Reader Appreciation and Inspiring Blog Awards

Layla from Be Not Afeard was awesome enough to nominate me for two awards: Inspiring Blog Award and Reader Appreciation Award. She's a phenomenally talented writer who provides outstanding writing advice.

I have to say I am so psyched for this. I started this blog in February to promote the release of my book and it has grown leaps and bounds from there. I’m now involved in several blog challenges, weekly memes and review circles. I’ve met the most amazing readers and writers since then and I can’t wait to meet many more!

To receive the first award, you have to tell seven facts about yourself and nominate seven other bloggers. Here it goes:

1. It took me as long as "Tommy Boy" to graduate college with a bachelor’s degree (Tommy: “You know a lot of people go to college for seven years.” Richard: “I know, they’re called doctors.”)

2. I’m an avid eBayer (My husband often calls out, “Honey, where’s my watch?” My response, “Oh babe, you never wore that thing, I sold it on eBay.”)

3. I haven’t eaten pork since I saw movie “Babe” in high school.

4. I played the trombone from elementary school through high school (nothing girly like the clarinet or flute for me!)

5. Although I can’t draw a lick, I love art and make annual visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

6. My sister and I have a movie night every time a new Leonardo DiCaprio movie comes out.

7. I have two boys (ages five and two) who are adorable hellraisers that get their inspiration for trouble from classic “Tom and Jerry” episodes.

Here are the seven bloggers I nominate for both awards:

Magic in the Backyard is a blog run by Kellie Elmore that just has the most captivating posts. Her words are lyrical and I love reading the entries submitted through her Free Write Friday posts.

The Broke and the Bookish hosts my favorite weekly meme: Top Ten Tuesday. I love the topics they come up with! They also review a ton of books I’m interested in and I respect their book recommendations.

The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh is another great review blog that I stumbled on by participating in the Top Ten Tuesday challenge.

The Bitchy Bride always has me cracking up and lifting my mood when I read her posts. She blogs about so many different things: writing, weddings, food and literature.

The Reading Date is another YA review site that I love. Lucy shares the same tastes as mine and she hosts some super cool giveaways.

No Wasted Ink provides helpful batches of links for writers. Wendy from the blog has led me to some of the most insightful articles on writing, publishing and marketing on the web.

Book Lovin’ Mamas was a blog that hosted me during the initial week of my book tour. Reviews, giveaways and plenty of eye candy makes this a very much appreciated blog.

To receive the Reader Appreciation award, you are asked to tell what you’ve been up to lately:

The 28-Day Blog Challenge for Authors has sorted of taking over my life. Between writing posts, retweeting posts and reading submissions from other authors, it has been fun, but definitely time consuming.

Book number two in the Second Sight series has been underway and it’s going really well. I’ve come up with some super funny scenes and I have a few chapters completed. I’m planning to devote all of July to getting my first draft done.

My first virtual blog tour is underway and it’s been a really positive experience. I’ve done interviews, guest posts and giveaways.