mind.
Now for some stats: I don’t know about most of you, but I try to figure out who and why people look at my blog. I’ve found, by looking at the stats that most of you come from The United States, but I also have readers from Singapore, Australia, Canada and Europe…well as far as that goes…I seem to have viewers in India, Pakistan, South American…hmmm…WOW!!! from all over the World…gives me a shivery nice feeling.
Many are interested in my photo blogs and quite a few in my poetry, the fiction or flash fiction just so-so, I’ll have to work on that aspect as, alas I like writing short stories. A friend has given me the address for the Novel Writer’s Camp…hmmm…I just don’t feel ready for a novel at this time.
Today’s stats tell me that I’ve reached 4,894 views with 1,297 comments…those who have decided to become part of my blogging community are 290 between Facebook and WordPress bloggers. Thanks everyone for reading and commenting, I really appreciate it!
But it is your comments that are most appreciated and are responsable for making me a better blogger, both through your encouragement and feedback…infinite thanks to you all!
Awards
Well..this has been a crazy week for awards!
The first award mention to come this way, was from Patty at PetiteMagique for the Best Moments Award
Then in the middle of the week came the avalanche!!!
Lisa Elkskeravid mentioned me for two huge accumulative awards, a 7 in 1 and a 6 in 1, which prompted me to write the post “Awards Galore!”
I created this mosaic for the occasion…some of the awards were actually doubles, so there are 10 awards here.
Lisa Elkskeravid nominated me again for the Most influential Blogger award and another bucket of awards….
Finally, yesterday Othrezhenie for the Wonderful Team Membership Award!
I’d like to thank these ladies for their consideration, Othrezhenie mentions in her nomination:
“Last month I was swamped with awards. I believe that passing on awards is an important part of ‘blogosphere membership’, as it allows bloggers to get to know each other better and develop closer relationship in a virtual world.”
I’m not sure that I agree with Othrezhenie…I personally believe that visiting other people’s blogs, commenting as well as just liking and posting is how we get to know one another in the virtual world. Awards may be fun or they may give us a boost, but I’m not sure that they actually create better and closer relationships. Your ideas on this matter would be appreciated.
In the meantime…I nominate all of you lovely people who have commented and followed my blog throughout these past months…choose one if you like and write a lovely post! If you wish to put one or all of the above onto your blog page feel free to do so, you are nominated! 🙂
Two New Blogs
Last week two new exciting blogs were born!
Th Community Storyboard
In their own words:
“The purpose his site is to showcase poems, short stories, and anything else that falls into the category of writing. Here you can wander the aisles and read to your heart’s content. If you wish to regale us with a tale of your own then we welcome you to do so. Most importantly, you can meet other readers and writers to make new friends and have a blast without leaving your laptop. I’m sure all of our introverts in the audience appreciates that.”
They have many lovely stories already and this weekend put up an interesting prompt: Pearl…one could write a poem or short story, or whatever inspired one from that one word. So I wrote a flash fiction for the occasion entitled: Pearl 1963. I love prompts!
The second blog is: The Self Publisher who are they, what is this site about? here they are in their own words:
“Who are we? What are we? What is this site about? It’s about supporting, encouraging and promoting writers who pursue their dreams in the face of a traditional publishing industry that doesn’t get it. It’s about sharing our successes, our failures, our experiences with other writers and asking for other writers to share their own experiences as well. It’s about creating a community that is supportive and informative where we share lessons learned.
What will we be doing here? Discussing our own experiences. What sites helped. What sites didn’t. Are those editing packages worth it? How do we create cover art? What about copyright? What about this? What about that? In the days and weeks and months ahead, hopefully, we’ll cover it all.”
I think this could be a very interesting blog, not only for the self publishers already doing their thing, but it could be very interesting to those of us who may someday decide to publish themselves.
Give these great bloggers a warm well-wishing…and visit their blogs…it’s well worth the time!
Photography
This weeks Weekly Photo Challenge is background!
“In the Background: The places that we pass through day after day, or even once in a lifetime, leave in their small way, echoes and traces of themselves upon us. But so often when taking self portraits or pictures of friends, the places themselves become a soft blurred mush of indistinct semi-nothingness, the limelight stolen by our smiling faces. In today’s challenge, let’s turn the tables. Take a picture of yourself or someone else as a shadow, a reflection, or a lesser part of a scene, making the background, or — as in the example above — the foreground, the center of attention.”
If you like photography and would like to find new and interesting ways to look through your viewfinder…this is a great challenge for you! Why not give it a try?
Poetry and Prose
This week I’ve continued with my daily Haiku and have had some interesting comments and responses. One, entitled Space
had some lovely comments! It was prompted by We Drink Because We Are Poets along with an invitation to participate in the Nasa contest: send you Haiku to Mars. Well…I sent along a Haiku…the activity began on May 1 and the last day for submitting is July 1…voting one the Haiku begin on July 15…have a go people! Even if your Haiku is not chosen, your name will be on the DVD sent to Mars! Imagine 10 thousand years from now, some crazy archeologist from Arcturus comes along and says: lo! A list of kinky Martian names and three Haiku…. 😀
I tried my hand at two nearly spooky stories I hope you’ll look into:
The first is entitled:
The Staircase and it was inspired by two of Leanne Coles fantastic photographs! Leanne has sent out an invitation to be inspired by her photos…write a poem, write a story…you may use her photos for inspiration…but I add please ping your work back to the photo that inspired you!
I’ve reblogged several of Leanne’s photos to my blog…she is just sooooooooo great! Have a look!
The other is:
The Offer I didn’t Refuse inspired by my friends at We Drink Because we Are Poets! I really liked the response from my fellow bloggers on this one…great comments…have a look at it!
Yesterday I wrote a Photography and Poem post I hope you’ll look into entitled: Intrepid Lords and Ladies I was inspired by the Lords and Ladies themselves as well as the crazy weather we’ve been having lately! 😉
Blogging Friends
Over the months, I through this blog have become closer to many people. I see sometimes our friends are very happy, sometimes angry and sometimes very sad. Many are working away trying to get their worked published, other’s are editing other’s promoting. It’s not what I thought blogging would be about, it’s a bit of added value and I find that it is an interesting experience. Best wishes to you promoters and self editors!
One of my blogging friends has been hit by tragedy and I would like to just say, I hope all will soon be well for you and yours. May serenity come to visit your house again soon.
Everyone have a Wondeful Week and see you in the blogging world!
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