Weekend Mishmash: A-splishin’ and A-splashin’!

Throughout my life, I’ve always had mixed feelings about awards. On the one hand, I’m grateful to have achieved something that validates my skills (like my old math and sportsmanship trophies, now lost to the hurricane that shall, for once, remain nameless), but on the other hand, I find it awkward to be singled out... especially if I feel less than deserving.

That’s what happens whenever another blogging buddy honors me with a blogalicious award. On the one hand, I feel appropriately honored by my peers and grateful for the acknowledgment. On the other hand, the little voice of insecurity emerges to whisper, “Really? Out of all the blogs out there, you’ve chosen mine? Really?” Then, I tell the little voice to be quiet, and I humbly accept the award on behalf of insecure bloggers everywhere.

So, for the fourth weekend in a row, I find myself focusing on awards for the “Weekend Mishmash,” and while I’m grateful to my online pals Bridget Chicoine and Strange Fiction for honoring me with the Splish Splash Award, I find it hard to believe that either of them considers my blog “dazzling” enough for such an honor. After all, I started this blog with humble intentions – to create an outlet for my myriad thoughts and images, celebrate all of life's little pleasures, distract myself from the massive revision of my novel, and find like-minded souls in the blogosphere. Since, in the seven weeks that I’ve been maintaining this blog, I’ve already achieved my original goals (and then some!), the awards seem like (to reveal my Louisianian roots)... lagniappe.

And I’m really grateful for this unexpected bonus. So, thanks, Bridget and Deb!

Now, the point of this blogalicious award is twofold: to honor a fellow blogger and to encourage him/her to keep spreading the bloggy love. So, to that end, I’ve decided to honor a couple of blogs that I’ve never honored before. That doesn’t mean, of course, that I don’t want to acknowledge previous award-winning blogs – such as The Alchemy of Writing, Anita Laydon Miller’s Blog, Cinnamon & Spice, Come In Character, EAT.DRINK.THINK., The Fire in Her Eyes, J.B. Chicoine...Aspiring Novelist, J.B. Chicoine – Unsupervised & At Large, A misinterpreted wave, Miss Snark’s First Victim, My Daley Rant, Ranch Girl Ramblings, Stephanie Damore, Steph in the City, Thinking Out Loud, Weronika Janczuk, What Am I Doing in Mexico?, and The Word Wire – all of which I’ve honored over the past few weeks. I would love, in fact, to pay tribute to all of them all over again (oh, well, I kind of just did, heehee) – but I think that some of these bloggers are, frankly, tired of receiving awards... and it’s probably time for me to broaden my horizons.

That said, I’ve decided to acknowledge two worthy bloggers for the “dazzling” Splish Splash Award:

Susan Mills of A Walk In My Shoes – a blogger that, though previously honored with this award, deserves yet another nod for being so darn creative. If you haven’t yet, you simply must check out her blog, where she cleverly uses shoe-related metaphors to deconstruct the art of writing and the process of publishing.

Angie Ledbetter of Gumbo Writer – a blogger who lives in Baton Rouge, not far from my blessed New Orleans. I just discovered her blog today – and I’m so delighted that I did!

So, please check out these two blogs – if you haven’t already, of course!

Thanks again to Bridget and Deb for saying such loverly things about my little blog... and thanks to everyone else who has visited (regularly or otherwise) and made this writer feel a little less lonely in her struggle for publishing success!