Awards Season

The Thinking Blogger Award

Christine tapped me for this way back on May 9th, and because I'm such a thinker, it's taken me a goodly while deducing to whom I shall pass it along. In the meantime, Miss Frou Frou sent me a Rockin Girl Blogger Award. So I had to take a moment and get my nominating committee working on my short list.

After much consideration, and swapping people back and forth, here are five bloggers whose posts are guaranteed to make me think:

The staff at Bakka-Phoenix Books - Having worked in retail for nine years myself, their tales of running an independent sci fi/fantasy bookstore aften leave me howling. Their insight into the human condition is like an arrow piercing the one already sitting in the bulls'eye position. Like this post for example, where Ben delivers a cryptic Yoda-like observation. Think on, Bakka-Phoenix.

Kelly at It Was a Dark and Stormy Night - This was my first daily blog read, my introduction to the Blogosphere. I have to say, she set a Gold Star standard. Her blog is all the more astounding because I know her in 3-D life. I know how hard she works at her EDJ, how humongous her daily writing word count is, what an efficient and wildly successful 2-term president she's been for our RWA chapter, how much thought she gives to critiquing, how many novels she inhales, how much ground she covers on foot(walking, running) - and still she creates a blog filled with insight and a no-holds-barred look at the writing process. Her recent tribute to her dog Cooper should not be read while at work or without a box of Kleenex nearby. Think on, Kelly.

Akelamalu at Everything and Nothing - She's already been given the Thinking Blogger twice, and the Rockin Girl blogger award, but I'm forced to hand her a third Thinking Blogger because she's just that astounding. Her posts are packed full of Thinky Goodness. A personal favorite of mine was her listing of German motoring terms. Enjoy but not if you tend to spew coffee through your nose while laughing. She's also written her grandmother's biography which you can access from her blog. That qualifies as Thinking/Thinking/Rockin/Thinking to me! Think on, Akelamalu.

Red at Red Garnier's Red Pages - Red has a sidebar list of quotes from Oscar Wilde which already puts her high on my list. It took awhile for her to post a poem of her own on Rhian's Poetry Train Monday, but until then she gave us other gems such as The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost to enjoy anew. She has a passion for contemporary art which rivals my own passion for ballet. Think on, Red.

toni at In the Midst of This Season - Yes, I'm placing a Christian homeschooling mom after an erotic romance writer, but I am a Rockin blogger, after all. I can't remember how I discovered her blog, but she has a wonderfully wry sense of humor. I especially loved her post that described an incident out of Hitchcock's "The Birds". A former nurse and customer service rep for Eastern airlines, she now dreams of rockin' and writing. Think on, toni.



My criteria for placing people in the two categories was this: I gave the Rockin award to bloggers who constantly display a guitar-riff style and an eye-popping dimension to themselves. The Thinking Blogger went to the more erudite among us, but truly some of the Thinking Bloggers started off on the Rockin list. Without further ado:

Christine d'Abo at ...fantasies unleashed - Christine has a Sunday goals post which keeps me setting them and working away at them. Her Thursday Thirteens are what convinced me to do my own TTs, from which I derive an inordinate amount of pleasure. Her level of enthusiasm for her fellow writers' projects is really a joy and I love it when she sweeps me along with her. She's an A-class book pimp, she appeared on CBC's "Test the Nation" and she showcased 30 Second Bunny Theatre on one of her TTs. You rock, Christine.

La espia T. at Renacimiento - I google-translated her blogger name and blog title once I'd become a repeat visitor. 'The spy's blog 'Renaissance' is currently coming to us from Brazil where the Minnesota native is studying polylingual anthropolitical linguistics at the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA) located in Salvador da Bahia on the Northeastern coast of Brazil. She shares wonderful posts about motherhood, allowed readers a fly-on-the-wall visit to a sweat lodge, she's an artist and she takes extremely engaging self portraits. You rock, La espia T.

Devon Ellington at Ink in My Coffee - Devon Ellington is the nom de plume of a creative whirlwind. She works in wardrobe (I hope I got that right) in Broadway productions, writes articles like the one in this post about the Belmont stakes, and forges ahead on several novels and a script. She prepares press releases, coaches writers and gives Tarot workshops. In her spare time she does things like serve on her tenants' association ( though she recently let that one go.) I don't know how she does all of that and blog, besides. But I'm glad she does. You rock, Devon.



sans pantaloons - whose alter ego is Andres Miller, made this for me just because! He knows how to appreciate the finer things in life with a healthy dose of self-deprecation humor. Rock on, sans.

Angela/SciFiChick - She toils at a Fortune 500 company by day and reviews ARCS by night. She produces stunning portraits and gives us a heads' up on things like the upcoming season of sci fi/fantasy TV shows. She spreads the joy by taking us all along for the fun at the Comic Con in Motor City. You rock, SciFiChick.